The Top-10 reasons to love your Swiss K-31

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Dave R

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Apologies to Letterman...

10. Its not covered in Cosmoline! Yay!

9. Nice, sharp rifling. Mirror bright bore (after cleaning.) I actually made the mistake of pointing my bore at the sun after cleaning. Almost burned my eye out...

8. Reaaaallly nice trigger. Wow. Possibly the nicest trigger I own...

7. Ammo issues are a thing of the past. You can get GP-11 (match grade) ammo for $4/10 (that's $8/20--or less than most all hunting cartridges) at AIM. Not as cheap as .308 or 7.62X54, but cheaper than .270 or .30-30. Reloading components are easy, too. I got some .284 Win brass locally for $25/hundred. Run it through the 7.5 Swiss die, trim (needed barely any trim) and its ready to load, using common .308 bullets, which I already had in quantity. So now it costs the same to shoot as my .308.

6. The tag under the buttplate. Have you ever wondered who carried your milsurp rifle, where they lived, etc? Its all on the tag under the buttplate of your Swiss rifle. Many have successfully contacted the prior owner. Wish me luck...

5. The sights are already regulated, courtesy of the guy who's name is under the buttplate.

4. Amazing Swiss craftsmanship of the straight-pull action. "Its like buttah..."

3. They don't make 'em like that any more.

2. Accuracy--widely reputed to be MOA accurate. The handloaders on the Swiss board are either a bunch of liars, or they're getting better than MOA with their pet loads. Could have some interesting disputations...er...discussions with Enfield owners....

And the number one reason to love your K-31...THE PRICE. Holy cow! This is a $79 rifle? Why did I wait so long!!
 
I skipped another 91/30 (for now) in favor of putting an order in for a K31... I hope I get a good example.
 
Ja

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K-31's are indeed nice.

Kind of a junior-sized version of the more elegant 1911 S-R, as it were. ;)

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Kind of a junior-sized version of the more elegant 1911 S-R, as it were.
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Agreed. My K31 is nice. Buy my SR 1911 long rifle is absolutely dreamy. The most accurate milsurp I own, period!

However, the top 10 list is very accurate. K31s are simply the best all-around value you can find right now. Ammo isn't exactly cheap, but the rifle makes up for that with accuracy.

When I first worked the straight-pull bolt I thought it was odd and unwieldy. But once I got behind the sights and used it like it's meant, that straight-pull is the fastest bolt-action I've held. Once I trained myself to trust the bolt would not hit my nose I could work it without losing my sight picture at all.

:D LL :D
 
Agree
(Oh...and I've since returned the mail bucket to the proper authorities)

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2. Accuracy--widely reputed to be MOA accurate. The handloaders on the Swiss board are either a bunch of liars, or they're getting better than MOA with their pet loads. Could have some interesting disputations...er...discussions with Enfield owners....
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I have a 1934 that's scoped. With handloads, I shot a 6-shot group of .684" at 100 yards. Pretty incredible, if you think about it in terms of the gun's age and intended purpose.

I agree that on the whole, the K-31 is one of the most accurate military arm issued before 1970. But, the Swede 96 & Finn 28/30 are its equal.

As an Enfield nut I love the No4 action above all others, but obviously they were not built with the same eye towards accuracy in general. What they do have, however, is a 10 shot magazine and vastly better sights than the K-31, so at least in my hands shooting iron sights I can shoot better with a No4 than I can with a K-31 - just my personal preference tho. There are Enfields that can shoot MOA, tho I believe they are the exception rather than the rule.
 
It is worth paying the extra money for handpick and for the walnut stock?
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If all you want is a shooter, then it isn't worthwhile. I've looked over a dozen or so rifles over the last year or so before I committed to buying, and I have yet to see one with anything but a bright shiny bore and in good mechanical condition.
 
A question for those that have purchased from AIM. It is worth paying the extra money for handpick and for the walnut stock?
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I spent the $10 for the handpick, and I'm happy with the one I got. (Did not get walnut.) But what does 1 data point tell you?

As an Enfield nut I love the No4 action above all others, but obviously they were not built with the same eye towards accuracy in general. What they do have, however, is a 10 shot magazine and vastly better sights than the K-31, so at least in my hands shooting iron sights I can shoot better with a No4 than I can with a K-31 - just my personal preference tho. There are Enfields that can shoot MOA, tho I believe they are the exception rather than the rule.
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Ah, I thought we might have discussion with some Enfield owners. But I can't disagree with anything said here. I have not shot an Enfield, but I have seen the sights and they are better. Aperture sights beat notch-and-post any day. That said, the K-31 has much better notch-post sights than a Mauser. Nice, thin front blade and thin notch.
 
While I sometimes choose the handpick option on Mausers, I never have with any of the four K-31s I own. With the K-31, you are practically guaranteed excellent mechanical condition, and you are also practically guaranteed a buttstock that looks like it was used to play gravel hockey. At least that's the case with the 90 buck rifles. Allan's Armory is selling some with nicer wood, but you pay more for them too (not knocking that -- I'm thinking of getting one of them myself).
 
Quick update--I actually shot my K-31 yesterday for the first time. Big smiles.

Recoil--very nice. I had some reduced loads (130gr. bullet and under 30gr. of 4198--a reduced .308 load from Speer's manual) and it was very comfortable with those, obviously. But even full-power loads were not hard to handle. The old "push vs. shove" thing. I've heard that their wide buttplate distributes recoil well over a wider area. Whatever. I put 30 full-power rounds through it and did not have a sore shoulder.

Accuracy--leading indicators are good. Due to weather I was stuck with the indoor range and 25 yard max range, which doesn't tell you much. But I had all rounds in the 1" black centers of all targets, with all rounds touching, for each load. Now I really have the hankers for a good day at the range with it. (Which will be after Christmas.)

Did I mention how nice the trigger is?
 
I got a 1941 walnut K-31 from Allan's Armory a couple of months ago. Due to various reasons (2 small kids and lousy weekend weather) I haven't yet shot it. But Sunday looks to be another sunny day down here, following many dry and sunny days, and the wife is up for going to the range - so I'll finally put my seasoned citizen through its paces. I've got 240 rounds of GP-11, but I'll probably only bring 30-40 with me. I'll be reloading later, and also putting on some Mojo sights, so I just want a baseline.

I do love the look, the craftmanship, the culture and the history behind these rifles - and all for a mere pittance (mine was $120, hand-picked by Allan himself from several I had from a list on his website, while we were on the phone). As to the history, I picked a 1941 precisely because I wanted one that I KNEW was used to deter a German invasion.
 
Swingset

I have a 1934 that's scoped. With handloads, I shot a 6-shot group of .684" at 100 yards. Pretty incredible, if you think about it in terms of the gun's age and intended purpose.
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OK, so what's the load - case, bullet, primer, powder, powder weight and OAL? Enquiring minds want to know.
 
Heads up! Just to let you know, AIM Surplus has the Schmidt Rubin K-31 on sale right now, $79.95 delivered to your FFL. I'm thinking about one myself since I need a straight pull bolt action to round out my collection.
 
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