Husqvarna Vapenfabriks

Aktiebolag ''Aktiebolag'' (, " stock company") is the Swedish term for "limited company" or "corporation". When used in company names, it is abbreviated AB (in Sweden), Ab (in Finland), or, rarely, A/B (dated), roughly equivalent to the abbreviations ''Ltd ...

or simply ''HVA''; {{IPA-sv, ˈhʉ̂ːsˌkvɑːɳa, pron, sv-Husqvarna.ogg) was a Swedish firearms manufacturing company in the town of Huskvarna by lake Vättern.

History

In 1689 the manager at the nearby state arsenal in Jönköping, Erik Dahlbergh, suggested to

the King In the British English-speaking world, The King refers to: * Charles III (born 1948), King of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms since 2022 As a nickname * Michael Jackson (1958–2009), American singer and pop icon, nicknamed "T ...

that the crown should support the construction of a new milling work at the waterfalls just outside Huskvarna. The new work should act as a branch of the Jönköping arsenal, where water supply had become irregular. The plans were approved and put into work the same year. Thanks to the Husqvarna branch, the annual production of barrels for

musket A musket is a muzzle-loaded long gun that appeared as a smoothbore weapon in the early 16th century, at first as a heavier variant of the arquebus, capable of penetrating plate armour. By the mid-16th century, this type of musket gradually d ...

s from the Jönköping arsenal increased from about 1,500 to over 12,000. Eventually all production was moved to Huskvarna and in 1757 the arsenal was privatized under the ownership of Fredrik Ehrenpreus. In 1867 the company became a limited company under the name Husqvarna Vapenfabriks Aktiebolag. When military orders dropped after the Danish-Prussian War of 1864 and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, Husqvarna begun making

shotgun A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge (firearms), cartridge known as a shotshell, which usually discharges numerous small p ...

s and hunting rifles. They also started manufacturing stoves, sewing machines and bicycles. In 1903 Husqvarna made their first motorcycle. Husqvarna continued firearms production, though mostly civilian firearms except during the two world wars and some shorter periods of military production. In the late 1960s it was decided that Husqvarna should stop making

break-action Break action is a type of firearm action in which the barrel or barrels are hinged much like a door and rotate perpendicularly to the bore axis to expose the breech and allow loading and unloading of cartridges. A separate operation may be require ...

firearms and sell both the rifle production and military contracts to Carl Gustafs Stads Gevärsfaktori in Eskilstuna.
In 1987, Husqvarna sold the motorcycle division to Italian motorcycle manufacturer

Cagiva Cagiva is an Italian motorcycle manufacturer. It was founded in 1950 by Giovanni Castiglioni in Varese, originally producing small metal components. Giovanni's sons, Claudio and Gianfranco Castiglioni, went into the motorcycle industry in 1978. ...

Military firearms

Gevär modell 1867 The Remington M1867 was a rolling-block rifle, the first rifle using metallic cartridges to be adopted by the Norwegian and Swedish armies. Nominally it had a caliber of 4 decimal lines, but the actual caliber was 3.88 Norwegian decimal lines or 4 ...

* Pistol m/07 * Pistol m/40 * Kulsprutepistol m/37 * Kulsprutepistol m/39 * Gevär (Mauser rifle) m/38, m/96 * Automatkarbin 4 * Maskinpistol M/49 (for the Danish Army)

Civilian firearms

Husqvarna made numerous types and models of break action shotguns. 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 6.5×55mm, 9.3×57mm and

9.3×62mm The 9.3×62mm (also known as 9.3×62mm Mauser) is a rimless, bottlenecked rifle cartridge designed in 1905 by German gunmaker Otto Bock. It is suitable for hunting medium to large game animals in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. At ...

from early 1939 Husqvarna started purchasing

Mauser M98 Mauser, originally Königlich Württembergische Gewehrfabrik ("Royal Württemberg Rifle Factory"), was a German arms manufacturer. Their line of bolt-action rifles and semi-automatic pistols has been produced since the 1870s for the German arm ...

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 9.3×62mm, .270, 30-06; 8×57mm, 6.5×55mm, and others. It was a small ring Mauser-like design advertised as the "HVA Improved Mauser Action". In 1969 they discontinued the HVA action in favor of a cheaper to produce

push feed Push feed and controlled feed (or controlled round feed) are two main types of mechanisms used in firearms to describe how the bolt drives the cartridge into the chamber and extracts the spent casing after firing. * The push feed system does no ...

design, called the 8000. They ceased manufacturing all firearms in 1972. With the army order for the

Ak 4 The Ak 4 (Swedish: ''Automatkarbin 4'') is a Swedish-made version of the Heckler & Koch G3A3 battle rifle. It has been produced in several versions, with minor changes and upgrades. The original Ak 4 model (Ak 4A) featured a buttstock that is ...

the company was able to find the funding to re-tool the workshop to produce a newly developed bolt action, marketed in 1967 as the

1900 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15), 2 ...

-series and continued by Förenade Fabriksverken (''FFV'') well into the 1980s. Husqvarna also built a limited number of an elegant double rifle in caliber 9.3x74R, the model 410.

History

Military firearms

Civilian firearms

See also