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Swiss Target rifles based on Swiss Milsurp action types
- Thread starter diopter
- Start date
Eaglelord17
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Sault Ste. Marie
Schmidt-Rubins are beautifully made Swiss instruments, just like their watches, and incredibly accurate. That being said, the action is, please forgive me, the ugliest classic factory action I've ever seen. It looks like a cross between a veterinary instrument and a plumbing tool. Definitely designed solely for function, not looks.
The thing that always nags at my mind about them: Given the experience of rifles like the Ross, I can't help but wonder how they would have fared in the mud of Flanders. The examples we see today have never been to war. They've been meticulously maintained by highly-trained and dedicated servicemen. I can't help but wonder how long they would have functioned in the hands of hastily-trained conscripts under arduous and filthy conditions. Luckily for them and us, we never had to find out.
They wouldn't be used by hastily trained conscripts at any point. Unlike the rest of the world the Swiss figured out how to raise a effective and competent military which was always prepared for battle. Literally their whole population is trained and prepared so there is no one to hastily conscript. They also didn't need to manufacture a whole ton of rifles in the event of war as everyone was already equipped with their own rifle, so their was no need to worry about degrading manufacturing conditions on the whole weapon. And for ammo they literally had a massive stockpile of high quality ammo, which would have taken a while to run out as they had a minimum of one crate per soldier in the soldiers home with their rifle, on top of all that they had in reserves. The Swiss were prepared and able to fight with their rifles, and I am sure their strategy would have done excellently in the event of a war.
There is a reason why bolt action rifles had action covers, or if their wasn't a official cover people would do things like wrap rags around the action etc. None of them fair particularly well in really terrible conditions.
My good friend has a single shot Martin Henry in 7.5x55 swiss. They brought it with them from Switzerland when they immigrated in the early 80s. I have fired it and it is absolutely beautiful to shoot. The double set trigger is the lightest I've ever used. Deadly accurate. Thanks for posting these pics.
