I've always heard people rant and rave that K31's were the "swiss watch" of the milsurp world, how they would easily cost $1000-2000 or more to make to the same level of quality today, yadda yadda... I've handle a few briefly and thought they were cool enough, but never got too serious about them because I was only really interested in rifles from combative parties in WWI and WWII.
Last week I bought one, a 1935 Walnut-stock all matching example with a no-d&t scope mount and Weaver K4-W scope. Over the last several days I've been looking it over very closely and have been just blown away at the craftsmanship and execution of manufacture. Most of the parts in the bolt have small peens from being hardness tested for QC. Surface finish is smooth but not polished over; sharp. The striker appears to have been machined, heat treated, then ground to final dimensions. The bolt as a whole is pretty brilliant and I can't fathom how such a piece was made in 1935 on manual machinery with such great final fit/finish. The bolt/extractor doesn't change orientation-- the sleeve rotates around it to lock into place and it appears there are corresponding helical surfaces on the breech face of the barrel that interact with the front of the locking lugs.
Taking the handguard off showed an evenly spaced free floating barrel channel up until the last inch or so of stock, which was a perfect contoured match to the barrel. The damn rear band retainer leaf spring is held into the stock with an escutcheon! Not just a peg in a hole as seen with Mausers, Mosins etc... The handguard and stock fit together and line up extremely well and it's surprisingly beefy and comfortable.
The trigger is awesome. A long, butter smooth first stage followed by the crispest, cleanest breaking "heavy" (over 3lb) trigger I think I've ever felt. I got the package for $500 and now that I've seen what all is going on here I'm kicking myself for not buying a few of them @ $179-250 a piece. Just incredible stuff-- hard to wrap my mind around all of this for a military service rifle. The gentleman I bought it from said he's got some GP11 and commercial ammo somewhere he's going to try to find it and let me know. I can't wait to shoot this thing.
I'm not sure if I'll keep the scope on there or not. I guess I'll have to shoot it with and without and see how big a difference it makes. As far as notch and blade sights go, these are pretty good. Anyway, just a really cool rifle I felt compelled to share. My knowledge/experience with them is still pretty novice so if anyone has some helpful hints/tricks I'm all ears. One thing I've thought about maybe doing is steaming out a few dings in the stock. The grain, especially towards the back is really nice and would look a lot better without all the small dents. Enough blabbering, pictures!
Last week I bought one, a 1935 Walnut-stock all matching example with a no-d&t scope mount and Weaver K4-W scope. Over the last several days I've been looking it over very closely and have been just blown away at the craftsmanship and execution of manufacture. Most of the parts in the bolt have small peens from being hardness tested for QC. Surface finish is smooth but not polished over; sharp. The striker appears to have been machined, heat treated, then ground to final dimensions. The bolt as a whole is pretty brilliant and I can't fathom how such a piece was made in 1935 on manual machinery with such great final fit/finish. The bolt/extractor doesn't change orientation-- the sleeve rotates around it to lock into place and it appears there are corresponding helical surfaces on the breech face of the barrel that interact with the front of the locking lugs.
Taking the handguard off showed an evenly spaced free floating barrel channel up until the last inch or so of stock, which was a perfect contoured match to the barrel. The damn rear band retainer leaf spring is held into the stock with an escutcheon! Not just a peg in a hole as seen with Mausers, Mosins etc... The handguard and stock fit together and line up extremely well and it's surprisingly beefy and comfortable.
The trigger is awesome. A long, butter smooth first stage followed by the crispest, cleanest breaking "heavy" (over 3lb) trigger I think I've ever felt. I got the package for $500 and now that I've seen what all is going on here I'm kicking myself for not buying a few of them @ $179-250 a piece. Just incredible stuff-- hard to wrap my mind around all of this for a military service rifle. The gentleman I bought it from said he's got some GP11 and commercial ammo somewhere he's going to try to find it and let me know. I can't wait to shoot this thing.
I'm not sure if I'll keep the scope on there or not. I guess I'll have to shoot it with and without and see how big a difference it makes. As far as notch and blade sights go, these are pretty good. Anyway, just a really cool rifle I felt compelled to share. My knowledge/experience with them is still pretty novice so if anyone has some helpful hints/tricks I'm all ears. One thing I've thought about maybe doing is steaming out a few dings in the stock. The grain, especially towards the back is really nice and would look a lot better without all the small dents. Enough blabbering, pictures!
