Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Mausers and Military Rifles K31 Swiss

I've got one and it shoots as well as any bolt gun I own.
I shot a 3 3/4 inch,5 shot group at 100yds with the first 3 under an inch.
This rifle shoots like a house afire...
I just ordered a set of sites from Swiss Products out of Kalispel Montana.
Anyone buy sites from these folks?

No but this is one of my bucket list items. Be Well, Rustyzipper.

when i was about 15-16 these could be had for 40-50 bucks converted to 308. i have had several over the years and wonder now why i don't have one. fine weapon even if they are noisy as all get out ! about as smooth a bolt as a Krag . did i mention noisy?

I bought a K31 from the late Mark Benenson in 1998. It is a good shooting rifle, but I can see where it could easily turn into a money pit if you want to upgrade the sights.

I never had any problem shooting small groups with the issue sights on the K31 I owned for several years, whether with military Swiss ammo or handloads, but that may have been an exceptional rifle.

That would be making a sow's ear out of a silk purse.

I love my K31. Amazingly accurate rifle as far as I'm concerned. I was gifted a very nice one from a family member. I have never been able to find one in the wild that had a stock that wasn't beat to hell.

true that! but that's what most were. you could get 7.62nato on the hardware isle of the local market but 7.5 swiss was a rare commodity .
have wondered lately why i don't have one in my collection. the first one i had, my late sister in law tried to shoot my oldest brother with. he bent the barrel into a horseshoe shape and gave it to me. lugged it around for years before i rebarreled it. seams like i traded it for a shotgun about 50 years ago

The first one I shot belonged to one of the old guys at the hunting camp. He'd spent some time in Switzerland with a host family when he was a college student. He got a chance to shoot one, and thought it was a cool rifle. When they started coming in as surplus, he bought himself a nice one for $150. Fed surplus ball, it put 5 shots into 2" or less at 100 yds with boring regularity. Mine does the same, something that couldn't be said for the Yugo SKS I traded for it.

I have seen S-R 1911s converted to 308, but not K31s.

Larry Racine used to, may still, convert K31s to 308, www.lprgunsmith.com

when they first started coming in, you could get them from century with a c&r for 69bucks.
i mounted a side mount scope on one, it regularly can hol below an inch at 100yards.
i have a couple of german mags, where they wer mounting optics on them and selling them in south america as sniper weapons.
the swiss ammo in my opinion is match grade.
the stocks are a result of hob nail boots, snow, and the black grease hey used for lubing and cleaning them.
one of the better surplus rifles that ever showed up here.

Is that with factory ammo or handloads? Im wondering if the barrel is toast? A buddy of mine shoots one, and with factory ammo, he shoots less than 2" 10 shot groups at 100

That was with handloads. 165 Gamekings over 49grs of AA2700.
The barrel is an honest 99% and it has the best stock I've ever seen on one. I couldn't believe the condition of the rifle when I found it. The only thing is the piece of paper that the Swiss soldiers placed under the buttplate is unreadable. He wrote his name in pencil and it's just faded away over the years. It's a 98% rifle. Best I've ever seen. That's why I couldn't walk away from it.

Sounds like a damn nice rifle. I'll be shooting against my buddy tomorrow. He uses the K31 I mentioned in the last post. That rifle is amazingly accurate. Like someone else said, that factory ammo must be "match grade".. He's the only one that I need to pay attention to tomorrow because that rifle shoots lights out. When he brings his A game, the guys coming from Portland and Vancouver, with their tricked out CMP m1 Garrands, go away with their tails between their legs.

I have abunch of the Swiss GP-11 ammo and it shoots pretty good.
I guess you could say it's "match ammo". It doesn't deviate much
in velocities. Not much at all. 30 fps is normal with my old Chrony.
I like this rifle more than any other milsurp I have. Even better than
my National Match Garand.

I've mentioned this before, there is a Military Bolt Action Rifle match every month at my range. I'm told the Swiss and the Swedes are the top contenders every time. (rifles have to unaltered, but apparently there are no restrictions on ammunition)

I like My K-31 better than I do my Swede. Shoots better.

No restrictions on ammo? Damn, that would be nice. At my club, the president says it has to be lead tipped or ball ammo . No poly tipped or match bullets. I used 129gr hornady interlocks and averaged 95 4x. My matchgrade ammo shoots better, but i couldnt use it. My buddy with the k31 fell apart. He still beat the city slickers. Even though they brought some damn nice equipment. For example: Johnson M1941 and Lee Enfield L42A1. There were a few "sniper" rifles, but none could touch the swedes scores.

