Author Topic: K31, Modify or not (Read 1201 times)

Cheesehead · « **on:** June 05, 2006, 03:19:35 PM »

I have two k31's in original condition. I have tested them for accuracy and found them to be exactly the same. I guess that is good because it demonstrates consistency. My original plan was to highly modify one until it appears to be a modern sporter including removal of the iron sights. The removal of the front sight may require cutting off and recrowning some of the barrel. I am not sure about the rear sight yet. Since the barrel is not stepped like a Mausers it should refinish easily. I would reuse a modified version of the original stock. The second k31 was to get only a refinish of the metal and wood. But.... after shooting and cleaning the two rifles several times I am having second thoughts. Their history almost speaks to me. I know, it sounds weird. For now I will just enjoy them as they are, slightly worn and original and continue to shoot and study them.

Cheese

jh45gun · « **Reply #1 on:** June 05, 2006, 06:24:56 PM »

I know that every one has a different idea on gun finishing and modifications ect. To be honest it would be a shame to sporterize one since they made so few of them. If you could find a clunker that some one already screwed up maybe that would be a option. Now I am no purist I have modded a swede and several Turk Mausers. I now wish I would have kept the Swede origional. The turks I did not mind as they were crap to begin with.

Mikey · « **Reply #2 on:** June 06, 2006, 02:40:02 AM »

Cheeshead - I recently saw a K31 modified and rechambered to 308. I wasn't impressed either way, caliber or modification. I know each of us have our own ideas about how we would 'renovate' one of these older rifles and wish you luck in the process and hope it turns out the way you want. That being said however, they look just fine to me as they are. Maybe if I see one really tricked out I would change my mind (and modify my Ljungman?????). Mikey.

james · « **Reply #3 on:** June 06, 2006, 02:46:53 AM »

I have the same dilema. I got a walnut K-31 from Aim and of course was impressed with the accuracy. But I then wanted one to sporter & hunt with. I ordered a cracked stock one from CAI and got one with a hairline crack in the handguard and excellent bluing. Well, I couldn't bring myself to mess it up either. I orderd a Zhu clamp on mount and have been shooting single ragged holes in paper. The original configuration will look out of place on an antelope hunt but a 400 yard shot will shut the hecklers up. I'm still watching for a K 31 with a completely broken stock or buggered crown. Then I will have my way with it. I'm guessing a lot of people have the same idea.

1911crazy · « **Reply #4 on:** June 06, 2006, 01:02:58 PM »

I'm in the process of starting my swiss k31 project rifle. I have the stock refinished and i have the St. Marie scopemount(screws on) and the St.Marie Muzzle brake. I have a 6-24 x 44mm scope with sunshade to put on it. I'm just going to knotch out the orginal stock to fit the scopemount and thats it. I like the orginal military look with a scope but it has to be the right scope to look impressive. The ballastics of the 7,5mm swiss is very close to the 7,5mm french round the chamber pressures are alike. While the 308 is a lot more powerful I kind of like the swiss round. Right now I'm debating wether to put a 1" recoil pad on the butt too and maybe a bipod. I want it to shoot like a dream and doing everything possible up front to make it handle the best it can too.

jack19512 · « **Reply #5 on:** June 06, 2006, 03:08:00 PM »

Is this like what you want to do?

jack19512 · « **Reply #6 on:** June 06, 2006, 03:09:49 PM »

Sorry for the double post. I am struggling with this site for some reason. If no one else is having trouble then it must be on my end. If a mod would, please delete this second post for me. Thanks

Cheesehead · « **Reply #7 on:** June 06, 2006, 03:26:33 PM »

Very cool! The only thing I would do different is to remove the front sight. Is that an original yet modified stock? I wonder where you would get extra clips?

Cheese

R.W.Dale · « **Reply #8 on:** June 06, 2006, 04:34:45 PM »

BLAH! Terrible That's horrible. If you're going to build sumpin like that just go buy a savage.

This is what a sporterization should look like.

jack19512 · « **Reply #9 on:** June 06, 2006, 07:04:40 PM »

Tell us what you really think! :roll:

Cement Man · « **Reply #10 on:** June 07, 2006, 01:59:17 AM »

After waiting a little more than two months, I received my first K31 the other day. I was smitten! About a half hour after bringing it home, I called the dealer and asked him to order another one for me. Then, while looking for more info on these fine rifles on the net, I found a dealer here in Illinois that also had a nice one - so I ordered that one! Now I gotta figure out how to slip all this past my wife.

