Swiss K31

[Matt_S]

Well the wife and I were a little bored yesterday, so we went to our local gun shop to peruse some of the merchandice. We walked back to the area where they keep all their mil-surps. In addition to the 50 or so Mosins, 25 various Mausers, and cosmo-drenched SKSs were 4 nice K31 rifles.

I had fondled them before, but the wife along with me this time wouldn't pass them by. I always thought the ammo was too expensive. I kept going thinking she would catch back up. Not seeing much else that caught my eye, I wandered back over her way.

She had this big guilty smile on her face and said something to the effect of I really like it. We ended up bringing back the pick of the litter, it has just a little "Tiger Stripe" to the wood and one very smooth baby's bottom type action.

The wife convinced me the rifle needed to be adopted and loved. Brought it home and she had it cleaned before I could download instructions for breaking it apart.

This morning was nice balmy 30 degrees, with snow flurries. We found out the these little Swiss rifles are excellent shooters and the recoil is really not that bad at all. I think my wife has a new rifle, definately her first of our milsurp collection. She found it, bought it, cleaned it, shot it and shot it well. She might have a new hobby to. I love her so much. I would reccommend the rifle too.

 

[MikeB]

The K31 is great to shoot. The straight pull bolt is very interesting action design for any collection and it being a milsurp weapon is a good bonus.

Fun experiment and useful if you reload as that ammo isn't exactly cheap. I did find 60 rounds for about $26 at a gun show recently though. Anyways if you do it just right you can eject the spent cartridge; load another round and catch the empty in you right hand. It's tough but doable. You probably noticed the round ejects almost straight up into the air and tends to fall within a few inches to the right of the weapon.

Regardless they are a lot of fun to shoot.

 

[Madmax]

Any chance your wife has a sister?

 

[aerod1]

I have a beautiful Swiss K-31 I bought at the Market Hall Show in Dallas. It shoots great! The K-31 is a marvelous piece of precision Swiss engineering. I think you will forever be proud your wife made that purchase. If you bought one then the two of you would have matching K-31's. Just a thought.
Have fun with your new treasure.

Jim Hall

 

[Jim K]

The only downside to the K-31 (and the earlier Models 1889 and 1911) is that they don't handle gas well. I have never had any problem with Swiss ammo, but had some primer problems with the old Toyo ammo many years ago and got hot gas in the face. Always wear shooting glasses when firing anything, but most especially the Schmidt-Rubin designs.

Jim

 

[Jspy]

Matt

So you're the one who ended up with the "tiger stripe" I drooled over it before leaving the store empty handed. I know exactly where it was at, and when I went back on sunday it was gone! No hard feelings tho, but I was trying to exercise some self control when I decided to pass on it. Good luck and give a report when you get a chance to try it out.

 

[ARperson]

Jspy,


Sorry 'bout that. I tried to leave it there for you, but she usually gets her way with these things. She knows I have a soft spot for these old bolt guns.

We shot thirty rounds of surplus 7.5 down at Atterbury last sunday morning. It is probably the most accurate mil-surp we have. Though our M39 Finnish Mosin would be a very close second.

The back room at Bradis is the only reason I have never gotten a C&R. Just didn't need one. Of course, it is my walletss no. 1 enemy. Actually our M39 has nice Tiger Stripe to it as well, the wife liked the matching pair.

Didn't mean to take your baby, but she is sweet!!

(That was Matt_S writing that. He forgot to log me out since I was the last one to visit THR. Where do you do your shootin'?)

 

[Jspy]

The way it stands now, all of my shooting is done at Camp Atterbury. I've just recently developed an interest in the old milsurp rifles. I agree that Bradis makes it hard not to get a C&R, and they peeked my interest in the old rifles. I forgot to mention that I had purchased on of the K31's a few weeks ago and haven't had a chance to shoot is as of yet. I picked up some ammo at the 1500 show and with any luck I may try it out today.

 

[Daniel T]

I just wanted to point out that AIM Surplus is selling 7.5 Swiss for $168/480.

Congrats on the K31! It is definitely the best rifle you can buy for the money.