K31..... now I went and did it......

[fixerupper]

bought TWO over the weekend..... once beech and one walnut stocked. Both barrels beyond "shiny" and strong lands.... more like mirror polished. First patch down the barrels with #9..... clean first pass. Ok I thought...... next test was a saturated patch with Butchs bore shine. Clean patches a couple mins later..... not even a hint of copper fouling. Either these two Swiss soldiers were really disciplined on their cleaning regimen, or they never shot much..... Im betting on disciplined cleaning.

Back to the rifles......Both rifles had the soldier tag under the buttplate. Kewl. The beech rifle still had nearly 100% bluing, the walnut stocked maybe 90.

Triggers...... Im REALY impressed with both triggers...... two stage with alot of upfront travel, but both break cleanly at a little over 4.5 lbs with barely discernable amount of overtravel. Pretty damned impressive for a milsurp.

Both stocks are beverchewed..... not as bad on the beech. The beech has a small chip out of the foreend near the barrel, the walnut has a 3/4 inch crack passing thru one of the buttplate screws. Thats it for flaws that I could find.

Im REALLY stoked about my most recent aquisitions..... guess next weekend will entail a fair dab of range time.....:twisted::twisted:

[ImConfused666]

Hi fixerupper. I know how you feel. I bought one about two weeks ago. I haven't fired it yet but I was so impressed with the looks and feel of the rifle that I ordered two more. It's a good thing that the wife is not a shooter...

I'm doing the research for cast loads now. Even the brass for these things isn't cheap. I need to find some way to be able to afford to shoot them. Here in the Baton Rouge area, finding wheel weights or any other source of lead has become very difficult.

[rvpilot76]

Hi fixerupper. I know how you feel. I bought one about two weeks ago. I haven't fired it yet but I was so impressed with the looks and feel of the rifle that I ordered two more. It's a good thing that the wife is not a shooter...

I'm doing the research for cast loads now. Even the brass for these things isn't cheap. I need to find some way to be able to afford to shoot them. Here in the Baton Rouge area, finding wheel weights or any other source of lead has become very difficult.

You can make your brass from 284 Winchester.

Kevin

[Ricochet]

And you can buy perfectly good new Prvi Partizan-made brass from Graf's or excellent loaded Prvi ammo for not a lot more from SOG.

[725]

Congrats,
I'll second the reconmendation on using .284 Win brass & Graf's. The tag is neat. Sometimes you can contact the soldier and get photos, etc. if you like that stuff. I do. The chewed up stock typically comes from the way they were carried in their mountain packs. Too close to their shovel/ice axe.

[jack19512]

The chewed up stock typically comes from the way they were carried in their mountain packs. Too close to their shovel/ice axe.





I could be wrong but if I am not mistaken the chewed up stocks were caused by the type of boots the Swiss soldiers wore when doing drills and such.

[MtGun44]

I have also seen a photo of three K31s racked up together in a tripod
form with the buttstocks in about 6" of snow!

I think one reason you got no copper is that they use nickel alloy
jackets, not copper.

Bill

[garandsrus]

fixerupper,

If you get a chance, pick up some GP-11 ammo. It was probably the most accurate surplus made. It's probably 50 cents or more per round now and the brass is Berdan primed.

John

[jack19512]

If you get a chance, pick up some GP-11 ammo.










Long ago when I first purchased my two K31's I purchased two of the 480 round packs and I have them put up. I paid $150.00 a piece for them back then and now at Midway they are $257.99. I agree the GP-11 is great ammo. :-D

[Bret4207]

I still remember my first 5 shots with the Swiss and GP-11. 100 yards, slight breeze at my left, 9' paper plate target AND I remembered my glasses. Honest to gosh 1" group!!!!! Never repeated it, but man, what a rifle!

[mto7464]

now you need to get a clamp on scope mount for one of them and talk about a sweet shooting rifle.

[Ken O]

I gotta story on the K31...
I shoot most the matches at Camp Perry, two or three years ago they added a "vintage foregn military bolt" match. I sighned up, but din't have rifle for it. I figured I borrow a Mauser or something, but I got a flyer from AIM and I saw the K31 for about $100. So with my C&R I ordered one with a case of the GP11.

The rifle showed up just a couple days before I left for Perry, so I went out in the back yard, set up a target at about 150 yards. I had a good zero on the '03 for 200 yards which is what the match is shot at, so I shot a few rounds with the '03, then shot the K31 and move the sights to hit the same place as the '03.

