• Hey All! Lately there has been more and more scammers on the forum board. They register and replies to members requests for guns and/or parts or other things. The reply contains a gmail or hotmail address or similar ”anonymous” email addresses which they want you to reply to. DO NOT ANSWER ANY STRANGE MESSAGES! They often state something like this: ”Hello! Saw your post about purchasing a stock for a Safari. KnuckleheadBob has one. Email him at: [email protected]” If you receive any strange messages: Check the status of whoever message you. If they have no posts and signed up the same day or very recently, stay away. Same goes for other members they might refer to. Check them too and if they are long standing members, PM them and ask if the message is legit. Most likely it’s not. Then use the report function in each message or post so I can kick them out! Beware of anything that might seem fishy! And again, for all of you who registered your personal name as username, please contact me so I can change it to a more anonymous username. You’d be surprised of how much one can find out about a person from just a username on a forum such ad our! All the best! And be safe! Jim

Found: Atkinson and Marquart 256 Newton Husqvarna not a Sako after all

Sako Collectors Club Discussion Forum

ricksengines

Sako-addicted
Hi All,

Well I guess I did it again. I found a Atkinson and Marquart 256 Newton that I was told was a Sako Mauser Action. I'm going to post some pics of the rifle in just a bit but I have to tell you that I think this rifle is going to turn out to be very rare.

When I see an A&M rifle I just go bonkers because I feel that they are a very important piece of America's firearms heritage. They surface very infrequently also, good thing too because I'd probably go broke buying them if they came available more frequently.

When you view the pics note that the scope is a BALvar 8 (2.5 x 8) With tapered crosshairs. The mounts are definitely Leupold but I don't ever remember seeing any that look like the Leupold mounts that are on the rifle. They must be very early jobberdoos.

I don't really have any way of dating the little rifle but it really has to be some where around the late 50's or very early 60's. As you look over the pics if you can please add some additional comments that might help me really get a handle on when it was built. In addition, if you have a feel for the A&M Newton builds kindly post anything you might know about them.

I managed to get a hold of some brass. Now all I have to do is to find a set of loading dies and I should be in business.

Which reminds me, If any one out there has a set of 256 Newton dies (FL, Neck, Form, Trim) that they want to part with please let me know.

Pics coming soon. I promise.

rick
 
Last edited:
OK folks, as promised here are the A&M .256 Newton rifle pics.
One thing, the Atkinson and Marquart identifier on the top of the barrel was inscribed very lightly so it is very difficult to photograph. I was going to chalk it but decided not to that. You can see most of the cursive caliber inscribed on the barrel which in also indicative of an A&M rifle. So enjoy:
P3160399.JPG
P3160401.JPG
P3160415.JPG
P3160405.JPG
P3160410.JPG

After viewing the images I think you will agree that the rifle is in really excellent condition considering its age. The stock has a few very light handling marks and scratches on it but who cares!

As you can see the scope is a BALvar 2.5x8. It has tapered crosshairs. The scope has some issues around the bells where the black has worn off but other that the cosmetic stuff it is crystal clear.

The mounting system for this rig is Leupold all the way. This is my very first scope with the mount adjustment system. Based upon my research, back in the day this scope and mount system was the cats meow of optical sight systems. I don't intend to change it out for a more modern scope either as I firmly believe in keeping everything original when it comes to a rifle like this. I also understand that this scope and mount system are still commanding a premium price today. All the more reason the leave well enough alone as the scope not only adds character to the rifle but it maintains the classic appearance and adds value as well.

I have not disassembled the rifle to give it a good cleaning and oiling. That project will be for another day. I did order up 100 cases, a set of FL dies from CH and I glommed onto a 6.5-06 form/trim die. Yes I know that the 6.5-06 is not interchangeable with the .256 Newton but I figured that I would try annealing a few .270 cases, run them through the from die and give them a trim job before passing them through the .256 Newton FL die. That should work unless I am mistaken because the shoulder should be reset enough by the FL die to at least produce an acceptable case for loading.

