Carl Gustav M/1921

In 1920 the Swedish Army purchased 700 Browning Automatic Rifles from Colt, before Fabrique Nationale acquired the European manufacturing rights. These weapons differed from the original M1918 pattern as they chambered Sweden’s 6.5x55 m/94 cartridge. They also had a detachable pistol grip and a bipod - something the original M1918 was not issued with. The light machine gun was officially adopted in 1921 as the Kulsprutegevär m/1921. Indigenous production at Carl Gustafs Stads Gevärsfaktori began in 1923. The m/21 retained BAR’s 20-round magazine capacity but because of the 6.5mm cartridge case’s shape the straight box magazine was abandoned for a curved one (see image #2). The m/21 had checkering on both the foregrip and the butt and unlike the BAR had a front sight hood and rear sights were marked in metres rather than yards. The m/21 weighed approximately the same as a later M1918A2 at 8.9kg / 19.6lbs. While the m/21 was a well made, reliable weapon which was very controllable in fully automatic fire it suffered the same drawbacks as the M1918. It’s fixed, relatively thin profiled barrel prevented it from prolonged sustained fire. In the mid 1930s Carl Gustaf began developing an improved version of the m/21 with a quick change barrel system. The m/37 removed the m/21’s large foregrip and added a folding carrying handle. This brought Sweden’s BARs in line with contemporary designs and the m/37 became the Swedish Army’s primary support weapon until the late 1950s.