The soldier who put it there would want it that way.Gun enthusiasts take part in a shooting competition at a club outside Zurich. And if you find an ID tag under the buttplate, leave it. It’s an eminently useful rifle that’s finally getting the recognition it deserves. The K31 is built to a standard that you no longer see in military small arms, or in much of anything else for that matter. Something really nice will go for twice that, and a veritable jewel can cost well over $1,000. A rifle in good condition will run around $400. Today, the sterling qualities of the K31 are finally being recognized. The United States produced 5.5 million M1 rifles during World War II. The Swiss remained neutral through World War II, as even Der Adolf was not crazy enough to invade them.īecause the Swiss have a comparatively small army, only 528,000 were made, which is piddling for a military rifle. Second, and even stranger, it’s quite probable that the K31 never fired a shot in anger. I can’t think of anything better, and probably the only rifle that could match it in World War II was the M1 Garand. The K31 carries with it two great ironies: It was not only the last military bolt-action to be designed, but it was quite likely the best. These little pieces of paper contained the name and birth date of the soldier who had been issued the rifle, his unit, and the town in which he lived. The Swiss had a practice of slipping ID tags there. K31 stocks were made of either walnut or beech, and beneath their buttplates sometimes lurks a surprise for the person who comes to own one. I can’t think of anything else that will match it. I understand that it’s common for K31s to shoot minute-of-angle groups with iron sights and standard military ammo. Its effective range is 540 yards, and it was/is exceptionally accurate for an issue military rifle of that period or this. The Swiss have always placed a premium on precise shooting, and the K31 was true to that tradition. The action could be disassembled in seconds, and without tools. The safety was a ring at the rear of the bolt, and it functioned both as a safety and as a cocker/decocker. You hauled back on a barrel-shaped handle on the right side of the action, slammed it forward, and you were all ready to shoot whoever was dumb enough to invade Switzerland. It would keep its place until 1958, when it was replaced by a powerful semi-auto assault rifle designated the PE-57.īeing a straight pull, the K31 was much faster to operate than a conventional bolt action. The new rifle was an immediate hit, and came into general issue in 1933. M118 7.62mm sniper round, except that the current version of the M118 appeared in 1993, and causes you to wonder if maybe we shouldn’t hire the Swiss to design our weapons. It fired a 174-grain bullet at 2560 fps, which makes it the identical twin of the U.S. It was a highly advanced round that was designed to work either through rifles or machine guns. The cartridge for which the K31 was chambered was designated the GP11, or 7.5×55. The K31 was issued with a single detachable six-round magazine, and soldiers were expected to reload it from stripper clips. The barrel was free-floating, and the trigger was excellent for a military arm. Its receiver is shorter, and stronger than that of the Schmidt-Rubin, and the rifle weighs just under 9 pounds, unloaded, which for the time was relatively light. K stands for “karabiner,” and although it looks like a carbine alongside its predecessor, its barrel is actually 26 inches long, which is 2 inches longer than the Springfield 03. The K31 was a vast improvement over the old Schmidt-Rubin. It was a replacement for the elderly, cumbersome Schmidt-Rubin straight pull, and is sometimes referred to as the Schmidt-Rubin K31, but that is erroneous, and neither of those gentlemen had anything to do with it, both being dead at the time. It was designed in 1930 at the Swiss Arsenal in Bern, and the first test guns were given to soldiers in 1931. The K31 was probably the last bolt-action rifle to be issued to an army. So, as I said, I ran across a Swiss K31 straight-pull military rifle, which I had never seen before, and since I’ve seen just about every gun before, it was intriguing, so I did some research, and it became even more intriguing.