The Swedish Mauser Rifle

Auto enthusiasts have "Shop Manuals" they refer to find out everything they need or want to know about their beautiful new or antique auto. In the case of Swedish Mauser owners, they have "The Swedish Mauser Rifles" by Steve Kehaya and Joe Poyer. The book gives the reader a trip through time back to the mid 1800's when rifles were going through a time of "design revolution". Perhaps the arguable victor of that revolution was the design, acceptance and then manufacture of the Swedish Mauser in 1896. The book documents variations in the Swedish Mauser and gives the years which these changes took place such as the shortened barrel length from 29.1 inches to 24.5 inches in 1938 producing the M96/38 model rifle. The book describes the wood used to make the stocks for each year was manufactured: walnut during the early years, then oak, ash, elm or beech for the later years. The book gives many interesting details of this beautiful rifle. Some books a person needs to read and some books a person will just want to read. This book uniquely falls into each catagory. The reader will find things that he "needs" to know about the Swedish Mauser but the reader will also find himslf reading the book because he "want's" to learn more and more about this beautiful rifle and it's history.

Excellent book. Good historical info, serial # ranges and manufacturing dates, very good details of construction, and good info on accessories. It is worth a lot more than it costs. Tom

Steve Kehaya and Joe Poyer have produced a superb reference book on the Swedish Mausers. I own and shoot a number of these rifles and have found my enjoyment of them enhanced by this exhaustive reference. This book is a great companion to an earlier book by Doug Bowser entitled NEUTRALITY THROUGH MARKSMANSHIP: A COLLECTOR'S AND SHOOTER'S GUIDE TO SWEDISH ARMY RIFLES 1867-1942 which was published in 1996 and is now difficult to find. This is a five star book if you're interested in Swedish Mausers.

If you are really interested in the Swedish Mausers, then this is the book for you. There is not one thing about the Mauser that this book will not tell you. If you are thinking about becoming a collector you had better have this book in your pocket before buying or going to any auctions or shows. That way you will be in charge, instead of having a salesmen try to tell you something that is just not true to sell a gun.

I purchased a pair of Swedish Mausers (thanks to Boston T. Party's high praise in "Boston's Gun Bible") and needed a no-nonsense reference which would tell me precisely what I needed to know to identify, disassemble, clean and make preparations for restoration, if need be. I like pithy little books--some photos, accurate line drawings, descriptive text, tables. My only disappointment was the lack of loading information--bullets, primers, powders which I might use to duplicate the military loadings. I would buy other volumes in this series.