K31 swiss

[cummins05]

Snagged me a k31 swiss today for $200 the bore is bright and the wood is in really good shape. Unfortunetly there isn't a troop tag under the butt plate. I have brass and dies already. Loaded 10 rounds with 4895 and some 150gn sierras to go shoot and see what it would do. I'll try and attach photos and see what y'all think. 153013153014

If these pictures work that's 9 shots off bags at 50 yards. Hardly ever shoot open sights and it was just a load thrown together thanks for looking

[runfiverun]

once you start to dial things in a bit they will shoot like that [or better] at 100 yds.
the one I bubba'd up for hunting likes the 150gr moly coated combined technology on top of some 4831-sc.
mine shot to the left when I first got them too.

[Scharfschuetze]

Sounds like you snagged a good one Cummins05.

They are lots of fun with both jacketed bullets and cast boolits. I've shot mine on paper through 600 yards and it holds as well as any match M14 that I was ever issued, but sadly there's no deflection ability in the rear sight to keep up with the wind; but hey, it's a battle rifle.

Cast boolits also shoot well in mine and certainly tame the beast for everyday use.

[cummins05]

sweet thanks guys I was curious about cast shooting in this bad boy. I like that its a 308 bore because its easy to reload for. Turns heads at the range that's for sure!

[Scharfschuetze]

When loading cast boolits, you'll find that there is very little ability to seat a boolit out very far unless the nose of the boolit is less than .300 in diameter. That being the case, you've got to seat the designs we normally use in 30 cal rifles pretty deep. That puts the base of the boolit pretty far down into the powder chamber.

NOE makes a great little mould to compensate for this. Look for NOE 311-K31 as that seems to be properly designed for the K-31's abbreviated lead. I don't have any of 'em cast right now, but here's a data plaque from NOE's web site. Note the .296" nose diameter.

[Hang Fire]

once you start to dial things in a bit they will shoot like that [or better] at 100 yds.
the one I bubba'd up for hunting likes the 150gr moly coated combined technology on top of some 4831-sc.
mine shot to the left when I first got them too.

The front sight is windage adjustable.

[WineMan]

Heck of a deal. Years ago they could be had for $89.00 at Big-5. Now they go for $250-350 and they are not as nice as the first ones. I second the hard to find a good cast bullet but the LEE 155/160 Lube/TL bullet works well if sized to 0.310". I have one of the NOE K-31 molds and it works pretty well although a harder bullet alloy is what I use. The Internet debate on the proper sizing dies will make your head spin. Bottom line: GP-11 ammo was designed to fit earlier rifles and the K31. The K31 was designed with the lessons of WW1 where mud etc. was a real problem and the chamber dimensions were changed to be larger at the shoulder than earlier rifles. Suffice to say, a 7.5x55 die is fine for any Swiss Rifle in that caliber. The K31 specific dies leave the shoulder too fat for a 1911 Rifle, K11, G96/11 etc. My brass that fails either does at the neck or at the head. The shoulder never has failed from being "overworked". Reducing the head to shoulder length too aggressively or work hardening the neck can be an issue with any caliber. I have LEE 7.5 x 55 F/L and N/S dies. I get away with neck sizing as long as I stick with 1,500 fps +/- cast in my K31.

Dave

[Scharfschuetze]

I get away with neck sizing as long as I stick with 1,500 fps +/- cast in my K31.

With my lighter cast boolit loads, I don't even have to neck size if I use a .311 sizer die to just kiss the driving bands and lube the grooves of my projectile. All I do is use the Lee universal belling die to slightly bell the neck so as not to damage the boolit during seating. I don't even bother to iron out the bell as chambering the round does that. I often get less than 2 MOA accuracy when doing this for 10 shot groups.

Heavy loads necessitate more conventional loading techniques as noted above.

When I was young, Sears and Monkey Wards sold the long infantry rifles at bargain prices, but I was on a Lee Enfield trajectory at the time. Sure wish I would have bought one of those long 1911 rifles.

[WineMan]

You probably would have sporterized it like most of us did to the Mil surplus of the 1960's. I wish I had bought a couple of the artillery Lugers or even a regular P-08. The money does look good from our perspective, but then a $30 gun was a week's wages.

Dave

[craig61a]

For $ 200 you did good. I had a bunch of these at one time... they were cheap so I figured why not collect one for each year. Like a lot of things 20-15 years ago. I got a couple left; they are great rifles. I took a nice 8 point Whitetail one year with a 180 Barnes XLC bullet. After doing all the load development with the XLC, they discontinued them. I'm down to my last two boxes... :(

For all the work that went into that receiver and everything else that'd be a $ 3000.00+ rifle nowadays.

[NuJudge]

If you go with Jacketed bullets, look here for Jacketed data:
http://www.swissrifles.com/sr/pierre/loaddata.html
http://www.swissrifles.com/sr/pierre/data.html

Bore diameter is smaller than an American .30 caliber barrel, and on a reasonably new 7.5x55 barrel will have the rifling come all the way back to the case mouth. After a barrel has been shot a lot, it will become more tolerant. There are special molds for sale here that are designed around these eccentricities. The best cast bullet 7.5 barrel I ever had was the most worn.

[John Boy]

IMO, the K31 is the most underrated rifle for design - manufacture and accuracy. My favorite bullet is the Ideal 311413, 170gr that will accurately shoot to 1000yds
http://www.three-peaks.net/images/311413_169g.gif
Fiddling with the metric sights and dancing within inches - I finally dropped a 1000yd coyote silhouette this summer. Now the rifle sports a scope for shooting 700-1000yd silhouettes

[enfield]

154128154129 This is my homemade clamp on rear sight mount for my k31 and the front peep is a Lyman 17 with a notch cut in it to clear the front sight blade, it nicely wedges in the original sight ears. The NOE mould works very well.

[Ricochet]

If you have one with a really nice bore you won't be able to use that Lee 155/160 gr. AK boolit. The nose is too fat, most of the "bore rider" part of it on mine being .308". The rifling on my K-31 is at full land height with a .297" bore diameter about 1/8" from the case mouth. Groove diameter is .307". There's a practically square step to .308" right at the end of the chamber with the case mouth. Anything larger will more likely shave off than squeeze down. That really limits my choice of bullets/boolits as the ogive has to start tapering right at the case mouth, else the "bore rider" needs to be around .297". It's good to slug or cast your bore's leade.