I goes to Perry and when it was my turn to shoot, the prone is the first stage. You get up to five sighters, I shoot and the first shot is an X! Second shot is an X, well no sense wasting any more shots, I told my scorer I was shooting for score. My next shot was a 7, auggh! But only dropped a couple more points on that stage. Next is the standing to prone rapid fire with a mandatory reload. I have the cardboard charging clip and think this could be bad, but no problem, the reload went well and I had a good score (dont remember the actual score). Next was the rapid sitting, another good score, working the bolt was easy and the reload went fine. Standing (ouch) was next, I scored good again.

When it was all over, I ended up in ninth place out of hundreds of shooters, with a rifle I only had a week! It one of those things I will never forget, a highlight of my life.

I picked up another K31 and it shoots just as well, I think they are a work of art.

Ken Orris

[northmn]

I had a Swiss and can say that it was the least fussy cast bullet rifle I have seen as it seemed to shoot with about anything for a reasonable cast load, but, I like heavy bullets and it was made for the pointed military round and did not want to chamber the heavier 30 bullets unless deep seated. Worked fine with 180's. I traded off to experience other military rifles as I do not keep a large collection on hand. If the rifle had come with peep sights instead of the coarser open sights, it would give any rifle a run on issue target matches.

Northmn

[fixerupper]

now you need to get a clamp on scope mount for one of them and talk about a sweet shooting rifle.


I think that's my plan. My youngest son has been drooling all over the walnut stocked one ..... ( is drool a good sub for action grease?????)

He's a purist..... he disdains scoped rifles. He tells me Im cheating for using a scope inside of 300 yards. Of course his vision is about 20/15. Dads at the other end of the gene pool with 20/15000.

Youth is wasted on the young.

Anyway.... one of them definately has a St Marie scope mount in the future.

Plan on going to the range this weekend..... Ill let you guys know how they shoot....

[EMC45]

Fixer,
I have to echo your thoughts on the Swiss. I got mine a couple years back and it is nice. Very nice! Has the tag, and the chewed up stock. I have read it was from the GIs knocking snow off their boots with the butt. The bore on mine was so shiny it was obscene! I ran a few soaked patches and all I got was a honey colored residue. Nice. I almost sold it about a year ago. That I would have regreted!

[jack19512]

I have read it was from the GIs knocking snow off their boots with the butt.






There are several theories about the chewed up stocks but for, as far as I know, the stocks to be this way on all of the K31's I have ever seen or read about I am sure the boots had to be the culprit. Here is an explanation from a site I visited.




"Most K31s of this vintage have hellacious scratches that run from the butt plate upward about 4" and mine is no exception. There really is no mystery, the marks are the results of soldiers drilling with hob nailed boots. I have seen illustrations of the drill, and the boots and the results."

[chevyiron420]

i bought my K31 about 5 years ago. i bought a box of norma loads they just happened to have on the shelf of a different shop i used to visit. i shot about 10 of those rounds fooling around over the last 5 years. a month or so my son and i went shooten and he wanted to shoot the K31. he finished up the last 10 rounds and he shot about 1 1\2 inch with it and was impressed. when i got the cases to the loading shop, they were way to long, something like .080 to long. i check every book i have cause i couldnt belive it. i trimmed, neck sized, loaded them with some 130 grainers i have. he can shoot 3\4 inch with that thing!!!-phil

[Kuato]

I actually know a gentleman that served in the Swiss military when K31s were the issued weapon. He told me that the "beaver chewing" is indeed from the boots. He told me that was how they cleaned the snow & packed ice from between the metal cleats. Kinda like the way you see in baseball, except they use a bat, not a beautiful rifle...

[Ricochet]

Oh, my!

[C1PNR]

"Most K31s of this vintage have hellacious scratches that run from the butt plate upward about 4" and mine is no exception. There really is no mystery, the marks are the results of soldiers drilling with hob nailed boots. I have seen illustrations of the drill, and the boots and the results."
Those boots weren't just hobnailed on the bottom, either. If you can find a good photo of the boots (I can't find mine) you will see hobnails on the outside edge of the sole, as well as on the bottom!

Everytime they brought the rifle to "Order Arms" they likely added a little more "character" to the stock.[smilie=1:

[John Boy]

Here's a K31 W+F Diopter sight if anyone has an interest ...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=150232841675&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=005

I just picked up a Swiss made Micrometer Rear Sight for mine
http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd220/Meadowmucker/MicrometerRearSight.jpg