I was in Switzerland this summer for Schützenfest. While I was in Zürich, my friend took me to a gun store in the old part of the city. On a rack was 3 very nice rifles: a SIG550 Sniper, a SAN Advance standard rifle, and this bad boy:
The SAN Advance, a target rifle in .223 made by Swiss Arms that uses SIG550 magazines, and this rifle were both on my very short "buy on sight" list. I never thought I would see both of them together. I had to think about it, so I put the SAN Advance on hold and went to Schützenfest. From the title of the thread you can guess what happened, I decided to buy the Zfk-55 instead. The SAN Advance went to a fellow club member with the right of first refusal.
I paid for the rifle, and then negotiated the shipment of it back to Canada along with a couple of other rifles I bought / was given (I ####ing LOVE Switzerland).
I saw a couple of the earlier K31/42 and K31/43 rifles at a gun show a week later, along with some .22 cal Schmidt-Rubins. These will be acquisitions for the 2020 Schützenfest.
Some information on the rifle:
The Swiss found the earlier attempts at converting the K31 into a sniper rifle to be flawed. The low power, folding, offset scopes, although totally ####ing neat from a milsurp collector standpoint, were problematic on a practical level. The offset scope was difficult to sight in, as distance changes would also change the horizontal point of impact from where it was originally zeroed. The K31 action, as many of you know, requires an offset scope as the action violently ejects the spent casing straight up. Swiss engineers came up with a novel way of solving this issue: they canted the action 15° clockwise. The bolt was bent to remain 90° to the action, and the magazine well was also canted to match the new alignment of the action. This allowed a scope to be mounted along the centerline of the rifle and the spent casing to be ejected without worries of them impacting against the scope.
Other changes included a bipod which was mounted to the front of the receiver, a heavy barrel, and a muzzle brake. The muzzle brake seems to have been heavily influenced by the German's FG-42 Automatic Rifle.
The scope is a Kern 3.5 x 22 with an "effective" range of 800m.
The scope reticle is similar to the german style, with a vertical point and two horizontal points. It differs from other German scopes I have handled in that the point of the vertical line is rounded at its tip instead of a sharp point.
Please check out this gallery for more detailed pictures:
https://imgur.com/a/V4T48#0
The SAN Advance, a target rifle in .223 made by Swiss Arms that uses SIG550 magazines, and this rifle were both on my very short "buy on sight" list. I never thought I would see both of them together. I had to think about it, so I put the SAN Advance on hold and went to Schützenfest. From the title of the thread you can guess what happened, I decided to buy the Zfk-55 instead. The SAN Advance went to a fellow club member with the right of first refusal.
I paid for the rifle, and then negotiated the shipment of it back to Canada along with a couple of other rifles I bought / was given (I ####ing LOVE Switzerland).
I saw a couple of the earlier K31/42 and K31/43 rifles at a gun show a week later, along with some .22 cal Schmidt-Rubins. These will be acquisitions for the 2020 Schützenfest.
Some information on the rifle:
The Swiss found the earlier attempts at converting the K31 into a sniper rifle to be flawed. The low power, folding, offset scopes, although totally ####ing neat from a milsurp collector standpoint, were problematic on a practical level. The offset scope was difficult to sight in, as distance changes would also change the horizontal point of impact from where it was originally zeroed. The K31 action, as many of you know, requires an offset scope as the action violently ejects the spent casing straight up. Swiss engineers came up with a novel way of solving this issue: they canted the action 15° clockwise. The bolt was bent to remain 90° to the action, and the magazine well was also canted to match the new alignment of the action. This allowed a scope to be mounted along the centerline of the rifle and the spent casing to be ejected without worries of them impacting against the scope.
Other changes included a bipod which was mounted to the front of the receiver, a heavy barrel, and a muzzle brake. The muzzle brake seems to have been heavily influenced by the German's FG-42 Automatic Rifle.
The scope is a Kern 3.5 x 22 with an "effective" range of 800m.
The scope reticle is similar to the german style, with a vertical point and two horizontal points. It differs from other German scopes I have handled in that the point of the vertical line is rounded at its tip instead of a sharp point.
Please check out this gallery for more detailed pictures:
https://imgur.com/a/V4T48#0
