K11 in .308

[snoopy]

Local shop has one, nothing special as far as appearance, seems to have been shortened possibly. Thought it might be fun to fool with, maybe full fledge bubba. What do you think? Acouple of c notes takes it home.

[Dan Cash]

K11 or K31? Leery of the K11 in .308Win, K31 ok if it feeds and extracts properly. If these guns are rechambered, I am sure the barrels have been set back a bit as the 7.5 Swiss case is a bit larger than the .308. I would sure check the chamber for rings that did not get reamed out and for proper fit.

[leebuilder]

Never seen one, but heard of them. The original caliber is very close in apperence to 308, i would make sure what caliber it is and not someone assuming it is 308. Seen a few sporters in 30-30.

[waksupi]

I have a .308 K11. I've never seen a problem with it. The action is as strong as a 98 Mauser, so what's not to like?

[snoopy]

It is marked .308, and having reead differing opinions, thought I would ask here. I don't need it thats for sure, How does yours shoot waksupi?

[bouncer50]

It is marked .308, and having reead differing opinions, thought I would ask here. I don't need it thats for sure, How does yours shoot waksupi?

Yes i hear the same thing about rechamber to 308 k11 storys. Same as the french 7.5 rechamber to 308 the bolt action no problem, the semi-auto they had problem with the gas system getting to work right. My opinion i do not believe the K-11 is as strong as a Mauser 98 3 lug locking system they used.

[waksupi]

I believe it was P.O. Ackley who did the destructive testing on various actions, and said it was just as strong as the Mauser 98.
Mine shoots great, easy to get groups of under 1.5" at 100 yards. If I could see worth a darn, it would probably be more accurate! I removed the rear sight, altered some Weaver bases slightly, and mounted a long eye relief scope.

[Bob S]

I have 3 of the "Alpine sporters". I think very few of them were made from K11's, they seem to be (by serial number) shortened 1896/1911 or 1911 long rifles. I don't think the Swiss had released the K11's to the surplus market when these conversions were popular. At any rate ... I thought it might be fun to shoot "over the course" (National Match Course) with a .308 straight-pull, so I worked with these for awhile, and with the best I tried to "find the throat" ... where the bullet would engage the rifling. Long story short, it won't. At least on the 3 that I own, there were free-bored almost two inches when they were set back and rechambered. I guess that makes sense, the action was definitely not made to take the 60 KSI chamber pressure that the .308 can be. I was able to get one of these to group 10 rounds of A-171 from prone into a little less than 2 MOA, so this wasn't a match rifle. But they are still a blast to shoot.

Some years later I ended up with two K31's chambered in .308. One was made by Grunig & Elmiger for the 300 meter CISM course, so it has a heavy barrel and a "position" stock that meets ISU Standard Rifle rules. That one is a barrel of fun to shoot at 100 yards with 311291 and 15 grains of 2400, it also shoots full power jacketed loads well enough for matches. The second was made by ??? purchased from Simpson's about 7-8 years ago. That one looks like a standard Military carbine. I have not attmpted any cast loads with this one. Neither of these is free-bored. With front locking lugs, the K31 is more tolerant of pressures higher than the ~45KSI of the Swiss service round. The limitation might be difficult extraction, as the straight-pulls don't have the nice primary extraction leverage of a turn-bolt.

Respectfully,
Bob S.