Some new acquisitions: Mil-Surp

[TMan]

I went to Military Gun Supply yesterday. mgsdfw.com

I picked up a Yugoslavian capture Mauser K98, and a Swiss K31. The stocks on the K31's were all rough, but the actions and bores were excellent. I asked what happened to the stocks. He said that it was from stacking them up on end in the snow. Made sense.

I kind of got off on the wrong foot when I walked in and asked if they only supplied to the military. "No, we sell military surplus". Not even a smile. He must have been thinking: "what a jerk".

It was a lot of work, but I did overcome the bad first impression. Before I left I was looking at a Russian M44 7.62.54R carbine. He kind of winced and said: "You know those kick like a mule. If you really want to get one, you should load your own ammo, or use some of this hollow-point stuff."

On my way out he told me to stop at Walmart and buy some shoulder pads for the K98 and K31. I did.

The K31 really impressed me. The trigger pull is long, but fairly light and the break is so clean you really have no idea when it is going to go off. I just don't know what to do about the stock. It is going to take some serious sanding.

Now I have more cosmoline to clean, but before I do, I have to clean the house and child-proof it. My daughter's grandmother died and my daughter is driving over with her two girls - oldest one is 3. I have to hide my guns, Teddy Bears, and dolls (we have some expensive porcelain dolls from Germany. Not the thing for a 3 year old to play with).

First jet-lag, then a cold, then a sinus infection, and now my grand-daughters. Been a rough month. I'll have to spend a lot of time at the range next month to recover. I need some Gilroy Garlic toast.

[5ontarget]

If you didn't like the 30-06, you won't like the 7.62X54 either. I have not heard of an easy shooting Russian 7.62x54.
The Swiss K31 has intrigued me for quite a while. Like most guns that interest me, I don't own one. Let me know what you think of yours when you shoot yours.

Carb cleaner/brake cleaner is your friend for getting the cosmo out of the little nooks and crannies. That and/or a shallow pan with a warm solution of orange degreaser and a toothbrush. I've tried simple green and purple power, but they didn't work as good as the orange degreaser stuff. For a pan, I used a cheap plastic tray for mixing mortar/cement. My friend has a 4 or 6in pvc pipe split in half (like a trough).

[TA]

Good deal TMan. Two nice rifles. Are the swastikas still intact on the K98? or did the Russians peen them? The K31 is known as a "straight pull" bolt action. With a little practice, you can get pretty quick at cycling it. I had heard that the Swiss actually did a slapping type motion back and forth. That bolt itself is quite a Swiss design. The other thing you need to do is remove the butt plate and see if you got "the jewel". Many of theose K31's had ID tags from the soldiers that carried them. There are guys on some Swiss Rifles Forum that will interpret them. They say that the K31 is one of the most accurate mil-surp rifles out there.

On the finish; there is some sort of odd mixture of varnish and oil on those. You can't just sand them and oil them like you can with most military stocks. I read where a couple guys finally figured it out and used a mixture of Tung Oil and some orange colored varnish.

Chewed up buttstock, huh?


Here is the butt tag from one of mine. This is an excellent condition Walnut stock that I picked up.


Another butt plate tag

[TMan]

I've been robbed - no ID tag, and no swastikas. I disassembled and cleaned the K31 today. Do I have parts missing? This thing can't be this simple. It reminds me of a Glock. However, never in a million years would you get a Glock with the trigger pull that the K31 has. The K31 is soooo smooth.

It looks like it is going to be Wednesday or Thursday before I get to shoot it because my daughter from Georgia is here with her two girls. Bad timing.

[TMan]

Well, Wednesday morning is out because I remembered I have a Garden Club Meeting. It is one I need to attend to because I'm going to be "boss" for one of the beds. It should be enjoyable - telling women what to do. What a rare occurance.

TA, what is the deal with these stocks. Are they better to be left alone or do be refinished? My AK-47's stock is bare wood, as is the SKS that isn't going to get a plastic stock. Obviously, I'll do something with them.

However, the K98 and K31 have stocks that were once finished. The one on the Mauser really isn't bad at all, and I'm not sure if it wouldn't be best to just leave it alone, or if there is some type of conditioning to preserve it - oil's perhaps or wax?

[TA]

TMan,

I guess it depends how bad the buttstock is on the K31. If they are real chewed up, you might be best not to mess with it because it would take so much sanding to get rid of the bad area. Some Linseed oil or Tung oil would never hurt. There are those too that say you should never alter the finish of a military stock because it detracts from the history behind them. I say it is your rifle, you do what you want.

The K98 originally came with an oil finish much like most military rifles from that era (except the K31 of course). The Russians captured these rifles from some dead German, they disassembled them, reblued the metal parts, varnished the stocks and reassembled them from the piles of parts. They then stored them for the U.S. collectors to eventually export, or so it seems since I don't think they were fired. The Russians don't throw anything away.

Some have had the varnish start to peel off and just finished the job. I have one that I am leaving alone because even though the Russians refinished it, it is still part of the history. There are 2 types of wood used too. Some are solid walnut and some are laminated wood. I would bet you have swastikas on the receiver somewhere. They are small and have an eagle with them I think. I think mine has 2 on the left side of the receiver. The Russians peened some of them. Mine is buried in the back of the safe and I don't feel like unloading it tonight to look. Also, the bores on these rifles tend to be pretty dark and pitted. Cleaning the bores after firing corrosive ammo just wasn't at the top of their do list.

[TA]

One of the better prices I have seen online for the Swiss GP11 ammo is Dan's Ammo. www.dansammo.com/

[TMan]

Wow, they have great prices on 45 ACP too.

Is the 7.5 ammo corrosive?

[TA]

I believe that it is not. I just checked some of mine and it is 1978 production. The stuff looks like new and by the looks of all the K31 bores, they never shot corrosive ammo.

[5ontarget]

The Swiss spec'd their ammo as non corrosive. Also of interesting note, the jacket is cupro-nickel plated steel...
So from the inside out- lead- cupronickel- steel- cupronickel.