Back on the gunsmiths!
So, when first FSR-approved gunsmith course were held in Eskilstuna in late 1981 were already six gunsmiths "in business" under the wings of GF. I have talked to three of them. Seems that late 60s and around 1970 were the time several of them got to be fulltime gunsmiths. A lot of work with the CG63s that had been manufactured in big quantities by GF and from older m/96 by Norma. But... not all of the gunsmiths were putting together CG63s. In most cases switching barrels, mounting new trigger-systems and sofort was enough. None of the gunsmiths recall that they had to (or did) mark the weapons in any way during the CG63-era. Seems that one gunsmith, Ingvar Jansson, was alone marking the receiver.
At the course 1981 did 16 "pupils" attend. 35 gunsmiths had contacted FSR as interested to take the course but only 16 invited.
If we look in "Crown Jewels" page 134-135 we can see 30 approved gunsmiths or companies. The gunsmiths with marks 1-14 is among the once taken the first course 1981.
Among the 16 is also K-G Nilsson, Lars Andersson and Per-Olof Cronholm that already were working for GF. K-G got mark 14, Lars Andersson mark 99 and P-O Cronholm mark 17.
Other on the course were Hans Gustafsson mark 1, Hans Eriksson mark 2, , Åke Cansund mark 4, Erik Lundgren mark 6, Bo Andersson mark 7, Ingemar Johansson mark 8, Bengt Johanesson mark 9, Henry Svensson mark 10, Uno Olofsson mark 11, Bengt Nordin mark 12, Per-Åke Andersson mark 13.
What numbers to use for marks that Enar Carlsson, J-H Emilsson, Johan Ask and Arne Fredin got is unkonwn for me at this point. They are not included in the list in "Crown Jewels". This list was the current list when Crown Jewels was printed 2003 but not updated by FSR in a long time. Several of the gunsmiths in this list hadnt been active for many years. Guess that the last four gunsmiths above wasnt in practise 2003.
Conny Samuelsson with mark 3 is not listed as a pupil in the first course. Maybe no more course was held. Gunnar Larsson with mark 23 came in later and didnt ever take a course of any kind.
On the list in "Crown Jewels" is also found four more gunsmiths with numbers as mark that were included after the course and they are:
Stig Andersson mark 16, Nils-Inge Olsson mark 19, Sven-Erik Palm mark 21, Håkan Lidman mark 22.
Besides Alvar Holmgren with mark AH and Norma with mark NP "Crown Jewels" list include seven more gunsmiths that now have letters instead of numbers as marks. One of them started as gunsmith when Sauern 1990 came as the FSR main rifle and maybe that goes with the rest of those gunsmiths. Of course many of them probably have switched barrels on the older models CG63 and CG80. This gunsmiths and marks are:
Krister Nilsson KN, Tommy Wikström LTWs, Rolf Eklund RVT, Kjell Hedlund FV, Johan Dahlqvist JD, Kenneth Persson KP, Patriks Jakt och Skytteservice PC and Kalix Precision C.
Several of the gunsmiths that worked during the CG63-CG80era has told me that when CG80 came it was mandatory to mark the barrels if they mounted a new one but nothing else required. When FSR89 came and the ultra-shortened stroke length (8 mm) became fashion had the gunsmith to mark the cocking piece with his mark. In the 2003 edition of FSR-rules is this the ONLY mandatory marking left that gunsmiths had to do when working on the FSR-rifles. Even the barrel-marking seems now not to be mandatory.
This is pretty much all I have to report on the CG80 at this point. Feel free all to give inputs if you have any or discuss all above. Maybe Dutchman wants to unlock the thread "CG63 Target Rifles--Genuine with markings or built by Bjubba with no markings?" and we take it from there?
Regards,
ARILAR