So you ask why did I go for the 6.5-06 form die. The answer is simple, I didn't want to wait 3-5 months for RCBS, Redding, Huntington's or CH to make me a .256 Newton form die. Besides, the form die I got was used and I bought it cheap enough. The form process I came up with to form, trim and FL resize should work without issue unless I am missing something.

I hope that you enjoyed the pics and my ramblings. Add some value to this if you care to. After all, an old guy can use all of the help he can get.

Thanks

rick
 
Last edited:
Very rare and very nice condition, especially in that chambering, and.....hold your breath.....great pics. As for the form dies there's more than one way to skin a cat and when it comes to "making" wildcat brass your limitations are limited only by your imagination. I load some strange stuff, 6HLS, 6mm Sealy Masker Wasp, 17 Spartan, etc. If I waited on the correct dies and form dies I'd never shoot them. I also agree with the scope choice and mounts, it's not like your going to take this out into a prairie dog field and vintage parts always look good on period pieces like that. Congrats on a nice find.
 
Many thanks for the kind words. Yep, something definitely clicked today when I was taking the pics. They actually turned out OK.

I was very lucky to come across this gem. I have always felt that A&M rifles were the Holy Grail so to speak of rifles at least from my collecting perspective. Yep, I have a few others in that class as well including O"Brien, Winslow and several others. That said, I just couldn't pass this one up. I don't know how many chamberings that they did in .256 Newton but it really couldn't have been very many.

I wonder if anyone has info on that topic?

Thanks Again for taking the time to comment.

rick
 
The Leupold Adusto-mount was designed for Leupold's own externally adjusted scope line (Pioneer? Mountaineer?). However, the mount was certainly equally adaptable to the B&L scopes, and placed the scope much lower on the receiver than either the B&L mount or the popular Kuharsky Bros. mount for the B&L scopes. The Leupold Adjusto-mount was also useful for internally adjusted scopes, which the others were not.

It is a bit puzzling why someone would chamber a custom rifle for the .256 Newton instead of 6.5-o6. But it does make your rifle much more interesting, along with being produced by an iconic builder of fine custom rifles. You should have no trouble making brass from any .30-06-based case, but .25-06 might be the easiest.

But it doesn't look to me like it has anything Sako on it, with the possible exception of the trigger. The action doesn't look like an FN. It looks more like a Husqvarna with its spring-type bolt release inletted below the stock line on the LH side. I'm no expert on Mausers, so I could be mistaken. Are there any markings on the action to indicate its origin?
 
I'll let you know about any marks after I take the rifle apart for cleaning and oiling. Since I am not a Mauser Action expert either all I know if that the dealer I purchased this from said that it was a Sako FN Action. I asked multiple times about this and that is what I was told.

I figured that it might be true because Sako did get their mitts on those actions back in the day and I thought that I saw a picture of one like mine somewhere on the net but I can't be sure. Hopefully our resident Sako Mauser Action experts will provide information that will nail this down.

Thanks for the comments.

rick
 
Last edited:
I gotta make a correction here. I can't recall the dealer saying that the action was a Sako FN Mauser Action. He did tell me that the rifle was a Sako custom jobbberdo. I probably added the part about it being a Mauser because it looked like a Mauser type action to me in the pics. I just can't remember. Senior moment ya know.

rick
 
It is definitely a Mauser-type action, but the bolt release and the bolt shroud are somewhat different from the appearance of an FN Mauser. High quality Mauser actions were made by Heym (German), Husqvarna (Swedish), Voere (Austrian), Brno (Czech), and many others. It might be any of those.
 
OK. Good info. Question is what kind of Mauser action is it? Hopefully one of our experts can help with the identification.

Since this was billed as a Sako rifle when I purchased it, can we really link the action type back to Sako once we identify what kind of Mauser action it really is? I think that is going to be a key component to nailing down the pedigree on this rifle.

