7.5 x 55 Swiss Smith/Ruben K31 rifle

[DrBob]

It remains a mystery to me why a purpose built sporter in this round is as hard to find as an honest politician.
I guess Steyr made some of their fine Model M rifles in this cal, but I have never seen one listed anywhere, if I did I would buy it in a New York second!
Someday I guess I will have to buy a .308 Win and have it rechambered.

At least Winchester saw its advantages. Another "theft" by Winchester was shortening the 330 BSA and creating the 338 Win Mag. A 30-284 wildcat was made. I like Rl17 for the 7.5 because it is the appropriate powder. RL17 is the darling of long range shooting with the 284 with major velocity boost over 4350.

 

[sestoppelman]

My 1953 vintage K31 with spare mag. Stock is walnut, the beech one it came with had several repairs that annoyed me so I found this one online, forget where, but it fits perfect and looks much better.

 

[sestoppelman]

At least Winchester saw its advantages. Another "theft" by Winchester was shortening the 330 BSA and creating the 338 Win Mag. A 30-284 wildcat was made. I like Rl17 for the 7.5 because it is the appropriate powder. RL17 is the darling of long range shooting with the 284 with major velocity boost over 4350.

I would be happy to try som R17 if I could ever find any. I used R15 in my loads and it works fine, but Gp11 shoots just as good.

 

[DrBob]

I would be happy to try som R17 if I could ever find any. I used R15 in my loads and it works fine, but Gp11 shoots just as good.

Sign of a good design... not fickle...

 

[Adam S]

Someday I guess I will have to buy a .308 Win and have it rechambered.

Is that all that would be needed? I've always kicked around the idea of a Ruger No. 1 in 7.5x55 but never acted on it.

 

[sestoppelman]

Is that all that would be needed? I've always kicked around the idea of a Ruger No. 1 in 7.5x55 but never acted on it.

I am not a gunsmith, but I dont see what else would need doing, accept in a bolt rifle the bolt face would need opening up for the Swiss rim.
A No.1 wouldnt even need that.
But dont take my word for it, consult with an actual smith.

 

[DrBob]

I am not a gunsmith, but I dont see what else would need doing, accept in a bolt rifle the bolt face would need opening up for the Swiss rim.
A No.1 wouldnt even need that.
But dont take my word for it, consult with an actual smith.

The ejector on the Ruger No.1 will need a little work... maybe... as the rim is larger. Not wanting to be a total killjoy, but the K31 isn't a "Schmidt-Ruben". The 1911 was the last of that line. The action style is the lineage but the shorter action and the forward locking lugs depart from the original design. Everything before was originally needed when using black power with the 1911 brought into the 20th century. All in all an advanced design in a rifle which was very well kept up... a pride in that with the issued soldier taking care of it. When the Kaiser visited Switzerland, he remarked that the German army was twice the size of the Swiss. The Swiss general replied that it would require only issuing two cartridges rather than one to take care of that. The sights past 200 meters are designed for a head shot as the Swiss saw anyone at that range would be in a trench or prone.

 

[sestoppelman]

The ejector on the Ruger No.1 will need a little work... maybe... as the rim is larger. Not wanting to be a total killjoy, but the K31 isn't a "Schmidt-Ruben". The 1911 was the last of that line. The action style is the lineage but the shorter action and the forward locking lugs depart from the original design. Everything before was originally needed when using black power with the 1911 brought into the 20th century. All in all an advanced design in a rifle which was very well kept up... a pride in that with the issued soldier taking care of it. When the Kaiser visited Switzerland, he remarked that the German army was twice the size of the Swiss. The Swiss general replied that it would require only issuing two cartridges rather than one to take care of that. The sights past 200 meters are designed for a head shot as the Swiss saw anyone at that range would be in a trench or prone.

True, but that shouldnt be a big issue for a 'smith. I would really love to find a Steyr M some day in this caliber.

 

[Gert Odendaal]

True to form.... here is the name under my K31's butt plate. I deleted areas of ID. The K31 is the Rolex of rifles.

To mimic the GP11 ammo, I use 175 grain bullets. The Berger is closest to design. Powders are in the 4350/RL17 class with RL17 being the prime (Swiss) powder to use. . Sweet spot is around 2500-2600 fps. The leade is very short. PRVI brass is available but I use Lapua 284 brass necked up. (Winchester "stole" the Swiss cartridge for the 284). rim size isn't a problem. Since the camming of the straight pull is low, be absolutely sure of case sizing. While the case is about the same volume as 30-06, don't overdo loads. The GP11 bullet was so aerodynamic that the US Army quit testing it as the heavy machine gun range was too short and the bullets sailed well over the range. They are a gem of a rifle.

