Swiss Miss - Who Is She??
My Brother and I recently inherited what we believe to be a Swiss Schmidt-Rubin K31 variant. At least that is the one rifle that we can find on the web that is closest to what we have. But there are some differences.
The most obvious difference is everything I can find online about the K31 shows a weapon with a stock and barrel shroud that extends all the way to the front sight, and as you can see from the two pix above, Swiss Miss has a short fore-stock and no shroud.
The next thing is everything I can find on the K31 shows a "Cocking Ring" that also acts as a safety when rotated. As you can see in the above pic, there is no ring and a thumb safety switch instead.
All the K31 info I can find shows a straight bolt handle, but Swiss Miss has a bent handle, I don't know if this O.E.M. or from a previous owner.
From it's inception in 1889, the Schmidt-Rubin straight pull rifles were chambered in a variety of calibers ranging from 6.5mm to 8mm, but most were chambered for the Swiss 7.5mm round. Swiss Miss has "CAL .308 WIN" stamped in the base of the sight, if you look close you can see it in the pic above.
That's pretty much all the high-points of the differences, and except for a reference in an article about a non-functioning website for a dealer named Mandall Shooting Supplies in AZ. about .308 WIN K31's going for $1000 that's all I know about this rifle. That, and I know she's a shooter because my uncle never failed to bring home a deer every time he took her to the field.
If you can offer more info on this, I'd appreciate it. If you have any questions to clarify something about her, feel free to ask, and I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability.
And before anybody asks, like the F-N Browning Auto-5 I inherited, serial ##'d in the 80,xxx range (made somewhere between 1903 and 1939, exact records are not available), she's not for sale. It's that whole Family Heirloom thing...
The most obvious difference is everything I can find online about the K31 shows a weapon with a stock and barrel shroud that extends all the way to the front sight, and as you can see from the two pix above, Swiss Miss has a short fore-stock and no shroud.
The next thing is everything I can find on the K31 shows a "Cocking Ring" that also acts as a safety when rotated. As you can see in the above pic, there is no ring and a thumb safety switch instead.
All the K31 info I can find shows a straight bolt handle, but Swiss Miss has a bent handle, I don't know if this O.E.M. or from a previous owner.
From it's inception in 1889, the Schmidt-Rubin straight pull rifles were chambered in a variety of calibers ranging from 6.5mm to 8mm, but most were chambered for the Swiss 7.5mm round. Swiss Miss has "CAL .308 WIN" stamped in the base of the sight, if you look close you can see it in the pic above.
That's pretty much all the high-points of the differences, and except for a reference in an article about a non-functioning website for a dealer named Mandall Shooting Supplies in AZ. about .308 WIN K31's going for $1000 that's all I know about this rifle. That, and I know she's a shooter because my uncle never failed to bring home a deer every time he took her to the field.
If you can offer more info on this, I'd appreciate it. If you have any questions to clarify something about her, feel free to ask, and I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability.
And before anybody asks, like the F-N Browning Auto-5 I inherited, serial ##'d in the 80,xxx range (made somewhere between 1903 and 1939, exact records are not available), she's not for sale. It's that whole Family Heirloom thing...
posted by MOMinuteMan at 12:51
4 Comments:
It's not a K-31, the magazine is too far from the front side of the trigger guard. I think it's been sporterized, and that accounts for the wood not going so far up to the muzzle.
Check with SwissRifles.com. There are several knowledgeable people there who will be able to tell you right off what it is.
It is a straight pull, right?
That stock seems kind of narrow where you would grasp it to pull the trigger.
Hmmm. I'm at a loss, but I'd e-mail Misha. If he didn't know right off the bat, he could find out.
That appears to be a sporterized K11, the predecessor to the K31. The giveaway is the red bakelite handle. K31's have a steel handle.
It's a sporterized K11. K31's have an aluminum handle- at least mine does. the bent down charging handle and the cut off cocking ring made it more practical in the field to carry.
I've seen several of these sporterized in this manner, and i have to caution you: SOme were rechambered for 30-06, and this rifle is not strong enough for modern 30-06 loads. The rechambering consisted of reaming out the chamber, lining it with a chambered blank, and reaming the blank to headspace. The bore (though it's called 7.5) is actually close enough to the bore of a 30 cal to be insignificant, I shoot 7.62 bullets in my K31 all the time. If the chamber has been undamaged, you have a fine rifle there, and I'd hold on to it very tightly.
Incidentally, the tang safety is an aftermarket, from what I can determine,because of the loss of the cocking ring. The easy way to confirm that the stock is the sporterized original, is to see if the finger grooves are symmetrical. If the left one is a different distance from the right one, it's the original stock and has been sporterized.
If this is not a sporterized rifle, but was factory built in this specification, it is rare indeed.
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