So far, all I plan on doing is putting a scout mount on one, a St. Marie scope mount on another, and aperture sights on the third. This is all assuming that I get good wood on the one the dealer is ordering - the one I bought on the net has very good wood, as does my first one.

If I find another, and the wood is less nice, I might attempt something like you did Jack. Nice work! Is that the original stock worked on? Where do you find extra magazines?

BTW - did you ever find a Swede?

Cheesehead - didn't mean to get off topic. I guess I would have the same thoughts as you - the history of these amazingly fine rifles does tend to speak. From my little experience it seems that the Swiss rifles have mostly very good to outstanding metal and bores, but you can run into some bad wood. I guess if I find the "right candidate" at a bargain, I might try some mods.

jack19512 · « **Reply #11 on:** June 07, 2006, 03:44:22 AM »

I should have stated in the post so everyone would know, this was not a project of mine. The pic is from another person on another forum and we were having a conversation about what some people have done to their K31's to suit themselves.

I personally have nothing against anyone taking a rifle and making it into something that pleases them, as long as it is a job well done and not a bubba. And as long as the work doesn't destroy a collectible. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder you know. It doesn't have to please everyone else.

A lot of these rifles will never have any real collector value. I don't think most of the Mosins will and sad to say I don't think the K31's will either. So someone should try to at least make a good shooter out of them. One that pleases them.

No, I haven't found me a Swede yet. Still looking. I would like to be able to look the rifle over in person if possible. I checked on when the next gun show would be in my area again and it won't be until this fall.

I haven't had good luck at the last couple shows I've been to. Seems like high prices on everything and poor selection on what they do have.

Hawkster318 · « **Reply #12 on:** June 08, 2006, 12:20:28 AM »

Quote

The removal of the front sight may require cutting off and recrowning some of the barrel.

Cheesehead,

Removing the front sight shouldn't require this, uinless you want to. Remove the pin holding the sight with a punch, then you may have to heat up the sight until the solder releases.

Here is my K-31 in .308 WIN.

1911crazy · « **Reply #13 on:** June 08, 2006, 03:30:27 AM »

Guys/Gals; I don't cut my orginal stocks into sporter stocks I use the orginal military configuration. My two previous 8mm & 7mm mausers look awesome with the orginal stocks refinished and with the military style 3 post scopes.(blackmatte) I hate to ruin a good looking piece of wood because the rifle looks so purdy with the orginal full length stock.

Cement man; As the supplies dwindle down on the swiss k31's I was seeing the conditions worsen on the wood stocks. While most of the time its just on the surface of the swiss k31's it can be refinished to its orginal glory rather easily. Some take just some elbow grease with a coarse steelwool and the old surface finish comes right off. Then you can restain or steam out some dings/dents if it has any and tung oil it up. You can have an excellent looking swiss k31 in no time flat. I have even seen the fair condition ones come out really purdy too. I do find it rather odd the bluing looks like 100% and the wood looks like 80% it just doesn't seem right. Underneath that old crappy finish is a much better looking rifle waiting to get out. If you do it right they will look exactly like the orginal excellent ones do too.

Note; The swiss stocks look great cleaned up or refinished to its orginal color. You have to be very careful on the square corners and stock disc hole on the swede mauser if you refinish it. I don't touch my swede's i have just cleaned them up with a fine steelwool. I had an extra stock that i did refinish and it looks like a broken leg it just stands out when its shiney and smooth it just doesn't look right.

jack19512; I don't see too many swede's lately. The past two gun shows i have only seen one CG M96. A while back there was a few husqvarna m38's around for $200 but there all gone now. The best gun shows are in the fall, there the biggest, with the most stuff too thats the best time to look, second its the midwinter/early spring gun shows too. I find the summer gun shows "suck" here there isn't much stuff mainly jerky and accessories.

Hawkster318 · « **Reply #14 on:** June 08, 2006, 05:16:32 AM »

After shot of the .308 K-31 above...