One final note, I was told that the little rifle spent considerable time in the safe. In fact I was told something on the order of twenty five years or more. I believe that because the recoil pad is basically a dried up cracking brick. The pad is a White Line Junior. I would like to replace it with exactly the same pad if possible so can anyone on the forum point me in the right direction?

In the mean time I would like to change the title on this thread to be more accurate. Can anyone help me with that as I can't seem to figure out how to edit the thing.

rick
 
That action looks like the one used on a Browning Safari, also supplied by FN in Belgium. Sako supplied rifles on the FN action from 1950-57 and then in 270 and 30-06, the other calibers were usually imports from Europe, ie the mags and metric chamberings. The fact that FN supplied to several manufacturers would support that if the rifle was built by A&M then they probably purchased straight from FN. I will say that any rifle regardless of whose name was on it that used a FN action somewhere on that action I could find the FN stamp. It also appears to have been drilled for a rear sight on the right hand side of the rear bridge. The FN rifles I have do not have these holes but I have seen plenty of the FN's using a rear peep site.
 
Last edited:
I've been busy researching the action and here is what I came up with so far. Hopefully you will find this to be very interesting. The writer of this narrative was describing a rifle that he owned.

"In the early 1950s, Husqvarna used commercial FN Mauser actions and exported rifles to the U.S. through Eric S. Johnson Company of Chicago, Illinois, and Tradewinds Inc. of Tacoma, Washington. About 1,955 HVA Mauser Sporters were imported.

My rifle’s modified commercial Mauser action has a full-length small ring receiver with solid left wall. The bolt has a very streamlined FN-style striker assembly, with low-profile bolt handle for scope clearance. The handle has that classic rearward sweep common to commercial Mausers of the period.

A safety lies behind the bolt handle. There is a small push button bolt release on the bottom left receiver wall, instead of the large pull-lever seen on typical Mausers.
"

Read more: http://www.rifleshootermag.com/rifles/featured_rifles_rs_sportingmauser_200806/#ixzz3Uf8HyNKZ

If you go the article that I found, the very first picture of the right hand side rifle's action matches the action on the A&M as does the description of the location of the safety and the bolt release push button. The action also has two holes drilled and tapped on the right side of the action to accommodate a rear site.

From this writing I think I can conclude that Atkinson and Marquart and Sako like Husqvarna obtained commercial FN Mauser Actions during the 1950's. It stands to reason that A&M most likely obtained the action used to build the 256 Newton either directly from FN or from Sako. From the evidence, I can conclude that technically the action is a commercially produced FN Mauser Action. If the trigger group is Sako, then I don't think that it would be too great of a stretch to conclude that A&M got the action from Sako.

I am going to disassemble the rifle to clean and oil it today so I will be on the look out for any proof marks that might be on the underside of the action. I will post any findings that I come up with.

rick
 
Last edited:
Beautiful and very interesting rifle there Rick - great find.

Image on leaving the scope and mounts as is. They look good, they work, and the mounts place the scope low enough over the barrel to promote good cheek weld on the stock - what's not too like?

A photo of a .256 Newton case beside some more common options would be a great addition to this thread.

Marcus
 
Hi Marcus

Thanks for the positive feedback. Yep, I intend to leave the scope and mounts alone. The only reason that I really mentioned them is that I did find some comments that spoke to the difficulty that folks had in zeroing a rifle with the external mount system. Regardless of any of that stuff, I wouldn't change the setup on this rig for anything. As you know this little guy is really a classic and as far as I am concerned it virtually one of a kind to me at this point. I'm kind of hoping that one or more of our members will bring other A&M Sako based rifles to light. I think that would be really great for all of us to see.

I would like to put the rounds in a pic as you suggested but as of now I can't make up any as I am still waiting on dies to materialize. Not to worry, they are in route and in a few days I should be able to make up at least a dummy round or two.

