Sweden, one of the few countries in the World where there are still competitions with fully automatic firearms. Before you get too excited, unfortunately, the rules enforce that you’re not allowed to shoot anything but single shots. But the firearm used for the competition is the Carl Gustaf submachine gun Model 45, up to 100 meter with an accuracy that would surprise most. Just check the pictures from the 2017 Swedish Championships with the Carl Gustav M/45 as a reference.

The Carl Gustaf M/45 pictured is quite special, and the pictures of it deserve to be saved for the future. It has Kurbits decorations and a Peace sign on the brass collector.

Kurbits decorations is something you typically find on tourist memorabilia, like Dalecarlian horses. It’s “an invented, fantastical symbol of vegetal fertility based on a gourd or pumpkin of biblical legend, principally used for ornamentation in Swedish folk art and on painted furniture and domestic objects. Very popular between 1720 and 1870…”

M/45 Hand-painted with Kurbits decoration.

“They were done by itinerant painters, mainly from Dalarna, who specialized in the style and whose signatures are to be found in many localities.”

(Source: Wikipedia)

This Carl Gustaf is owned by a shooting club in Stockholm, Sweden, and the painter is unknown. It would be quite interesting to know what this M/45 has experienced since it was manufactured, but whoever painted it certainly had a good sense of humor.

Below: Another Swedish K, this one is unpainted and seems to be in almost original finish.

Below: A few more pictures of the Kurbits paint job. Note how the pattern follows the air-cooling holes around the barrel, with a flower towards the dangerous end.

Below: Larry Vickers has a very cool video on the “Swedish K”, make sure you take a look as most of the shooting is in full-auto bursts.

For more spectacular Model 45s, check out Major Erik Bonde during the Congo Crisis and the Rare carbines.

And just when you thought things couldn’t get any stranger, check this Carl Gustaf Kpist M/45 submachine gun – found 15 yards up in a tree!

Thanks to the Swedish shooting club for submitting these interesting pictures. Let’s hope they can continue to compete with these classical full-auto firearms.