Swedish Peacetime Firearms 1815-2021

Sweden's policy of neutrality has kept the nation out of major armed conflict for the last 200 years. Not counting various multilateral international police actions and peacekeeping missions -and a couple of instances of domestic deployment- Sweden's last war was an invasion of Norway in 1815*.

This model pack contains a (relatively) comprehensive collection of the main Swedish service rifles in use since 1815. See the list of included firearms, along with a short historic description, below.

The firearms pack contains 8 different firearms, and a number of different configurations of each, for a total of 25 individual firearm models. There are also two variants of each model - one "basic" variant, and one variant that has been slightly altered to suit printing at 28mm scale. You will find all 28mm variants in the zip archive named "28mm versions" included in the purchase. All models are prescaled to roughly 28mm scale.

*We won.

DETAILED LIST

1815-1860: Subsidiary Musket Flintlock Brown Bess musket. Designated the name "subsidiary rifle", a catch-all term used for various flintlock rifles and muskets hastily supplied to Sweden by Great Britain during the Russian invasion of Swedish-controlled Finland in 1808.  The subsidiary muskets were in use for many years, and were later refurbished with percussion cap firing mechanisms. They were eventually replaced entirely by Remington M1867s.

1860-1867: M1860 "Wrede" Rifle Rifle m/1860, commonly known as the "Wrede Rifle" after its designer Fabian Wrede. The old flintlock muskets and rifles of the army were refurbished with percussion caps during the first half of the 19th century, and a number of new percussion cap designs were introduced in quick succession. The m/1860 was the last official army percussion cap rifle before the introduction of the revolutionary American Remington M1867 rolling-block rifle. The Wrede rifle was subsequently phased out, but continued in use for some time with the Skarpskytterörelsen, a short-lived civilian voluntary movement that desired the introduction of a national general conscription system.

1867-1894: Remington M1867 Single-shot rolling block rifle adopted by the Swedish armed forces and produced/converted in large numbers until the end of the century. It was chosen over a number of early needle and repeater rifle models, and was updated several times until finally replaced by the bolt-action Mauser.

1894-1965: Swedish Mauser Used by the Swedish armed forces for much of the 20th century, the colloquially named "Swedish Mauser" came in a number of different patterns. Orginally adopted in 1894, Germany's Waffenfabrik Mauser would supply the first batch before production moved to Sweden under licence. Early variants included the m/94 carbine, and the m/96 long rifle. Later additions include the m/38 short rifle and the m/41 sniper rifle. The bolt action Mauser replaced the rolling block Remington 1867 as the standard rifle for Swedish soldiers, and would not be truly replaced until the adoption of the ak4 battle rifle in 1965. The mauser was still in widespread use up until the 1980s with rear echelon units and the home guard. It is still used for ceremonial purposes by the Swedish Royal Guards.

1942-1965: Automatgevär M42 Also known as the "Ljungman" after the company that orginated the rifle concept. The Ljungman Workshops company normally produced fuel pumps. It was the first semi-automatic rifle adopted by the Swedish Armed Forces (in 1942), and came with a number of initial design flaws, including rusting gas tubes and delicate extractor. The flaws were eventually worked out, and the rifle performed well enough to become a viable export product. Though the design was sold to Egypt, Iraq and Denmark, it was never produced in any great numbers for domestic use. Instead, the earlier Swedish Mauser remained the de facto mainstay rifle of the armed forces until the automatic ak4 was adopted in 1965.

1945-1965: Carl Gustaf M45 (Swedish K) Not technically a main service rifle, the kpist M45 was the standard submachine gun of the Swedish army for twenty years and also managed to gain fame with many foreign military forces as a successful export. Known under the moniker "Swedish K", the m45 has seen use in the Vietnam War, the Suez crisis, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Congo crisis and many other conflicts, sometimes as a covert weapon or deniable asset.

1965-1985: Automatkarbin 4 Based on the german H&K G3, the slightly modified Ak4 became the main service rifle of the Swedish army in 1964, replacing the Mauser m94/96, Carl Gustav m45 submachine gun, and the ag m/42 all at once. It was in turn replaced by the lighter, smaller calibre Automatkarbin 5 in the mid-1980's, but remains the main rifle of the home guard.

1985-current time: Automatkarbin 5 The current service rifle of the Swedish armed forces (Försvarsmakten). Adopted in 1985, the ak 5 is based on the FN FNC and uses a significantly lighter cartridge than its predecessor the ak 4. The ak 4 had used 7.62x51mm NATO, an internationally common calibre in the 1950's, 60's and 70's that gradually fell out of favour due to recoil, cost and its inherent requirement of a larger rifle. The ak 5 instead used 5.56x45 cartridges and was more compact than the ak 4, meaning it was simpler to operate for the average soldier. The original FN FNC design was altered by removing the 3-round burst function, by strengthening certain components and by enlarging the trigger guard to enable the gun being used by operators wearing thick winter gloves. The ak 5 has since been updated several times, and the current ak 5C (not included here) has added features like an integrated rail system for adding optics and lights, and an adjustable buttstock.