I've saw these but never really handled one much or gave much thought to them.
The straight pull bolt seems interesting. I would like to know your experiences with these.
How difficult are they to scope?
Would also like to know what you have hunted with them?

There are many different scope mounts available out there, covering the whole range of potential prices and quality. Most of the ones I am familiar with do not require any drilling or tapping of the receiver to mount them.

The best place to get good info on the rifles, and their quirks, advantages, disadvantages, etc. is one of the Swiss rifle forums which you can find by googling those words.

After having my K-31 scoped for a couple of years, I took off the scope and now use it without one. Generally speaking, I did not find the rifle handy enough to select over my many other rifles when I go to the field, so I haven't shot it at all for about 5 or 6 years now. It would be a good choice for a "vintage military rifles match", but as I don't shoot those matches I now keep the rifle mainly because it doesn't eat, so keeping it costs me nothing but a little space.

I do have another, a 115+ year old Swiss Martini which is also a very nice rifle, but I prefer other single shot actions to the Martini design, so seldom use it anymore either.

quote:

How difficult are they to scope?

You might find it interesting to learn to shoot them with the issues sights.

I still have 3 out of the 9 I had. The mount by St. Pierre Graphics that Graf and Sons sells works very well. These are accurate rifles and easy to load for. However they are cumbersome as a hunting rifle as said already. I have killed one doe with mine the only time I took it hunting.
Case length is very important with this round due to the action lock up. Trigger is great but the safety is a pain in the butt.

quote:

Originally posted by SR4759:

quote:

How difficult are they to scope?

You might find it interesting to learn to shoot them with the issues sights.

I would for sure shoot it with sights. but was still curious about scoping one.
wouldn't use one as a main hunting rifle. just something to tinker with.
Seems it could be a hog slayer

quote:

Originally posted by Jarrod:

quote:

Originally posted by SR4759:

quote:

How difficult are they to scope?

You might find it interesting to learn to shoot them with the issues sights.

I would for sure shoot it with sights. but was still curious about scoping one.
wouldn't use one as a main hunting rifle. just something to tinker with.
Seems it could be a hog slayer

I have never hunted hogs but I am thinking I would want a rifle with a faster safety than what is on the K31. Unless you are just stand hunting like when hunting deer and have time to take it off safety. That ring in the back is the safety and it is a pull turn kind of thing. I would take my 760 hog hunting before I ever thought about my K31's. BUT I would trust my K31 to a 300 yard shot just about any day of the week even with iron sights.

The K31 has a taper receiver. Small end at the front.

I love mine. Great trigger, great accuracy, and a deer killer for sure. the safety takes a bit to get used to and length of pull is pretty short but it doesn't keep me from leaving it in the safe. Sure wish I'd have bought more of them when you could get them for under $200.

Also the scope mount will keep your scope 3/4 inch off center if memory serves me. Best is to sight it in that way so it stays the same windage wise at all distances. Mine likes several different loads and even finding one to work with the iron sights was not very hard. Not sure how hard it is to get brass now. I got several hundred pieces when Graf and Sons had their own head stamped batch made.

you can make the brass from 284 win brass.
the scope is off set to the left of the rifle,and the rifle does have a long reciever.
but they are accurate and powerfull enough.
i want to get one of mine set up with a red dot sight set in the front of the reciever.
this should negate a lot of the issues, and give me a much easier package to deal with all around.

Lamar I had one set up with a scout scope set up but it did not work well for me.

The 7.5x55 is in my opinion the best of the standard 30 cals. It is almost identical to the wildcat 30-284 Win. Very easy to work up an accurate, low SD load for. The Swiss K-31 is a very accurate rifle, and since the Swiss pioneered non corrosive primeing, most have good bores. They are a bit unhandy for hunting, but lots of fun for informal target shooting, and almost unbeatable for military rifle benchrest or position compition.

Don't know if it is still being held, but at one time European nations held a military rifle competition. Typical winners were the Swiss with their 7.5x55 K-11, K31 straight pulls or the Swedes with their 6.5x55 M96 rifles.

Year or so ago I sold my K31 to a fellow member of range we shoot. Buyer was impressed with its accuracy with just its iron sights. Curious as to how accurate the K31 was, he will scope the rifle, perhaps using a St. Pierre mount.

LOL, after shooting the scoped K31, he had to admit it was more accurate than over 1/2 of his rifles that cost a heck of a lot more. For the rifle's performance to impress him, says a lot for the Swiss K31. He was just fascinated by its design and care of manufacture of the rifle and darn impressed with the 7.5x55 cartridge.

I like the GP11 so much that I bought 5k berdan primers. That brass is just too good to scrap.

At least until 1982, Swiss male citizens of military age were required to qualify annually with their military rifles wherever they lived in the world.

In Calgary, Alberta, there were a fair number of Swiss who needed to qualify annually, so the Swiss government would fly in multiple cases of ammo for them every year. They would shoot their own K-31 rifles.

We of the King's Own Calgary Regiment Military Rifle Association used to share the KOCR Palomino Range at Sarcee Barracks with them so they could do their qualification practices and qualifying. The Palomino range had firing lines at 300, 400, 500, 600, 800, 900, and 1,000 yards. We used to shoot our full-bore target rifles on the Palomino range all day every Sunday of the year, including all winter.

Also a couple of times annualy we would hold matches against the Swiss. They would shoot their same K-31s and military ammo against our single-shot national-match-prepared 7.62x51 NATO bolt rifles, most of which had custom or match actions by various producers from all over the world, with Krieger and similar quality barrels. Many of our rifles had actions such as the Paramount, the Swing, the Sportco, Musgrave, 40-X, Greunig, Tanner, and so on.