Before:

After:

jh45gun · « **Reply #15 on:** June 08, 2006, 06:36:54 PM »

Jack I disagree with you at one time Swedes were going for 75 bucks too I paid 150 for mine at the time that was the average price and now 300 to 350 and up is the going prices for a good Swede. The K31's they made a lot less so when these start drying up at the cheap prices we are paying now they will keep jumping in price too. Mosins may take a while if ever to get real collectable but heck take a look at even the Mausers try to find a good persian or Argentine these days or a nice 7x57 model 95. If you do find one it is not going to be for no couple hundred bucks unless you get really lucky. No some guns may never get real collectable but I feel the k31 will not be one of them, it will increase in value due to their good shape, their accuracy, and their straight bolt configuration and the small amount of them made compared to the other battle rifles.

Victor3 · « **Reply #16 on:** June 09, 2006, 02:39:21 AM »

Just some perspective....

My father bought many milsurp rifles back in the 50's and 60's. Some he sporterized, some he kept stock. I still have most of them. Some I've left alone, but some of the more valuable "lightly sporterized" ones I've been able to put back to original or nearly so. I love them all.

My dad would not have hesitated to modify his rifles even if he had known that fifty years down the line they would have increased in value 1000%+ over what he paid (A couple of them have). He spent many a happy hour in the garage modifying them to be what he wanted and out in the field using them.

I now do the same. My son may curse me in 2056 for cutting up what has become a somewhat rare and valuable rifle, but he'll just have to deal with it the same way I have. I do not regret what my Dad did with his rifles and I doubt that my son will regret what I am doing with mine...

jack19512 · « **Reply #17 on:** June 09, 2006, 03:16:58 PM »

jh45gun

I hope time proves me wrong but I really don't think the K31's will increase in value that much. They have no real history behind them to warrant such an increase.

Even a lot of the Mosins have some real history behind them but like you said the number of these rifles will determine to some extent their future value.

I know the K31's will become more valuable in the future, especially when they are no longer for sale to the public, but I really don't see them climbing to the status of some of the other mil-surplus rifles. This is one time that I hope I am proved wrong. :grin:

Cheesehead · « **Reply #18 on:** June 09, 2006, 04:37:48 PM »

Hawkster

Nice collection of k31s. In the picture of the 4 rifles, could you tell me about the scope and mount on the bottom rifle?

Cheese

1911crazy · « **Reply #19 on:** June 09, 2006, 10:07:06 PM »

Quote from: Cheesehead

Very cool! The only thing I would do different is to remove the front sight. Is that an original yet modified stock? I wonder where you would get extra clips?

Cheese

Go to numrich gun parts they have all the magazines you want and stripper clips too. Using the strippers is actually faster than changing out magazines once we get the hang of it but with a scoped rifle we can only change out the mags.

Lets think back a few years when the swede mausers were only $20 and you couldn't give them away because there was no ammo available for them at all. It was the sameway for the swiss rifles too and the sales were very slow because of that. Now with the future values and prices I'm seeing an increase already on the net with the gun for sale sites. Once the swiss rifles dryup they will be right up there price wise between the finnish mosins and swede mausers you can bet on it. I'm not too sure if there are more waiting to come here too well have to wait and see. Some think we are seeing the worst condition ones first and the next batch if there is one will be the real good lookers. I'm not so sure there are anymore. Its still about the supply and demand, once the supply runs out the demand will increase and thats going to drive the prices up.

Lets take the sks's for example at first the prices were going up steady on the russian sks's when we weren't seeing anything new comming here after the import was haulted on the chinese sks. Then when the romanian, then the albanian and finally the yugo's really over flooded the market and the prices were kept reasonable and down on most of them, the prices actually dropped on the rest hovering at $200+ on some of the others for a while now. The russian sks's were hitting $400 to $500 at onetime. Recently a while back a NIB russian refurb was only $250. Once the supply of the yugo sks's dryup completely the prices will soar on all the sks's for sure because they will be in demand. If we look at the FN49's, the swede ljungman, rasheed and the hakim as examples there not so cheap/affordable anymore and there going up steadily too. Ok now with the bolt actions its no different with the swede mausers and the finnish mosins too. And just look at the south american mauser prices lately too the brazilian 1908 7mm went up overnite a few years ago. They happen to go from around $150 to $350+ and i have no clue why it happened. Right now its the availability of the yugo 8mm mausers, the russian mosins, swiss k31's, and a few enfields that are keeping the prices were they are on the bolt actions. Right now the russian m91/59 mosins have dried up again and the russian m38 mosins are next to dry up too. I'm sure the supply of the russian 91/30's and the russian m44's won't last forever too. While there dirt cheap/affordable right now in the near future i'm sure they won't be so cheap. I think they will all bring a hefty price when the supplies runout. Another fine example is the antique blackpowder stuff too. Have you seen the prices on this stuff lately? There is nothing antique that isn't priced in the many $1,000 of dollars and guess why. Its because there old and they ain't manufacturing anymore there part of the history of our country. Now lets look at the late 1890's thru the 1970's military surplus guns are they manufacturing any new ones? Aren't these military surplus guns part of the history of the world as it once was just like the antique stuff is from over 200+ years ago. So when the availability stops the prices can only go up. I have never seen the bottom fall out of the gun market at anytime in over 35+ years now. Even during the bad times guns are still selling. Have you been in your local gun shop lately on a saturday or a sunday. Its worst than a gun show there so crowded.

