I have a K-31 Swiss rifle in my collection, and am looking for brass I can reform to shoot in it since Norma is rather expensive and not easy to find in the USA. I shoot several other military rifles and have brass for several of those. I also have dies and wonder what powders, primers and bullets work well. I prefer to use common Remington, Winchester or other common makes of brass. I am new to this forum since we just bought a compouter.

I use only .284 Winchester brass reformed. It has different internal dimensions, so work up separate from other brass. My first batch of 50 has probably 8 or 10 loads through it, only cracked a few necks. I did anneal after initial reforming.

Use a good sizing die lube.

I have had great luck with the PRVI that Graf's sells. I loaded a single case 14 times at the range one afternoon. I could neck size about four times before needing to FL size and trim it. I anneal every fourth reload, and it has gone 20 reloads before I started to see any neck splits.

PRVI brass is excellent and not expansive to boot. I'm using it in 7,5x55 and .30-06 and am quite satisfied.

Thanks everybody. I don't live far from Grafs in Mexico, Missouri, so I stopped by their store and bought a bag of 7.5 x 55 Swiss brass. Paid about $50 for a 100 of them. They look pretty good, but I haven't tried reloading any of them yet. Now I need to dig out some .308 bullets and look up some loads for it. Does this rifle prefer light or heavy bullets?

What is the proper case length dimension for the 7.5 x 55 Swiss brass? The Norma's I have reloaded and fired once, and the new PRVI brass I have all measure about 2.180 inches in length. But my Hornady book says to trim to 2.140 inches. That seems like a big difference. Which is correct?

2.14 is for the pre 1911 types, real old measurement stuff for GP-90/23 ammo. The cases were/are 54.5mm(2.146") length. While the measure for GP-11 would be 55.5mm(2.185") A lot of people use the 2.180, plenty go longer. Some much longer. With a chamber cast, you'll find that you can probably go past 2.2"best-o-luck

quote:

...Does this rifle prefer light or heavy bullets?

the throat on the K31 is short. the GP11 bullet has a secant ogive. you will have trouble with heavier bullets not intruding into the case. hornady amax bullats would be a good choice. I had good luck with SMKs.

These gages are what you need to find the TRUE case lenght of your chamber. The 30 cal gage will work for any 30 cal case except the 30-30 as the brass is so thin in neck. Basicly a matter of triming about half the neck off one of your cases,putting the gage half way into the case and then putting the case into the chamber and it will come out with the True case lenght.
http://www.sinclairintl.com/.a...-Chamber-Length-Gage

PS: to my last post. If you are going to reload for the K31 you will need to get the Redding FL sizer die as it is made for the K31 chamber. These is a big difference between the 1911 chamber and the K31 chamber. The K31 chamber is much larger at the shoulder and if you try to size it with a 1911 die (Lee or RCBS) the shoulder is pushed in and forward and the case might not fit back in the K31 chamber and is over worked. The cheaped way to go is to get the Redding sizer and the Lee die set and uses the lee seater die as it works for both the 1911 and K31. If you are now loading for a 1911 all that you would is the redding sizer. The reason the K31 has the bigger chamber is that the Swis developed a new MG and found that the 1911 chamber was too tight to work and carried the new chamber over to the K31 rifle. GP 11 ammo will work in both guns but come out with different shoulders. The vol. of a GP 11 case fired in a K31 goes from less than a 308Win to more than a 30-06. If you look at the Lapua reloading data page they they list it as 7.5x55 K31.

I already have a set of 7.5 x 55 Swiss dies from Hornady. And I bought a box of 20 Norma cases several years ago when I bought the dies. I ran them through the full lenght sizer die before loading and firing them and didn't see any unusual stretching or anything. And the new cases I bought just a few days ago appear to be identical in dimensions to the resized Norma cases. So I am assuming that the Hornady dies are of the correct dimensions? I loaded some test rounds with 165 Grain Speer bullets tonight and from 36.0 to 42.0 grains of IMR-4064 to see what will happen as I check for pressure signs before advancing to the larger charge weights. Actually I have no idea which model of the Swiss rifle I have. The only number I can find on it besides the serial numbers is a 19 and a letter D on the left side. All of the serial numbers match. The bolt handle knobs appears to be made out some sort of brown plastic and original looking. So I was assuming that it was a later model rifle. There isn't any manufacturer name anywhere. Anybody know where I can find more information on this rifle?

Don, go to www.swissrifles.com and find lots of stuff, like how to date your serial number to a production date. You've most likely got a 1911 type action with the "bakelite knobs" and it is not a 1931 type. Don, you're good to go unless the rifle has some odd features; like a 12 round mag, a 3 groove, 31" barrel or other? You do have the "right" die as it works for any of the half dozen or so 7.5 Swiss guns from the first model 1889 through the final model 1957.The 31 specific die is looser in the forward shoulder area. It moves the shoulder wall junction area inward approx.005" less than the regular die will move the wall. Extra case life from the 31 specific die may or may not pay off. Plenty people say they've 20 or more reload cycles on their brass and regular dies. I can only say that I've only got over a dozen cycles on mine. I did have one lot of Norma brass give up after only 8 cycles. My other lots of Norma brass are close to doubling that. Don, I'll predict that good things will be found around 37 grns and when you move up in weight at about 44grns you should find another node. Play around on both sides, up and down, of the 37 and 44 numbers by some tenths. Play with the COLs too.
Annealing brass regularly will do a lot to lengthen brass life. best-o-luck

Thanks for the link to the Swissrifles web site. After looking through the information and serial number links I found that I have a Model 1911 built in 1917. So that clears up some issues for me. Now I can forge forward in developing some test loads for my rifle and see if I can hit a deer with them. Or a target or two. My rifle doesn't have any odd parts or anything else on it. I am just going to have to figure out how to use the sites that start graduations from 300 meters and go up from there, at the close range of 100 yards that I do most of my target shooting.

Don, you can read there at SwissRifles and reread often and still find more info. Do you have a short K model or a long G model. Instead of the six-o-clock hold on the pie plate, think, hold the bottom of two plates or bottom of a figure eight. The 'odd quip' was so that(in case you or someone recognize an odd model 1889)no full power loads go through a weaker action. Look for Guisan at swissrifles. Email him for taller sights. Or keep searching and you'll find a few of Parashooter's pic's. Things like a homemade pianowire front site, a lefty adapter, or etc. Some of the 1911-type long rifles are passed as carbines. One sure giveaway sign is that the rear site for a carbine should slide to 1500 meters and not 2000,IIRC.best

It must be the short K model because it has the sites that go to 1500 meters. Also I discovered through the Swissrifles web site that I happened to have bought what I thought was a mean looking bayonet when I was a kid back before 1970 at a flea market that fits this rifle. Its a long blade with teeth or saw blades on the top of it. And it slips right on this 1911 Model Swiss rifle.

Nice score on the bayo. I bet you got it for cheap back then(under 5?), not unlike my scoring the first K-11(under 20) in 1968. My bayos came much later and cost much more. FWIW, I think I remember that a bayonet hole is 1mm larger in the long barrel's bayo. It would probably be obvious if the fit wasn't right, Swiss engineering and all.best