Swedish M96 Bayonet

17 Infantry Group Photo
1927

Since I hit pay dirt with the Swedish Mauser Carbine in regards to the great history, I decided to dig out the M96 Swedish Mauser bayonet that I picked up at a yard sale here in PT last year and check out the unit markings to see what I could find out...........(this is the bayonet for the long rifle version of the Swedish Mauser and will not fit my carbine)............... Here's the run down:

The bayonet scabbard is marked with D over I17, which signifies that the bayonet was specifically to an individual company within the 17th Infantry Regiment. The longer number is the serial number of the bayonet.


The 17th Infantry regiment was known as the Bohusläns Regiment. This was an infantry regiment that was formed in 1661 and disbanded in 1992. The regiment's soldiers were originally recruited from the provinces of Bohuslän, and it was later garrisoned there in the town Uddevalla.

It does not appear that there was anything outstanding about the unit from the time period that the Mausers were used. Too bad, it's always nice to have some juicy tidbits to attach to an artifact :)

Here are a few pictures of the bayonet.




And here is a map of Sweden showing the location of the Bohuslän highlighted on the West side of the country.

WW2 Swiss Tent Pole Sets

The last of my ever expanding zeltbahn project components has arrived. I have four more WW2 Swiss Army tent pole and stake sets now (binging my total to six). I found a little mom-and-pop, family run surplus company down in Waco, Texas that has some real gems up for sale. It seems that the father of the family stsrted a surplus company when he got out of the service in the early 60's and started buying up large lots of surplus gear from around the world and warehousing it, and now his daughter is running the company and has finally dug into the "piles" and is offering up some great gear that has been "out of stock" for many years..............

I picked up three Swiss pole sets with WW2 dates, and one with a pre-WW2 date for a price I couldn't pass up. Now I'll have to go through my sets and pick out the best to use with my Swedish zeltbahns. I'll probably just hang on to the other sets as they are getting quite rare.

The 1938 pole set could easily pass off as German as it does not have the Swiss cross stamp on it. The Swiss made quite a bit of gear for the German Army and tent pole sets just happen to be part of that "shared" gear............... I wonder how that gets justified when one is a neutral country in the midst of a world war?

Here's the break down on the pole sets:

One 1938
Two 1940's
One 1941

Swedish Military Bicycles: Militärcykel

A picture of the early 27th Infantry Regiment

In light of the recent discovery that my M94 Swedish Mauser was used by the first bicycle infantry regiment in Sweden, here is a bit more about the bikes:

The first bicycle was introduced in 1901 in the 27th Regiment to replace the horse cavalry that had been used up to that point. Six bicycle regiments were in use through WW2, but after the war, it was decided to move away from bicycles with the exception of general transportation and special units. Bicycle Infantry units continued to operate in Sweden into the 1980's.

Here are the models of bicycles that were used:

M/1901 The first safety bicycle officially designated for bicycle troops.

M/30 A spoon braked, balloon tired bicycle.

M/Finsk A bicycle imported from Finland.

M/42 The most well known of the Swedish bikes. Featured front drum brakes
and large rear rack with tool box and pump tube. Weighed up to 52 lbs.

Here is a picture of a M/42 Swedish bicycle:


Here are a few pages from an old Swedish military bicycle manual:

Gotlands infanteriregemente I27

The Regimental Crest of Gotlands Infanteriregemente

Well good old Wikipedia on the internet turned out to be a gold mine for information on Swedish military units and their history (and this lead me to a number of other great sites!). Here is what I found out about the unit that used the Swedish Mauser that I just restored.

As you may recall, the brass stock disk on the Mauser lists the unit as I27. According to the information I found, the unit was an active infantry regiment from 1887 to 1963.

It became a bicycle infantry unit in 1910 and remained one until it's reorganization and redesignation as an armored unit in 1963. This puts this unit as the first bicycle unit in the Swedish Army!
Between 1928 and 1937 the unit was reduced in size and given the designation I18. In 1937 it was brought back up to its former size and designated I27 again and organized as a bicycle unit "with motorized logistics" The rest of the Swedish Army did not reach this level of bicycle use until 1949! . In 1949 the unit was further upgraded to an armor reinforced bicycle infantry unit. After the reorganization in 1963 into an armored unit, the designation number has been permanently changed. This would mean that the Mauser would have been pulled from active duty before that date. This would also correspond to the approximate date that the rifle was imported and sold as surplus.

