Swiss K31

[Luke2236]

My 1942 K31, in excellent shape with walnut stock with very little butt abuse, almost perfect bluing, VG bore and all matching #'s including the bayonet (diopter not included). As the butt stock tag indicated Lucerne PD, I emailed them a note to enquire if they could share any additional info and was pleasantly surprised to receive the following prompt reply:

For several decades, the Lucerne police had a reserve of 100 pieces of Swiss ordnance carabiners.
The police officer were then only equipped with a pistol, which is why these weapons were handed over to the members of the corps in case of possible large-scale deployments.
In a later phase, in the beginning of 1960, the carbiners were replaced by the Sturmgewehr SIG, Model 1957.
Since then, these carabiners were stored at the cantonal police of Lucerne.

Since these weapons were no longer usable for police use, they were used on behalf of the police commando.

On January 7, 2009, the weapons were sold and exported to Gunsmith at Calgary Shooting Center, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
There was also your carabiner with the number 711250.

We send you friendly greetings from Switzerland.

Kpl N. Zimmerli
Fachbereich Waffen und Sprengstoff
LUZERNER POLIZEI
Kriminalpolizei
Hirschengraben 17a
CH - 6003 Luzern

Was looking for one for awhile in above average condition and got lucky with the one above becoming available local to me and snapped it up.  The guy I bought it from had purchased it from Calgary Shooting Center mentioned in the above email.

[running-man]

Awesome story.   

The tag on my K31 had a gentleman's name on it with the address unreadable.  After a very brief attempt of tracking him down, I gave up the search as it was a needle in a haystack type odds. 

[Luke2236]

Awesome story.   

The tag on my K31 had a gentleman's name on it with the address unreadable.  After a very brief attempt of tracking him down, I gave up the search as it was a needle in a haystack type odds. 

Those tags are a small piece of provenance that makes the K31 a little bit more unique and collectable IMO

[Phosphorus32]

Very nice! The provenance is a bonus! Thanks for posting.

My WWII era manufactured K31 has no troop tag, but it also no import mark, so I'm quite happy with it. These K31s sure are a pleasure to shoot!

[Greasemonkey]

Nice  one of my favorite milsurp rifles, have 2 with troop tags and one with out....  Really fun to watch people fumble with it when they want to try it. 

Out of curiosity... Do they block the mag on it too, given its larger than a 5rd magazine.

[Luke2236]

Very nice! The provenance is a bonus! Thanks for posting.

My WWII era manufactured K31 has no troop tag, but it also no import mark, so I'm quite happy with it. These K31s sure are a pleasure to shoot!

Thanks, no import markings on this one either!

Nice  one of my favorite milsurp rifles, have 2 with troop tags and one with out....  Really fun to watch people fumble with it when they want to try it. 

Out of curiosity... Do they block the mag on it too, given its larger than a 5rd magazine.

I envy you folks with more than 1 of all these wonderful old rifles! Re the mag - that silly law doesn't apply to bolt action guns so it's unmolested.

[newchi]

They are one of the better if not best surplus guns imo

[Greasemonkey]

They are one of the better if not best surplus guns imo

To an extent.. They never demonstrated their use on the battlefield like say the M39 did, no one ever challenged Switzerland in combat. Don't get me wrong, they are exceptionally accurate, are wonderfully finished, and have triggers to die for and in my eyes they are a technological wonder. Their short coming is lack of history and use, where the M39 is an actual bonofied tested war veteran, it's proved it's self and helped drive the invading hoards away.

[Luke2236]

...Their short coming is lack of history and use, where the M39 is an actual bonofied tested war veteran, it's proved it's self and helped drive the invading hoards away.

You know that's one of the things that's drawn me to the old battle rifles; you're holding some history in your hands when you pick them up - oh the stories they could tell I'm sure. Because you KNOW rifles like the M39, and my SVT-40 (my first milsurp purchase), saw some hard front-line fighting during WWII.

[newchi]

Oh i agree, just thinking my SVT could have been at Stalingrad is amazing.
I guess my thoughts were based on accuracy.  My first shot from my K-31 blew apart the milk jug at 100yds, usually it takes the first shot to miss and then correct for the SKS, and a couple more for mosins.

[Greasemonkey]

My SVT didn't get to see Stalingrad I guess.. It went up against Finland somewhere in it's life and in the end got captured. Now it's a Finnish [SA] mismatched rebuild. It's more of a collectible, I've shot it a few times, but Im not overly fond of the tear down and clean, lottsa little bits to deal with, ok...Im lazy.. It resides happily in the safe, nice and clean.

Some can be scary to think about. I have a Mosin with shrapnel damage in the barrel. A mumed Arisaka with a small chunk of metal in the stock and a finger nail groove mark under the bolt and another Mosin with severe blood etching over most of it.

Is the Swiss GP11 ammo readily available there?

[newchi]

GP11, its about $450 a case.  Most places near me only sell it that way.  I had my rifle 2 months before i could afford the ammo to try it.
I love my SVT, but on the rare occasions i shoot it it results in 10 mins of swearing then a trip to the computer to google 'svt disassembly youtube'