1869/71 Swiss Vetterli

[Hawkshadow]

Here are some pictures of an 1869/71 Swiss Vetterli that I recently came across. From my quick research, this is a very interesting rifle from a turning point in firearms development.

The Swiss Vetterli was the first bolt-action repeating rifle on the European battlefield. It incorporated elements of its design more commonly seen in Winchester lever rifles being developed at the time and featured a tubular magazine, side loading gate, and lifter-loading mechanism.

It is chambered for a .41 Swiss Rimfire round (10.4x38mm) that is essentially extinct, although converting to centre-fire is possible.

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This rifle is in very good shape overall considering its age, and sports many crisp and clean stampings.

The biggest valuation draw-back on this particular rifle is that somebody etched in a number to the side of the barrel. Bubba even made a mistake and did a number twice..

Does anyone have any input on valuation? They don't seem to be exceedingly common and it's been difficult to find comparables. Would converting it to centre-fire hurt or help the value?

 

[Eaglelord17]

300-450$ or so. Personally if it was me I wouldn't buy it with the SN scratched in simply because I know a better example will turn up sooner or later. They are relatively common (definitely the most common Vetterli rifle out there) and they do turn up fairly regularly.

If your looking at converting it to centerfire I recommend checking if the bolt is matching to the rifle. If it is I would buy a sporter (they turn up fairly regularly as well and generally relatively cheaply, there is even one on the EE right now for 150$) and convert the bolt on that and just use it in your standard rifle (keeping the matching bolt original).

Still a nice rifle, I hope you enjoy it.

 

[Fargone4sure]

Value is tough on these, but somewhere in the neiborhood of $350. They usually are very accurate, but the bore on yours looks a bit rough.
As you mentioned thy can be converted to center fire, I've done 3 or 4 of them. Brass is usually made from 8mm Lebel brass. Not hard to do, but involves a few steps. Correct bullets are difficult to come by, but you can use Hornady 44 cal cowboy bullets, which are readily available. But in order to cycle properly with such a short bullet, you need to have over length brass.
Lee sells reloading dies. A number of smokeless powders work well in it.

 

[salon_1928]

Having the cleaning rod is nice. Keep a lookout for a bayonet!

 

[mikerock]

Very nice rifle! Get a beater/sporter and use its bolt for a centerfire conversion. I got my hands on 6 rounds for my rifle but none of them went off, not surprising considering they are probbaly 70-100 year old rimfire cartridges.

 

[diopter]

Get some grease into that barrel and leave it in there a few weeks.
Use a .44 cal nylon brush to coat the rifling with the grease. Wipe it out with a patch and try some Wipeout foam cleaner.

They are real pleasure to shoot, once you get the brass made up. Loaded rounds need to be 2.2" overall length to feed from tube mag.
I'm using 44 cal 430gr bullets.

 

[swiss1911]

As a Schmidt Rubin collector, it is always nice to have one of these in the collection. I have a Waffenfabrik Bern 69/71 and a bayonet. They are great historical pieces and i would only convert to center fire if it was in real bad shape or sportorized.

 

[Hawkshadow]

Thanks for your responses and messages. Unfortunately I don't own this rifle - someone brought it to me for identification and hoping I could give them a value and I thought others here may enjoy it. It is absolutely a beautiful rifle that has survived the years fairly well.