Here are the unit's "trivia stats":

I27
Gotlands infanteriregementeActive 1887–1963
Colours :
Red and white (–1953)
Blue and white (1954–1963)

Marching song: "In Treue fest" (around 1915–1963)
Unit motto:
"Slå Snabbt! Slå Hårt!"

The unit's flag:

This infantry unit was comprised of soldiers conscripted from the island of Gotland in Sweden.
In 1963 it was reorganized into an armoured regiment. The unit is garisoned in a military base located in Visby, Visborgs slät, or in English, "Visby on the Visborg Plain".

Here's a shot of the regiment's official uniform button. The buttom face has been the same through the years, but the manufacture methods have changed with the times (cas, stamped, etc.)
And if you are wondering where in the world the island of Gotland is........................

Here is a map of Sweden with Gotland circled in blue.

Burning Bikes

With Burning Man less than a month away, and Sweet Pea down at Lark Camp in California, I took the opportunity to build up a couple of "new" Burning Man bikes for the two of us. The last couple of Playa bikes were totally and absolutely DEAD!

I used a couple of frames I got from N8 and a pile of old parts and ended up with a couple of great Playa bikes. They are both single speeds, with the option to run any gear combo you want. I take an old derailleur and run a cable backwards though the adjusting clamp. This lets you lock the derailleur in any position you want......... select your rear cog, line up the derailleur and lock the short cable in place! That's it! No shifters needed.

Sweet Pea's bike is built up on an old Giant mountain bike frame with a dead RST front suspension fork. My bike is an old Shogun mountain bike with the ever popular U-brake (located UNDER the bike by the bottom bracket). I have collapsing side baskets and Sweet Pea's got a rear basket.

Here they are:

It must be the Burnin' Season!

Well the Post Man delivered the annual "Survival Guides" for Burning Man the other day........... that can only mean one thing......

Burning man is less than a month away!

I can almost taste that Playa dust as I sit here writing this :)

Model 1894 Swedish Mauser Carbine Restoration

Well I finally got around to a project that I've wanted to do for quite some time.......... the restoration of a 1929 Swedish Mauser Carbine.

This Mauser was was originally purchased by my father back in the late '60's or early '70's (best guess from my memory). At the time Swedish Mausers were being imported to the US and sold for about $50.00 ! Nearly all of them fell to the "sporterized" chop conversion......... many badly done and some wonderfully done. My father converted the gun to a sport rifle and made a beautiful, custom wood stock. The rifle turned out beautiful and as I recall, at least one deer fell to it's 6.5 x 55 caliber rounds.

As I recall, the discarded military stock and sling was going to be thrown away after the removal of the action and barrel. I asked if I could keep the stock as a play thing and it was mine. I played with and kept that stock all these years, with N8 and his friends playing with it as kids as well. I had always assumed that my dad has sold the gun somewhere along the line, but when my grandfather passed away a number of years ago, I inherited that old sporterized Mauser that was in with my grandfather's guns! The plan to restore the old Mauser to it's former military configuration was formed...............

This Swedish Mauser M94 Carbine was made in 1929 by Karl Gustaf and issued to and used by the Swedish military until it's retirement in the 60's. 115,000 M94 carbines were manufactured between 1895 and 1933. According to the brass, ID disc on the stock, this carbine was issued to the 27th Regiment of the Swedish Infantry. Since Sweden has maintained its neutrality for the last 200 years or so, none of these rifles ever saw war time action. This neutrality has served to preserve these rifles in remarkably great condition.



After years of using the stock as a "toy", it took quite a beating! I had to splice a small spot of wood back into the stock near the action, make a repair to the sling buckle attached to the stock, and give the stock a complete refinishing complete with color matching the original stain. When I went ot instal the barrel and action back into the stock, it wouldn't fit!? It seems that the original trigger assembly was replaced with a better aftermarket trigger action when my dad did the conversion. After some careful carving inside the stock, I got it to fit. I'm not sure if the rear sight is original to the military configuration. Many of these Swedish Mausers were equiped with a rear "target sight" instead of the mid barrel stock sight (you can see the open spot in the top view). There were a number of different styles used and not all of them have been documented, so there is still a mystery to solve there.

Well enough of all that restoration babble...... Here are the shots of the finished carbine.