The bottomline its your gun and you can sporterize it or leave it alone. I would buy at least two one to sporterize and one to keep in its orginal condition. I like to have a little of both worlds. Enjoy.........

Hawkster318 · « **Reply #20 on:** June 09, 2006, 11:10:58 PM »

Cheesehead,

The mount is the St. Marie D&T mount, it requires (3) holes and a little bit of wood removal on the stock. I did the wood removal with an exacto knife, it is pretty easy to do.

Being attached this way allows for a larger scope too. It is an excellant set-up for left eye dominant, right handed shooters.

IIRC the offset from the bore is about 1" CL of scope to CL of bore. The Clamp-on Mount offset is about 3/4" CL to CL, but to the right side.

I have it set up on mu hunting rifle and it works grreat. I saw some real purty does with it. Unfortunately, where I hunt, does aren't permitteed.

jack19512 · « **Reply #21 on:** June 10, 2006, 12:36:45 AM »

Cheesehead

Don't know if you have seen a pic of a K31 with the mount that you don't have to drill and tap for but if you haven't heres one. I find this mount to be very strong and solid. Also no permanent alterations to your rifle.

jh45gun · « **Reply #22 on:** June 10, 2006, 05:53:36 PM »

Jack the Swedish Mausers do not have any historical value either as they were not used in any wars also same as the K31 but look at how their prices have raised. I feel the K31 will follow the same path for the reasons the Swedish Mausers did. A well built accurate rifle that still has a pristine bore as most Swedes and Swiss rifles do.

jack19512 · « **Reply #23 on:** June 10, 2006, 06:19:46 PM »

It would be nice if they do. Like I said this would be one time I would be happy if I were to be proved wrong. To be honest it would be one of the very few times I didn't lose my butt on a purchase. :grin:

Cement Man · « **Reply #24 on:** June 10, 2006, 07:04:27 PM »

D Man, Thanks for the advise on the stocks. Can't wait to get started.

Guys, I think these rifles will go up in value. I'm probably the poorest forecaster of investments there is, but I think the superb quality and accuracy of these rifles will continue to make them sought after. I bought about 8 Swedes approximately 15 - 20 years ago - some absolutely pristine. I don't know if I paid $120 for one, most were from $50 to $75 or thereabouts. I just couldn't get over the quality for the money. I also bought a couple of Argentines for the less than $100 and a Brazilian for about $60. All are nice. I keep these! Funny how it took me till now to discover the K31's.

There is a little history for me in the Swedes - so to speak. I have a good friend who lives in Hollviken in the south of Sweden on the Baltic Sea. I visit him there and walk along the shore where there are still a lot of old pillboxes left. The Swedes guarded the entrance to the Oresund against the Germans. I wonder if any of my Swedes were in those pillboxes. My friend was in the Swedish army, and has visited me frequently in the states - he looks at my Swedes as old friends and wonders if he has crossed paths with any of them before.

Cheesehead · « **Reply #25 on:** June 15, 2006, 05:34:49 PM »

So much great information. Jack, is that mount off set? I love the photos. Got to get a new dig camera myself. DMAN, I see you left the forum for a while, good to see you back, you contribute so much.

Cheese

jack19512 · « **Reply #26 on:** June 15, 2006, 06:33:29 PM »

Cheesehead

Yes it is off set. Not much though. I use to have the scout scope set up on my K31 but I didn't like it very much. I like this set up a lot better.

This mount is very easy to install on a K31 and I think it is excellent quality. I am very happy with it.

I started to get the drill and tap scope mount but I am glad I didn't. I did put some blue loc-tite on the mounting screw so hopefully it wouldn't loosen over time. So far no problems.