Looking at Joe Salter's Canadian Sales website last night. He has a lot of 60 Swiss K-31's for sale, very good to excellent condition. Asking price $250 each, seems like a reasonable deal to me if any members are looking for one.
Swiss K-31's
- Thread starter Mike Webb
- Start date
midnightpossum
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- East Kootneys
I purchased one of those... the stock was rough... heavy blue wear... but WOW... mint like bore and a great shooter..... you should get 2 for that price
I own a nice K31 but I reload for all my collection of rifles
so ammo is never a problem for me.I believe Swiss GP11 surplus ammo does surface every once in a while. Privi & S&B also have commercial ammo IIRC. Put a WTB ad in the EE & you will get some replies.
George
I own a nice K31 but I reload for all my collection of rifles
I believe Swiss GP11 surplus ammo does surface every once in a while. Privi & S&B also have commercial ammo IIRC. Put a WTB ad in the EE & you will get some replies.
George
What might be the cost of commercial ammo, and how often do we see them in stores?
Those K31s may just be the last batch left in Canada. They used to be pretty common in gun stores and on many of the banner dealers sites. Even P&S doesn't have any left.
The K31s were never built in huge quantities. Switzerland just isn't that populated. To my knowledge, they never exported any, other than after they were surplussed.
The only thing that makes them awkward is the cartridge. There just isn't anything else that the case can be easily made from. If you buy a rifle, make sure you buy lots of brass to reload. If you don't reload, expect to run out of surplus ammunition anytime soon. In another year, it will be a $1/round in 480 round cases. More when bought in 10 packs.
Another issue with the round is it has never been a popular hunting round. Maybe not even in Switzerland.
If you do buy the milsurp carton of 480, pick up 1000 Berdan primers so you can reload them or at least find someone else to do it for you. You will also need a special decapping tool. It's to bad Berdan primers are so expensive. They make it very expensive to reload Berdan primed brass. On the other hand, The Swiss cases are make of excellent material and will handle several reloads. With proper care and milspec pressures, they should last as long as the bore in the rifle does.
The K31s were never built in huge quantities. Switzerland just isn't that populated. To my knowledge, they never exported any, other than after they were surplussed.
The only thing that makes them awkward is the cartridge. There just isn't anything else that the case can be easily made from. If you buy a rifle, make sure you buy lots of brass to reload. If you don't reload, expect to run out of surplus ammunition anytime soon. In another year, it will be a $1/round in 480 round cases. More when bought in 10 packs.
Another issue with the round is it has never been a popular hunting round. Maybe not even in Switzerland.
If you do buy the milsurp carton of 480, pick up 1000 Berdan primers so you can reload them or at least find someone else to do it for you. You will also need a special decapping tool. It's to bad Berdan primers are so expensive. They make it very expensive to reload Berdan primed brass. On the other hand, The Swiss cases are make of excellent material and will handle several reloads. With proper care and milspec pressures, they should last as long as the bore in the rifle does.
I agree with all of the above except for the BOLDED part. 284 Win brass is almost a perfect base with which to make 7.5X55. Prvi makes boxer-primed 7.5X55 brass and Tradex (and others) sell it. Lee and everyone else makes dies, it uses common 308 bullets, and is easy to load!
If you can find some GP11, buy it - it is excellent. Do not discard it - it can be reloaded, like any berdan-primed brass cases can.
This is probably the last large batch in Canada and I would have bought another, except I wanted a walnut stock and these are all birch. I might kick myself later, but I have one in birch and don't see a need for two.
I bought one of them a couple of weeks ago and it's a walnut stock.
