Between 1981 and 1982, Ausonius served in the Swedish army and thus learnt how to use weapons. However, his personal weapons were of poor quality, very likely because Ausonius had modified them. He sawed off the barrel and the stock of his first rifle to make it shorter, and he fitted the Smith & Wesson revolver with a silencer. This modification may have been the key to his failures in killing most of his victims as it deviated the bullet's trajectory and consequently caused him to miss his victims. It was amateurishly done and damaged the weapon's performance.