Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Swiss K31 question

The K31 is very well made. I read that in around the late 1990s a person could still order a brand new K31 from the Hammerli factory for about $1200.

In 2002 I bought my K31 in near new condition from Big 5 Sporting Goods for $159. plus tax and fees. My rifle was made in 1951. There was no butt name-tag, unfortunately.

I ordered a case of Swiss surplus ammo (480 rounds)from AIM Inc. in Middletown, OH for $193 including shipping. At .40 per round that case cost me more than the rifle. The ammo is near-Match quality.

A friend of mine, a retired gunsmith, was recuperating from open heart surgery. He asked me for a gun project to work on at his own pace as he recovered.

I ordered a fancy black walnut stock blank from Great American Gunstock in Yuba City, CA, a Decelerator pad, an Acraglas kit, sling swivels, and a grip cap. I handed the rifle and everything over to my friend and said, "Make me a nice K31 Sporter. I have never seen one."

As the project came along, providing therapy and extra cash for needed prescriptions for my friend, he said a nice sporter should have a prettier bolt handle, and he asked if he could modify the ugly-but-functional finger-ring on the cocking-piece. I said yes, and put some thought into a replacement bolt handle knob. The barrel was cut and crowned behind the original front sight. The present barrel length is 25", and the twist rate as close as I can measure it is 1:10.5".

I have always preferred perfectly round bolt knobs, but this rifle needed something larger than the normal bolt-action rifle knob and something prettier than the factory two-finger pull-knob creation. I wound up ordering an authentic, black DC-3 throttle knob from Tradewinds Aircraft Supply in San Antonio, Texas.

Since my dusty logbooks show almost 700 hours in DC-3s a long time ago in a far away land, I knew that the throttle knob was the size I was seeking, and made a unique and meaningful feature for my personal K31.

The cocking-piece ring was filled with a shaped walnut plug that is even easier to use than the bare ring was. The straight-up ejection of the K31 requires an offset scope or a scout scope set-up. We made a scout-scope base that anchored into the rear sight base. A Tasco 2x30mm illuminated-reticule pistol scope works quite well and just clears the ejecting cases.

The final results are unique, and are about as attractive as a K31 can be made, I believe. No effort was made to lighten anything, and the stock measurements are on the large size with a thick wrist. With the scope the weight is right at 9 lbs, making the rifle pleasant to shoot, but less so to carry very far.

I have only shot the high-quality surplus ammo in the rifle and with the 2x scope I get consistent, round, 1" avg. five-shot groups at 100 yards. Half inch groups at 50 yards are easy. (If the curious spectators leave me alone long enough to shoot a group).

Here is what she looks like.

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The DC-3 throttle knob turned out to be a good size to palm back and forth while working the straight-pull action. The round aircraft engine control knobs is where the aviation term "Balls to the wall" came from, meaning all knobs full forward to provide maximum emergency power and RPMs and full-rich mixture to help climb or accelerate out of trouble. With two engines on the DC-3, that was six knobs in the throttle quadrant, a large handful, going forward at once. Two more knobs down on the side controlled cowl flaps.



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