InterArms G33/50: Not a Real Carbine
Bolt Action Rifles
•
10m
Among the many Swedish Mauser carbines imported into the United States is an interesting batch of guns marked "InterArms G33/50". What are these actually?
They are rifles imported by InterArms, of course, and they began life as proper Swedish m/94 and m/94-14 carbines. Upon import, though, their manufacturing dates were ground off and replaced with that G33/50 designation. In addition, their original Swedish unit disks were replaced with new disks that said "Cal 6.5mm Swedish - Made in Sweden". These changes allowed the rifles to comply with all import marking requirements without having anything that would appear to be a newly added importer's mark.
While I cannot prove it, I suspect this was done as a marketing trick to make the guns more appealing than standard carbines. The designation is very similar to the legitimate German "G33/40", which was a short mountain troops' carbine, and highly desirable. In the days before the internet allowed easy access to information, this easily could have been interpreted to be an elite Swedish alpine carbine.
The replacement markings make these rifles largely shunned by collectors who are looking for original condition guns, but they do remain both excellent handy shooters and also a source of proper parts to restore other Swedish carbines.
Up Next in Bolt Action Rifles
-
Mossberg 44US: A Cheaper Training Rif...
As World War Two expanded to encompass the whole US economy, it became clear to the Army that some cost cutting measures would be required. One place that was a clear choice was in rimfire .22 caliber training rifles. Since the 1920s, the US had used training and competition rifles from Springfie...
-
Norwegian K98kF1 Repurposed Mauser
At the end of When Germany capitulated in 1945, there were nearly 400,000 German soldiers in Norway (largely thanks to the efforts of the Norwegian Resistance to prevent them from being transferred south). This provided Norway with a massive supply of K98k Mauser rifles to reequip their armed for...
-
The Steyr Scout: Jeff Cooper's Modern...
Jeff Cooper was an icon of the American firearms community, best known for his work with the Southwest Pistol League and father of modern practical handgun competition. Cooper was a Marine Corps veteran and avid hunter in addition, and in the mid 1980s he began to codify a concept he would call t...