Thanks for your input and recommendations.

rick
 
Rick, good research coming up with that article. However, the language in it is a little bit confusing. Husqvarna did use (1) Swedish Mauser 96 actions, (2) German 98 Mauser actions, (3) FN commercial 98 Mauser actions, then (4) 98-style Mauser actions made by Husqvarna itself.

I think your action belongs to the fourth category, a 98-style Mauser made by Husqvarna. Husqvarna had several designations for this action, depending on how and by whom it was marketed. "Tradewinds", out of Tacoma, WA, marketed several versions of Husqvarna rifles (as well as marketing the excellent Krico rifles from then West Germany). Both Sears Roebuck and Smith & Wesson had rifles built and branded with their name using the Husqvarna-made Mauser. And finally, Husqvarna marketed its own branded rifle under first its name, then under the name "Carl Gustave" (everything in Sweden seems to eventually get named for the king.)

I wouldn't be surprised if Husqvarna sold actions directly to A&M, or A&M might have bought them through the Husqvarna importer at the time, Tradewinds.

At any rate, you have a great-looking rifle with a high-quality action on it, and in a rare but classic chambering.
 
Many thanks for this additional information. I have not taken the little guy apart as yet. When I do take it apart, I will try to photograph what I find (if anything) by way of proof marks and post the pics. But, what happens if there isn't a proof mark to be found? Is that even possible?

Based on the article, I still have one question, did FN make commercial actions to Husqvarna's specifications? If they did, then that would explain the configuration of the action and technically it would be an FN.

I guess there is still some information that is eluding me at this point that would help me make the connection to Sako because the owner reiterated several times that the rifle was a Sako. Not that that really means anything at this point. Regardless of the Sako connection or not I still would have purchased the little guy given what it is. That said, I think it important to keep digging a bit because I posted this to the Sako forum in good faith and I would like to establish some connection to Sako if possible given how this is evolving.

Thanks Again for the great info. Every little bit helps at this point. Yes I am still bubbling over this find. It is truly unique.

rick
 
Hi All,

I finally disassembled the rifle and here are two pics of what I found: P3200421.JPG
P3200422.JPG

Now for the story behind this.

As I continue to research the rifle and it components I found additional information in the Article I found in Rifle Shooter.

"In the early 1950s, Husqvarna used commercial FN Mauser actions and exported rifles to the U.S. through Eric S. Johnson Company of Chicago, Illinois, and Tradewinds Inc. of Tacoma, Washington. About 1,955 HVA Mauser Sporters were imported.

My rifle’s modified commercial Mauser action has a full-length small ring receiver with solid left wall. The bolt has a very streamlined FN-style striker assembly, with low-profile bolt handle for scope clearance. The handle has that classic rearward sweep common to commercial Mausers of the period.

A safety lies behind the bolt handle. There is a small push button bolt release on the bottom left receiver wall, instead of the large pull-lever seen on typical Mausers.


The bolt has the usual large extractor and controlled round feed. The left locking lug is much longer than typical Model 98 lugs, extending forward to the bolt face. Also, it is not split for the ejector; the ejector slot is in the bolt body, under the lug.

I also did a little research in one of my favorite sources, Frank de Haas’ Bolt Action Rifles, which went into a bit more detail. HVA actions and rifles were made from 1954 until the late 1960s. Early models had steel trigger guards and floorplate assemblies. Later rifles came with a lightweight alloy unit. Deluxe models had adjustable triggers; sporter models were not adjustable."


Here is my conclusion drawing from Ed Timerson's writing: The A&M 256 Newton fits Ed's description to a tee. Everything including the action and bolt description, steel trigger guard and floorplate assembly fit perfectly. In addition the trigger assembly is marked Tradewinds and is fully adjustable so it has to be the Deluxe trigger as described. So it must be a Commercial FN Action that Husqvarna got their hands on in the 50's. I don't see how it could be anything else but one of those actions.

