Swiss rifles

[CLASSIC12]

A friend took me to a gentleman who had just celebrated his 90th birthday and decided it was time to let go of his weapons

So I was asked to help him evaluate and move them

There was a SIG P210 from 1980 (private version in 9mm), a Hämmerli 215 (.22lr), a Röhm RG 14 (.22lr), a Belgian revolver, (he bought all of those) and a Walther P38 in .30 Luger / 7.65 mm Parabellum (I bought this one).

And a few Swiss rifles, a Schmidt-Rubin 96/11, two 1911 carbines and two 1931 carbines

96/11

K11

K31

Some had name tags under the buttplate

I’m not sure what we’ll do with the riffles. LGS typically pay $ 100 for 96/11 and K11 and around $ 200.- for K31 here in Switzerland.

 

[bob1956]

I’d like the bayonet

 

[lamarw]

Those are some sweet looking older Swiss rifles. I only have one in my accumulation of firearms, and it is a decent older Swiss Vetterli in the obsolete .41 rim fire.

 

[Richard Simmons]

Nice rifles. Thanks for sharing. I’ve had a K31 for years and find it very accurate and pleasant to shoot. Wish I had bought more GP-11 ammo. That stuff is more or less match ammo when compared to most standard issue ammunition.

 

[Ματθιας]

Those are beautiful!! It's machined goodness! The wood is not too bad, either! The soldier tags are always a bonus! I know some Swiss rifle collectors have tried and some have successfully managed to contact the name on the tag or have gotten in touch with the family. That's cool!

Swiss straight-pulls have skyrocketed in price over the last couple of years. K31s used to be $59.00 Big5 sporting good specials - now some excellent examples are pushing $700! It's crazy, but that's the market.

I have a 96/11 and 3 K31s and bought them when they were cheap and no one cared. I wish I had picked up a 1911 rifle and a K11 carbine when they were under $300 - at the time I thought it was too high!

 

[shocker]

Hmm, is that a notched bayonet?

 

[tennexplorer]

And none of these have damage at the butt end of the stock from the boots that you see a lot.

 

[gwpercle]

K11 was my very first rifle ... 1967
A young man never forgets his first ... and I still have her .
Started my reloading odyssey with that 7.5 Swiss rifle and a set of C-H loading dies ...
They are Sweet shooters !
Gary

 

[AJ]

I bought my first K31 in 1970 and paid a whole $20.00 for it. It was in a gun shop in Havelock, NC. He had several racks of K31's and K98's for $20.00, take your pick. Good memories!

 

[Ματθιας]

Hmm, is that a notched bayonet?

I forget the proper term, but they are known to collectors as "sawback" or "pioneer/engineer" bayonets.

 

[Redcoat3340]

Great guns! I've got 2 31s, a 1911, and a 96/11 and find them among the sweetest, most accurate long guns I own (which are 99% mil-surps). Their triggers are better than most commercially produced guns.

The "story" is that Hitler threatened the Swiss with invasion. The Swiss general, Henri Guisan, was unimpressed. The Germans said, "We've got three times more troops than you, we'll roll over ya."
Guisan responded, "It won't matter to us. Each of our soldiers will just have to use three bullets."

The K31 was reputed to be the best bolt action military arm ever. But some don't agree, saying it was never actually tested in battle and may have been too finely machined to actually function in the mud and sand of a battlefield.

I put some cheap glass on one of the K31s with a clever, non-tap mount that clips onto the receiver. But, as I don't hunt any more, I've never had a chance to field test it, just at the range out to 200 yards.

I looked up the fellow on one of my soldier tags and his house is still standing. I can't recall if I ever wrote the person living in it now, but a dim memory says it may have been his son.

Thanks for the post.

Here's some pics.

 

[Scharfschuetzer]

That's a very nice collection!

I remember in the mid 60s that they were often stacked in barrels for something like $18.00 or less.

I finally bought a K31 for my son in his youth and found it to be a very accurate rifle with the issue Swiss ammo. 600 yard 10 shot groups were in the neighborhood of 10 inches or less than 1 1/2 MOA on a calm day.

 

[JohnRippert]

They bring a fair bit more here in the States these days. I still have a couple of the half dozen or so K31's that I bought when AIM Surplus was selling them for anywhere from $89-129. They are quite capable of single hole accuracy with GP-11 if the shooter is good enough. I also have one of the clamp on side saddle scope mounts. Takes some of getting used to with the scope being a bit out to the right of the bore, but it works just fine. Cheap Chinese fixed 6x scope.

The first four in the same hole were the rifle. The other two were me. This group is still right at 1.25inch center to center.

 

[LVSteve]

The K1911 is the model I don't have. I have a K31 with a no drill scope mount and it's a laser with GP11 ammo.

 

[merl67]

That's a whole lot of U.S. dollars there don't know how the market in Switzerland is though...

 

[HOUSTON RICK]

Beautiful as always Classic. Are you the curator of the Swiss Firearms museum? Some of those wooden bolt action rifles would be worth buying just to look at. As mentioned, I think that assortment of rifles would be worth a lot here. Especially in these times. Thank you for posting.