BSA, yes that is my understanding. I haven't tried it as my eyes have made using irons hopeless, I'm praying that cataract surgery will fix that, if it does I'll give it a try.
'

Sorry to hear about your eyes. My left eye is like that, damn near worthless with irons, especially with a diopter sight. Good luck with your surgery!! I have been having a great time shooting right handed with my irons lately.. Its like re-learning to shoot again though..

Lots of clubs run such shoots

In Phoenix, AZ it was yesterday, last sunday of each month at PRGC. We call it CMP or C&R or Vintage Military or Obsolete Bolt Action. Check your local club calendars and see what you have near you!

Yes, the Swiss and Swede are great. a lot of M1 and 1903's turn up too.

now that GP11 is harder to find, 4350 and a 150 FMJ shoots good too.

Poole

aim surplus is selling some schmidt's, get this, at 549dollars.
i remember at one time buying them for 69bucks.
aim is also selling the slings and muzzle protectors.
thank god i got hooked on them early and bought a ton of that swiss ammo. the cleaning kits were about 2bucks at the time, now about 20bucks.
i was too cheap to shoot the swiss ammo, ended up buying the brass and loading my own.

I also ended up buying a couple of the earlier versions

I stuck them some place, can't find them now, but they had a six round cardboard stripper clip thingy. pretty cool. the cased ammo came in a heavily waxed sealed cardboard container, i think you could have thrown it in a lake, come back later, and it would still be okay.

another little tidbit before i forget it. bill poole would probably know more than i. but memory seems to tell me the original swiss round, prior to
the one for the k31, was one of the ones looked at in designing the american service round.

pierre st marie makes a clamp on mount that works, among other things.
https://www.swissproductsusa.com/

going back to the original post, they got in that business as people at the time wanted the target diopter sights available in switzerland, but costly even then, plus the cost of getting them here.
from looking at the website, they ran with the idea.

Rubin ammunition was looked at, but in relation to the .30 for the Krag, not the .30/03.

The Ordnance Department sent Frankford Arsenal a box of sample rounds, obtained via the military attache in Paris, on April 29 1890. This included Swiss Rubin rounds, and Frankford was asked to make a batch of ammunition for experimental purposes based on these, for the proposed small calibre smokeless cartridge. They also tried other designs including "headless" (rimless) designs including Belgian Mauser ammunition, before the design which became the .30 Ball service cartridge was adopted in 1893.

Rubin's cartridges were also used in the development of Britain's .303.

for those with old eyes [img]https://www.badacetactical.com/products/no-drill-swiss-k31-scope-mount-low-profile[/img]
put one on my 1937 k31 easy install. several different handloads shoot moa or better 5 shot groups.
bangs 10" gong @300 9 out of 10.

I too use the Bad Ace Tactical mounts, although I use the one for LER scopes. I just couldn't resist loading these like the Swiss intended--only loaded via charger, never by removing the magazine.

For those interested: https://www.badacetactical.com/coll.../swiss-k31-scope-mount-ultra-low-profile

I got a 1931 K-31 in 2002 for $90 +12 FFL

I got a 1931 K-31 in 2004 for $80 private sale

I wrote down back then:

7.5mm Swiss, K-31, 284 brass sized with Lee die, CCI200

1) 168 gr Sierra .308 Match King

a) 42 gr IMR4895 ok, kinda wimpy
b) 45.5 gr IMR4895, ok, primer starting too flatten, 4" group open
sights

2) 189 gr cast w/gas check, .3095
a) 28 gr IMR4895, ok, 10" group open sights

Hard to close bolt could be OAL, and could be resizing problem. Guns dry
fires easily.

I remember there are weird names written on paper under the butt plates.

I can remember seeing the older SR 89/11s for $10.95 in the Sears catalog when I was a kid. The older rifles were looonnnnnnggggg old guns, and probably too heavy for a little guy like I used to be, but it sure caught my eye. Those were NOT K-31s and I seem to recall they weren't very strong in comparison to the newer rifles. They were pretty homely, too. I REALLY wanted an Argentine 1891 carbine, but I was just a little kid then.

All that said, you could buy all kinds of accessories and diopter sights and scope mounts, etc, from Graf & Sons of Mexico, MO a few years ago, they had all those items covered really well, AND ammo, too. For whatever reasons, Graf's was into the K-31s pretty heavily, I think they were the only source at the time.

Not cheap price anymore.