Both their rifles and ours were shot with micrometer adjustable receiver sights at all distances, as scopes weren't allowed in either our national matches or their qualifying shoots.

We were really impressed, as they could shoot those K-31s just as accurately as we could shoot our national match rifles, at any distance. (We were shooting NATO issue military ball.)

Some of our guys wanted to buy K-31s, but in 1982 they were priced well over $1,000 Canadian, and darned hard to find at any price. So, I never knew one of our guys to actually own one if he wasn't a Swiss citizen.

When I moved to the 'States in 1982, they were almost impossible to find here too, and were about the same price if you did find one for sale.

Then in the early 1990s, Simpson's in Illinois got a few surplus K-31s in and sold them in a heart-beat for $399 U.S each. That's when I got the one I have now.

Within a year afterward, the flood of them into the U.S. began and the price dropped significantly.

But whatever the price, for "across the course" highpower shooting they are a really good rifle. They're capable of national match-level accuracy and not at all difficult to keep shooting that way.

a scope out in the middle would be a bit unwieldy.
i'm looking at just a red dot similar to a handgun set-up.
i have allready bubba'd one of my rifles,so drilling and tapping the front of the reciever for a rail isn't a big deal.
i'm also going to cut the barell off at the front sight and remove the rear sight.
the stock is allready thinned and lightened,so a little sighting help [the red dot] will make it a pretty handy/accurate woods rifle.

quote:

Originally posted by huffmanite:
Don't know if it is still being held, but at one time European nations held a military rifle competition. Typical winners were the Swiss with their 7.5x55 K-11, K31 straight pulls or the Swedes with their 6.5x55 M96 rifles.

Year or so ago I sold my K31 to a fellow member of range we shoot. Buyer was impressed with its accuracy with just its iron sights. Curious as to how accurate the K31 was, he will scope the rifle, perhaps using a St. Pierre mount.

LOL, after shooting the scoped K31, he had to admit it was more accurate than over 1/2 of his rifles that cost a heck of a lot more. For the rifle's performance to impress him, says a lot for the Swiss K31. He was just fascinated by its design and care of manufacture of the rifle and darn impressed with the 7.5x55 cartridge.

Still got. With a scope and handloads......it's plenty accurate!


.

Many tales about the Swiss K31 may sound exagerated, considering we're talking about a "battle rifle". However, having owned 2 of them, I can vouch for the veracity of these comments. I still own a SIG signed walnut stocked K31 made in 1938. It is stamped with a "P" (privatisiert = privatized), meaning the soldier it was issued was allowed to take it home when discharged (at age 35) and which, no doubt, explains the rifle's pristine condition. I mounted a fixed 6X scope in a German steel EAW side mount (actually more expansive than the rifle itself. The already mentioned St-Pierre mount is a dural copy sold at 1/2 price and carries a good reputation). With handloads (.308 168 SMK and N 140) it averages around 2.5 cm for 5 shots at 100 meters (.8 MOA)until last week, when it shot its very best of 5 into 0.9 cm (.3 MOA). Here are a few pics of rifle and groups.

Great rifle and Great shooting Andre!

I like mine with a scout scope:

Andre -

A question and a comment....

Which direction is the extracted brass ejected after firing? I do not recall whether it is to the right or more or less straight up. With the scope mount in your pictures, would that cause the brass to bounce of the inside of the scope mount? If it does, does that dent up the fired brass?

The comment...With that scope mount, I see the thumb slot in the action for pressing cartridges out of the stripper clips into the magazine is covered by the mount. Am I seeing that correctly?

It has been some years now since I have fired mine, but if I recall correctly, both of those conditions caused by the scope mount contributed to my eventually deciding to use mine only with iron sights. I could have used a scout scope mount, but I prefer the irons to any scout scope. Nothing wrong with a scout scope, Just personal preference.

quote:

Originally posted by Alberta Canuck:
I could have used a scout scope mount, but I prefer the irons to any scout scope. Nothing wrong with a scout scope, Just personal preference.

That must mean your eyes are still in good shape.
Old age, snap shooting, scout mount. roger

Alberta Cannuck,

Normally, the rifle ekjects straight up. It still does with my scope mounted, provided I pull back the bolt handle with sufficient vigor (if pulled slowly, the case hits the scope and drops back in the ejection port). True, even forcibly ejected, my brass sometimes bounces off the scope belly ; jams are rare though. My brass doesn't get dings but I placed a little piece of scotch tape under the scope to prevent scratching the tube.

I never tried to use stripper clips with scope mounted but just did as per your suggestion. Presently, my rear scope ring overlaps the right slot and the stripper sits askew, allowing only the pushing down of 1-2 rounds ; not practical thus. However, the culprit is the left lateral flange where (classic) scopes halves are screwed together. Rings screwed together at the top (à la Warne) have round sides which should not lie in the way.

quote:

Originally posted by Andre Mertens:
Many tales about the Swiss K31 may sound exagerated, considering we're talking about a "battle rifle". However, having owned 2 of them, I can vouch for the veracity of these comments. I still own a SIG signed walnut stocked K31 made in 1938. It is stamped with a "P" (privatisiert = privatized), meaning the soldier it was issued was allowed to take it home when discharged (at age 35) and which, no doubt, explains the rifle's pristine condition. I mounted a fixed 6X scope in a German steel EAW side mount (actually more expansive than the rifle itself. The already mentioned St-Pierre mount is a dural copy sold at 1/2 price and carries a good reputation). With handloads (.308 168 SMK and N 140) it averages around 2.5 cm for 5 shots at 100 meters (.8 MOA)until last week, when it shot its very best of 5 into 0.9 cm (.3 MOA). Here are a few pics of rifle and groups.

Some of those targets look like something that would be shot with some of these new fangled fancy rifles