View attachment 539300

DrBob, great info Sir, thank you kindly, it is much appreciated. I contact Kobus Du Plessis , owner of IMPALA Bullets. He is duplicating a 174gn bullet for me to reload for the Swiss. I will upload results soon , he is cutting 25x Impala bullets 7.5x55 Swiss for me using the International SAMI specs for the 7.5x55 caliber...

 

[Gert Odendaal]

I would be happy to try som R17 if I could ever find any. I used R15 in my loads and it works fine, but Gp11 shoots just as good.

I have R17 and use it for the Swiss K31

 

[Gert Odendaal]

True to form.... here is the name under my K31's butt plate. I deleted areas of ID. The K31 is the Rolex of rifles.

To mimic the GP11 ammo, I use 175 grain bullets. The Berger is closest to design. Powders are in the 4350/RL17 class with RL17 being the prime (Swiss) powder to use. . Sweet spot is around 2500-2600 fps. The leade is very short. PRVI brass is available but I use Lapua 284 brass necked up. (Winchester "stole" the Swiss cartridge for the 284). rim size isn't a problem. Since the camming of the straight pull is low, be absolutely sure of case sizing. While the case is about the same volume as 30-06, don't overdo loads. The GP11 bullet was so aerodynamic that the US Army quit testing it as the heavy machine gun range was too short and the bullets sailed well over the range. They are a gem of a rifle.

View attachment 539300

Still these GP-11 bullets are nowhere to be found on any shelve even in Switzerland I presume??

 

[7x57Joe]

I have never shot a jacketed bullet through my K-31, only cast but, they are a blast to shoot! I was going to shoot some handloads utilizing the cal. 30 M72 Match bullet but, the cast is so much fun. This is about the best my old eyes can do.

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Great to see members shooting this great K31 rifle. It is what I want to do more frequently as well. I am fortunate to got hold of 48x GP-11 rounds. Kobus du Plessis of Impala Bullets are duplicating the GP-11 bullets for me. He said he is duplicating 25x Impala bullets GP-11 versions weight 176 gn for me to reload and test the accuracy of the bullets. Will give feedback when this process is taking place ..

 

[Lone Star Bluegrass]

Even with the most meticulously weighed of various medium-slower burning charges, both pull down and new brass, and premium bullets, I’ve never seen ammunition that shot as well in these rifles as GP-11.
Something to be said for never having wartime production, I guess!

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Even with the most meticulously weighed of various medium-slower burning charges, both pull down and new brass, and premium bullets, I’ve never seen ammunition that shot as well in these rifles as GP-11.
Something to be said for never having wartime production, I guess!

I agree, I have only heard great things about the accuracy of these rifles. Like the Swiss watches , it never seize to amaze me.
Fortunately my son Ruan loves this K31 rifle ..so it will be used to extend and grow our mutual friendship as a father and son..he loves rifles as I do, I gave him my 8x57JS Mauser he used to hunt his first Black wildebeest in the Clarence area when he turned 15 years of age.

He will be taking the 7.5x55 Swiss K31 rifle ...I will be giving him my .375 H&H Magnum rifle I build as my first rifle under the care of my great mentor and friend Johan Greyling .

I am keeping my 404 Jeffery, .458 Mannlicher Schoenaer the 8x68 , the 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser , and my 12 GA Greener side by side shotgun..the Colt .45 ACP Mk 4 series 40 and Baretta 9mm M92 ...the rest of the rifles he gets ...

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Members, are there members residing in Switzerland that shoot the 7.5x55 Swiss K31 rifle regularly? Will it be possible to find a periscope that fits onto the left side of the action, off center like in this video??

 

[Gert Odendaal]

I have a great day today, I got hold of five boxes of 7.5x55 SWISS bullets, will weight a bullet and do some measurements with a veneer.I will match them with the NORMA cases Each box cost $26 USA dollars

 

[spotnspook]

New to the forum but it's cool to see people interested in K31s. Truly a unique and quality rifle with a certain smoothness about them that one has to experience to understand. Here's some older pics of mine from 5 or 6 years ago when I was tinkering with mine. I used to have another one but regrettably sold it (back when they were cheap doh). I ended up putting a Nikon 2-7 pistol scope on an S&K scout mount because of my eyes going downhill. Added the cheapo riser to try to eliminate some of the parallax error by making my cheekweld more consistent with the fixed 50m scope parallax. As well as the clamp on Swiss Products brake mostly to protect the crown because I'm not big on gun cases and ride around muzzle down on the floorboard quite a bit, and have been spoiled with modern rifles with muzzle devices. I saw no noteworthy change in accuracy or barrel harmonics with the clamp on brake in my experience.

