Swiss K-31 for hunting?

[Virg461]

Gentlemen, I'm new here, so forgive me if the question has been asked before, but I have recently fallen deeply in love with my new (to me) K-31. Have any of you hunted with this rife? The round appears to be ballistically similar to a .308. The surplus GP-11 is very accurate stuff, but it's FMJ. I bought a box of Hornady SP rounds, but I don't know how they compare to the GP-11 in terms of ballistics.

Anyone kill any whitetails with one of these? I'm sort of thinking of trying it with iron sights for the fun of it.

-Virg

 

[TargetTerror]

Ballistically, 7.5x55 swiss is a great hunting round. The issue of course will be in using hunting ammo. If you handload, you can use any .308 bullet, so that is easy. It sounds like you don't, so you'd probably want some sort of soft point or other hunting round like you bought.

I don't know anything more specific than that, but I would think the Hornady load would be suitable.

 

[Virg461]

No I haven't done any handloading. It's forever on my "get to" list, but I've always felt I didn't have the time. Since most of the high volume shooting I do is 7.62x39 or similar cheap stuff, it never made much sense to spend for the reloading equipment. Maybe I should, then I would shoot my .300 savage model 99 more often! It's pretty expensive to feed.

As far as I know, the Hornady ammo is the only commerical hunting ammo in the K-31's7.5x55 caliber.

 

[Todd1700]

One of the most accurate standard issue military rifles ever. Why wouldn't it be a great hunting rifle. It's plenty powerful enough for anything in North America except the large bears. The Hornady stuff should be fine as long as your particular rifle likes it.

 

[LEVRLOVR]

I have.

Took this little spike a couple of years back at a tad over 200 yds. with the Hornady 165 gr. softpoint. DRT.

The Hornady SP shoots very well through my k-31's.

I have a couple of boxes of the Norma 180 SP but have yet to try them out.

 

[Silent Sam]

Hornady's loads shoot well through any K-31 I've seen shoot them.

 

[ScratchnDent]

I have run a couple boxes of the Hornady 165 SP through mine. It was excellent ammo and I wouldn't hesitate to hunt with it.

I have taken a couple hogs with mine, using my handloads with 165 gr, Sierra Game Kings.

ETA: Wolf's Gold Line and Prvi Partizan both offer a 174 gr. soft point in 7.5 Swiss. They are actually identical to each other, just rebranded and put in different boxes. It's not loaded quite as hot as the Hornady, but still plenty powerful for whitetail, and several dollars cheaper per box.

 

[RyanM]

If you ever start handloading, I hear that K-31s tend to absolutely love Hornady 168 gr A-Max bullets. Very accurate loads are possible with those.

 

[nathan]

My K 31 is ready and sighted with the Hornady SP (factory). Havent used it , just sleeping in the closet.

 

[qajaq59]

There isn't much you can't drop with a K31. Especially if you hand load it.

 

[Virg461]

Thanks for the replies. LEVRLOVR, how do you like your scope mount? I have been debating between trying on of those or the "scout" style. Aren't those clamp-ons set off to the right side of the receiver? Do you find it to be a problem?

 

[LEVRLOVR]

Hi Virg.

The Scope mount works great. I actually bought the Scout mount first and used that for awhile but could just never warm up to it. Even with lock tite the scount mount would start to loosen up after a few rds. downrange.

The clamp on mount has remained solid after alot of shooting and I can use the irons with it also.
Being offset has not been a problem although I would recommend a cheek pad to help get a good cheek weld.

There is an option I found the other day over on Swissrifles.com that lets you mount a scope directly over the bore and it has an adjustable shell deflector.
Only downside is you have to send them the rifle to install the mount.

Just checked. The site is called www. Rocksolidind.com and the mount looks like it may be just the ticket for the k31.

 

[jpwilly]

7.5x55mm is longer than a 308 Win (7.62x51mm) and shorter than a 30-06 (7.62x63mm) and can be reloaded with the .308" bullet So it's really a 7.62x55mm! The GP11 ammo has 174gr .306" bullets at over 2500fps. You can basically hunt anything in north america with it just like you could with the others provided you use the right bullet.