New Poster with some quick Swiss K31 questions...

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RenardSubtil

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hi all,

I've been reading quite a bit from this forum about what rifles a beginner should start with and I finally decided on a Swiss K31 - I picked it up over the weekend and I'm pretty stoked, this bolt and firing mechanism is in really good shape (I'm going to have a closer look at the barrel tonight).

Anyways, I was reading up on the rifle over the last several days (here and at Swissrifles.com) and I need some help with the following because I can't seem to find it anywhere explained clearly here or in the manual posted at Swiss Rifles...thanks in advance.

- To use grease or not to grease? I have a couple bottles of Hoppes lube oil that i use for my Kimber 1911 clone, this is a pretty light lube obviously - i noticed that some M1 Garand cleaning descriptions included the use of grease. is grease this the best lubrication to use with the bolt action and what not for the K31?

- the Elevation sights. this thing looks nothing like the cheap .22 i used when i was 12 at summer camp lol! I know the Swiss sight is suppose to be set for a max of 1500 meters (right?), so is each numbered rung is set for approx. 100 meters? I just wanted to be sure because the local club I shoot at has a 25 yard and 100 target and i really don't want to blow up their wood target frames the first time I shoot my K31 :(




-
 
Nice Choice

Nice choice going for the K31. I wish a shop around me had one. It is on my list so some day I will come across one and snap it up.

On all my guns I use Hoppes oil like you. I have not found anything thicker but I figure since I clean it off and re-lube it after every trip to the range, I don't need a long term lube. I could be completely off on this, but that is my reasoning.

As for the sights, I found this page with a little info on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_K31
 
yeah speak of the devil, I used the word GREASE instead of lubrication on the Swiss rifle site just now and got quite a bit more hits, the manual apparently doesn't recommend a heavy grease for the bolt action, so it looks like the Hoppes will work.

thanks for the sight elevation information!
 
There are every few guns that need grease to operate properly- the M1 Garand and some machine guns. Just used remoil, CLP or a similar lubricant on the bolt.

The sights are self explanatory, they start at 100 yards, you move the slider to the setting for the distance that you are shooting at.

The sights should be dead on at 100 yards, Out of 7 of them that I have/had I only had one not shoot dead on, and it shot a few inches low so that moving the sight to the 200 yards setting put it dead on again. Unlike most other military forces in the world with the exception of the United States, the Swiss valued the individual rifleman and gave them rifles fit for marksmanship. Having sights set 'close enough' or 'minute of enemy soldier' for mass fire wasn't good enough for them.
 
http://www.swissrifles.com/ has an english manual to download. The swiss used grease on the rifles and not oil. Given the great condition most of them are still in today, I'd say there were onto something and see no reason not to keep using a grease.
 
Congrats on your K31!
I've been using regular gun oil on mine, but then I really haven't been firing it that much, it has probably been over a year now, with ammo prices the way they are. Stock up while you can.
Again, congrats, and I think you will really enjoy your rifle.
 
+1 on high at 100yd.

And get yourself a .22LR rifle. 1rd of 7.5x55 is 25 rounds of .22LR. More practice. :D
 
Thanks ohioarmedneutrality! I lucked out and found a local private seller here in the bay area (ca) and i read this was a good rifle to start out with....

I plan probably getting a stash of ammo and using it up for the sake of getting used to rifles so basically my K31 will be kind of a spring board for something a little more modern later down the road...course if I get really lucky, I can score my grandpops old service M14 sitting in the closet back in Mississippi! heh :p
 
The oil vs grease debate is a lot less important on bolt guns than on semiautos. Light oil is all I use and I haven't worn mine out yet.

If you'd rather only spend $5 for a front sight blade instead of $15, another trick is to buy another front sight blade and build it up a little bit using JB Weld, then file it off little by little until its the right height.
 
As Mr. White said... Not really that important on a manually operated gun. On an autoloader, you need to lube properly so that the action is free enough to cycle properly. With a bolt gun (lever, falling block, break action, pump, et al), you aren't counting on the cartridge to cycle the action anyway, so it makes very little difference. Keep it oiled lightly, to prevent any of the parts for galling, and enjoy :)

(oh, and get yourself a good .22lr!)
 
Did you look under the Butt plate for possibly a tag?

I got one on mine! It's a tag that tells who it was issued to. Pretty neat!!!
 
I got one on mine! It's a tag that tells who it was issued to. Pretty neat!!!
Click to expand...

My buddy found the tag on his K31, looked in an online white pages for the guy's address in Switzerland, mailed him a letter (painstakingly translated into French and German and hacked out on a typewriter) and got a reply back!
 
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You got yourself a mighty fine rifle. Mine will do 1 1/2'' groups at 100 yards if I really sit down and pay attention to what I am doing. And in the 100 setting it is dead on at a 100 yards.

And +1 on getting a 22. You don't have to pay big bucks for one. A used Marlin model 60 can be had for 60 to 100 dollars (anything over that is too much for a used one) and they are an accurate well made gun.
 
hey guys...(eye roller @ Matt)...

YES. I did get a troop tag. I'll look up the information tonight but in the time i had to inspect it the other night, I have a '43 production model with a serial number in the 700K range :)

and YES VZENMN, I am looking for a .22 plinker, I rethought what i was planning on using the rifle for and realized ammo was a "tad" pricey atm hahaha, plus I'm sort of a newbie so I don't think I would be very good at reloading...thanks for the tip about the Marlin model 60, I'll look that up at the gun show this weekend in san francisco....
 
My price quote might be a little low for Cali.It might as well be a different planet compared to Texas. I did'nt know they allow fun shows in San Fran. How are they like?

Good luck at it.
 
Well, to be honest, this will be my first gun show so we'll see...I'm hoping the Mayor of SF doesn't come out and make a fiasco out of it again like he did last year.
 
If you shoot your k31 alot, look into reloading for it. a basic setup doesnt cost much and the 7.5 swiss is easy to load for. Just saw the 60 round pack selling for 38.00 so it is going up. For me its easy to keep a couple hundred rounds on hand since I started reloading, shoot what I want and not worry about cost. FWIW.
 
Nice rifle. I've got a K-31 and it's a great shooter, but I'm having trouble finding the GP-11 cartridge for anything less than $0.40 a shot. Is this normal? It seems expensive compared to the $.08 per shot I'm spending to shoot my 98k
 
GP11 was never made in the numbers that 8mm Mauser was, so yeah, it will cost more. On the plus side, it is basically match ammo. Combine it with the excellent accuracy of the K31, and you should get some very tight groups.

Mike
 
The GP11 is fantastic ammo, so if you can get it for $.40 a shot it's worth it. The only problem with it is it's Berdan primed, so it's virtually worthless for reloading. If you don't reload that's not an issue though. Even if you do reload, it's not that bad when you figure that reloads typically cost about 30 to 40 cents not counting the labor involved.
 
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