I ended up building some other guns and getting away from hunting with it, mostly because I got really tired of lugging around all 12lbs of it. I also found the scope eye relief, eye box, and field of view to be lacking compared to a conventional mounted scope, only comfortable on higher powers around 5x which then caused the "looking through a straw" effect. Maybe this could have been remedied with a different scope, I've heard good things about Burris, Leupolds, and even NCstars LER offerings but haven't tried them myself, figured it was a lost cost fallacy. There was one occasion that the limitations of the scope cost me. A small rutty buck came down a fence row right towards me at a trot to about 15 yards without stopping and I wasn't able to get a shot off before he busted me and would have been better off with irons, and that kind of spoiled it for me.

Thinking about it I've still got an unopened case of GP-11 from before it all dried up. When I started modifying it I was shooting exclusively PPU 174gr softpoints, although GP-11 always shot a little tighter for me. Ultimately the Swiss probably did it correctly and I should return it to its original configuration and relegate it (thanks to my eyes) to a brush gun.

shot this fawn off a bouncing fence wire in high winds at about 200 yards

this doe at 338 yards off sticks

Nice to see every ones posts, and good luck with your bullets Gert Odendaal, cheers

 

[spotnspook]

This may be preaching to choir, as you seem way further down the reloading 7.5 Swiss rabbit hole than I ever went @Gert Odendaal , but I recall reading that the Lee dies were the older spec dimensions and although functional were not optimal for K31 loadings and if I recall correctly the Redding dies were preferred amongst the aficionados. Also as far as I can recall (it's been about 15 years) they all had seemed to have settled on one or another variety of .308 commercial bullet as others have stated. Take this with a grain of salt as it is uncertain memories and something I never ventured to do myself.

 

[Gert Odendaal]

New to the forum but it's cool to see people interested in K31s. Truly a unique and quality rifle with a certain smoothness about them that one has to experience to understand. Here's some older pics of mine from 5 or 6 years ago when I was tinkering with mine. I used to have another one but regrettably sold it (back when they were cheap doh). I ended up putting a Nikon 2-7 pistol scope on an S&K scout mount because of my eyes going downhill. Added the cheapo riser to try to eliminate some of the parallax error by making my cheekweld more consistent with the fixed 50m scope parallax. As well as the clamp on Swiss Products brake mostly to protect the crown because I'm not big on gun cases and ride around muzzle down on the floorboard quite a bit, and have been spoiled with modern rifles with muzzle devices. I saw no noteworthy change in accuracy or barrel harmonics with the clamp on brake in my experience.

I ended up building some other guns and getting away from hunting with it, mostly because I got really tired of lugging around all 12lbs of it. I also found the scope eye relief, eye box, and field of view to be lacking compared to a conventional mounted scope, only comfortable on higher powers around 5x which then caused the "looking through a straw" effect. Maybe this could have been remedied with a different scope, I've heard good things about Burris, Leupolds, and even NCstars LER offerings but haven't tried them myself, figured it was a lost cost fallacy. There was one occasion that the limitations of the scope cost me. A small rutty buck came down a fence row right towards me at a trot to about 15 yards without stopping and I wasn't able to get a shot off before he busted me and would have been better off with irons, and that kind of spoiled it for me.

Thinking about it I've still got an unopened case of GP-11 from before it all dried up. When I started modifying it I was shooting exclusively PPU 174gr softpoints, although GP-11 always shot a little tighter for me. Ultimately the Swiss probably did it correctly and I should return it to its original configuration and relegate it (thanks to my eyes) to a brush gun.
View attachment 567885
View attachment 567890

shot this fawn off a bouncing fence wire in high winds at about 200 yards
View attachment 567887
this doe at 338 yards off sticks
View attachment 567888
Nice to see every ones posts, and good luck with your bullets Gert Odendaal, cheers

Spotnspook, great write-up and photos for sure. Great to have you on board as well. Yes, the K31 intrigues me and fascinates ...I am fortunate to receive my first 7.5X55 Swiss K31 for free from a friend. I have now another K31 coming to me for free as well..so I am really fortunate to have a Wallnut stock K31 as well as a Beech wood K31.
My project for these two rifles will be a DIY aluminium "BAD ACE Scope mount " I already commenced building a scope mount for my 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser M96 rifle ..
Fortunately I got hold of 10x GP-11 boxes of ammo and 400x 174gn bullets with the same profile as the GP-11 bullets ..as well as 100x NORMA brass cases.
I really want to try and shoot this rifle accurate out to 300 meters.