Swiss K31

One of my favorite bolt action rifles, the Swiss K31 needs no introduction. Despite the name, it's not really a true carbine with it's almost 26 inch (652mm) barrel. The straight-pull bolt is surprisingly smooth, just make sure to remove the magazine before playing with it as an empty magazine will keep the bolt from moving forward.

I've fired quite a bit of the now elusive GP11 ammunition through this example and the accuracy is almost boring. The cliché is true about Swiss rifles.

The side sling setup on the K31 is almost identical to the French MAS 36 and Italian Carcano Carbine side slings. It's a high quality and comfortable sling as I have carried this rifle on my back for hours on a hike in the Utah mountains.

The 6-round magazine doesn't offer a huge advantage over the more common 5-shot magazines of it's contemporaries, but it is a nice little bonus.

The magazine is easily removable via a latch on the right side. For the modern shooter, this means the rifle can easily be unloaded unlike a lot of bolt actions that require a tool to empty the magazine without cycling the bolt. For loading, the magazine can be topped off singly outside of the rifle and then inserted if the shooter does not have any chargers.

Accurate and well-made, the K31 is a must-have for military surplus collectors. The price of K31s has increase steadily over the last few years so I'd recommend getting one of these sooner rather than later.

Check out my YouTube video if you'd like to learn more.