K31

Wow. Lucky guy. Did the diopter come with?

It did! Quick story...I dragged my wife begrudgingly into CSC with me. She's not anti or anything but she's just not anywhere as "into it" as I am (she's warming up though...). Anyway, we kind of check over a couple guns on the floor and one of the staff comes over and says that they have a nicer grade gun behind the counter. We go over to check it out and my wife blurts "it has to be that one!"

Those pics disguise a lot of filth BTW. The mag had a layer of encrusted muck on the spring and at the bottom of the mag. I cleaned that all up and it's nice and nimble again. The bore looked really good but had some gunk it it as well. I've spent the better part of the day crawling over the thing millimetre by millimetre. I'm going to find a Youtube vid tomorrow that shows a detailed bolt disassembly and I'm going to strip and clean that as well. I've done some research and this gun was made in 1939. I get the impression that is was either well cared for or left for years. The labels on the fore stock are from shooting competitions put there by the previous owner. I want to research them some more but they look like they date from the late 80's till 1993. I wonder if the gun has sat idle since then? I like the look of them - they remind me of a steamer trunk!

Hey, where can I get ammo for this thing?!
 
Nice.

Labels mean the rifle passed inspection for not being altered to "improve" performance by altering it from mil-spec of sear engagement and trigger weight which might cause it to be unsafe on a shooting range. It also was meant for weeding out rifles that would be closer to the Match rifle category shooting in the Mil-spec category.

Stock seems to be walnut colored stained beech wood with a Hämmerli front sight tunnel soldered to the barrel.
Seen a few just like that with the Canadian Swiss Rifle Clubs shooters.
 
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That's great, the sight is worth a pile and will make it shoot.

Big Bear, Optics have been tested against proper irons (aperture rear) and it was found that a 4x - 6x approximated what you could do with irons on a TR.
 
You know the term "diopter" is a misnomer for a sight. A diopter is a measurement of lens strength and while a sight might have one of these built in or added it is not the sight it's self. You may search on the web and a bunch of pictures will come up of "diopter" sights but this is still wrong. A name the Europeans dreamt up I imagine. Anschutz, MEC etc simply call them sights, never diopters that I can find, for example. Using this name confuses simple TR guys like me that have always dealt with lenses.
 
"Diopter", term used in Europe for adjustable iris sight that can change the "depth of field" as you change iris size to get better focus.
The micrometer rear sight holds the adjustable iris, so they just call the unit a diopter.
 
Question for you K31 experts: any warnings regarding dissembling and cleaning the bolt? Mine is pretty gunky. I've checked out a couple of Youtube videos and the bolt pretty much falls together - beautifully simple.
 
Question for you K31 experts: any warnings regarding dissembling and cleaning the bolt? Mine is pretty gunky. I've checked out a couple of Youtube videos and the bolt pretty much falls together - beautifully simple.

Watch diopter's own video on Youtube - K31 bolt disassembly and assembly - no words, just a simple watch this and do likewise.

Don't forget to use a light grease - NO Swiss firearms are oiled.

tac
www.swissrifles.com
 
Any advice re: installing that clamp-on no-smith mount?

Yes.

There is an astonishingly small amount of play in the location on the K31 receiver, and I mean small - like maybe a 1 to 1.5mm at the most. When tightening down on the clamp screw, make sure that you have the mount pushed as far forward as possible.

That's it.

tac
 
Just took my new 1937 k31 out to see how it shoots. Wow. What a beautiful rifle; trigger is so smooth and there is very little recoil. I'm a convert! This may become a hunting rifle for me.
 
You may consider keeping the stock and buying a new hunting stock for converting.

By the way, is it ture later post-war K31 is better than earlier pre-war ones? on terms of steel quality, stock quality, etc.
 
Watch diopter's own video on Youtube - K31 bolt disassembly and assembly - no words, just a simple watch this and do likewise.

Don't forget to use a light grease - NO Swiss firearms are oiled.

tac
www.swissrifles.com

Completed all of the above and it cycles like buttah...

I'm really knocked out by the quality of the engineering and craftsmanship of this thing - beyond my expectations...
 
I'm really knocked out by the quality of the engineering and craftsmanship of this thing - beyond my expectations...

One of the reasons these things are one of, if not the best value for money milsurps out there.
Just wait until you see how the GP11 shoots. Then calculate cost per round. You certainly can't reload for the price of it.
 
You may consider keeping the stock and buying a new hunting stock for converting.

By the way, is it ture later post-war K31 is better than earlier pre-war ones? on terms of steel quality, stock quality, etc.

Nope. You are having your chain jerked.

Walnut has the edge on beech, but I have high dollar furniture made of both woods. The same goes for the stocks on the K31 - pre-44, usually walnut unless replaced by beech. Post-44 usually beech unless replaced by old stocks of walnut. The iffy-alloyed composition of SOME 1944 operating rods was due to a wartime shortage of chromium, I'd bet that most had been replaced way before you ever clapped eyes on one. In any case, IF the highly unlikely event occurs that you have such an op rod that has developed a crack in the lug that engages in the cam track of the bolt, then around $35 will get you a new one from Guisan.

tacYou choose.


tac
 
What/who is that Guisan?



Nope. You are having your chain jerked.

Walnut has the edge on beech, but I have high dollar furniture made of both woods. The same goes for the stocks on the K31 - pre-44, usually walnut unless replaced by beech. Post-44 usually beech unless replaced by old stocks of walnut. The iffy-alloyed composition of SOME 1944 operating rods was due to a wartime shortage of chromium, I'd bet that most had been replaced way before you ever clapped eyes on one. In any case, IF the highly unlikely event occurs that you have such an op rod that has developed a crack in the lug that engages in the cam track of the bolt, then around $35 will get you a new one from Guisan.

tacYou choose.


tac
 
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