Swiss K31 Refinished

I got to shoot the K31 a couple of times since Christmas. The first time was in NJ in the field out back of Uncle Bob's house. My initial impression was that it was very very loud. I've shot shotguns and .45 pistols and little .22's but this was rather different. Mach 2 or so coming out of the muzzle means the bullet makes its own little sonic boom. Pretty cool.

Anyway, on that outing I didn't hit a whole lot until I got pretty close and got over anticipating the recoil. The second outing was to the NRA indoor range in Virginia. There were a bunch of Blackwater guys there with their Evil Black Rifles so it was amusing to pull out the K31. I did a bit better, though I was shooting "off hand" - standing without support. I'd post the targets but since they were human silhouettes it might look a little creepy. Next time I will shoot at concentric circles.

In between outings I refinished the wood on the rifle. When we were out in the miserable January weather, I noted that the K31 just sucked up the rain. There was no finish to speak of on most of the stock. A little Easy Off oven cleaner took off what remained and then some stain and a little polyurethane finished it off.



This photo shows the anchor points for the sling, though I do not yet have a sling... or a bayonet. I may have to rectify that before too much longer. Also evident is the fact that I couldn't really get the stock looking like new. Oh well, this way it looks nice and old.



I didn't do anything with the metal and you can see here how nice the finish is. The sight is adjustable for long distance shooting. The units for those numbers is yards. 1500 yards is just shy of a mile, for reference.



And here is a loaded magazine. The ammo is very pretty. It's nickel jacketed, that's why the bullet is silver, and sealed to the case with a bead of beeswax. Leave it to the Swiss to make bullets complicated.