I also think the fact that the trigger assembly is a Tradewinds put the icing on the cake so to speak. A&M must have gotten the action from Husqvarna either that or the action was provided to them by the client for the build. Either way, I am disappointed that there isn't anything Sako related associated with the rifle, I am satisfied that I have solved the mystery surrounding the rifle and the action.

rick
 
Last edited:
That Swedish crown indicates to me that your action is a product of Sweden, not Belgium. I don't think that FN ever made an action with the bolt release seen on yours. Wikipedia is an "uneven" source of information, but for what it is worth here is the Wikipiedia info:

The first medium caliber bolt action rifles used the same action as the Swedish Army's Mauser m/96. This type was manufactured from 1927 to 1942 circa, known as the Model 46 and mostly chambered in 6.5x55, 9.3x57 and 9.3x62 mm. from early 1939 Husqvarna started purchasing Mauser M98 actions from the Belgian company FN, labeling the rifles Model 146, 246 and 640. Though the M98 was a strong and well proven action, it was not an ideal situation for Husqvarna to be depending on one of its worst competitors for such a key component.


An independent bolt action design was introduced in 1953 as the 1600-series, which was available in several European and American chamberings, including 9.3x62, .270, 30-06; 8x57, 6.5x55, and others.
 
Understood. I thought that the crown indicated Sweden as well. Still a lot of confusing and contradictory info out there on this subject. Mudding the waters is the Tradewind Trigger Assembly and the placement of the serial number on the action. We do know that FN made actions for Husqvarna. The question is, did FN make the actions to Husqvarna's specifications? Given the new info, FN probably didn't make the action for Husqvarna. It is also highly unlikely that FN made anything other than their action design.

The new piece of info you brought to the table is the 1600 action Husqvarna started making in 1953. Given your contribution to the research the action could very well be a 1600. I gotta keep digging to prove that but it probably is the most likely answer at this point.

Thanks Very Much for adding value to this. I really appreciate it when new information comes to light that helps to further clarify the research.

rick
 
I got this information off of 24hourcampfire.com. It pretty much puts the identification question to bed. The action is a Husqvarna 1600!

"Husqvarna basically used only four different mauser-type actions.

The Swedish Mauser model 94 - Used from 1927 to 1949 After WW2 it was called model 38, it also lost the thumb cut-out.

The German Mauser model 98 - Used from 1937 to 1956 Made by FN in Belgium in two types, the main difference is that the new type doesn't have the thumb cut-out and that the bolt handle is swept slightly back.

Husqvarna model 1600/1640 - Husqvarna was not comfortable with the fact that they were depending on one of there competitors. So they developed an
action that in some ways resembles the German Mauser model 98. It uses a long mauser 98 type extractor and mechanical ejector but got a sliding safety catch. It was released in 1953 and discontinued in 1967.

Husqvarna model 1900 - In 1967 Husqvarna released a new action. It uses short modern extractor and ejector. It got a small extra guiding-lug on the lower locking-lug. The cocking-piece got a new shape and looks like the one on the present Carl Gustaf 2000 rifles.

I'm looking to see what year the action was made based on the serial number I found. If I find anything on that score it probably won't explain how A&M came by the action. My guess is that it was either requested by the client or the client supplied the thing for the build.

Thanks to all that contributed.

rick
 
I've really been digging but I can't find anything relative to the serial number that I found on the bottom of the action. So I guess this is going to bed unless someone knows something. Action is a Husqvarna 1640 based on what I have found and the approximate time frame that A&M did the work. Too bad that nothing about this rifle is Sako. It would have made a much better story had it been. But, you can't have everything and the important thing is that next week I'm going to actually fire the thing. All dies are in and I got my grubby little paws on some 256 Newton brass so its going to be load em up time and then off to punch some holes in a few targets. I'm expecting good things and will post some info on how things go.

rick
 
Back
Top