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Attachment 40285Well I found a home for my bayo bargin today.She is a pretty nice condition K-31 Bore & crown look crisp with the usual dents to the stock.These guns are made like a Swiss watch,very nice workmanship. Now the fun part researching and shooting.
That's a pretty nice looking one. Does it have a name tag?
Funny you should ask. It does in fact have the tag. And I am feeling a bit silly for being so excited about it having one but I find it fascinating. I will try and post a photo and perhaps get some help deciphering.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aragorn243
Three avaliable at the local fun show. One was sporterized. One looked like somone had been driving tent stakes with the side of the butt (Samco "cracked stock" ?). The one pictured looked very nice to me though I have not seen enough of them to know how it rates. Seems as though non corrosive surplus ammo is avaliable and reasonable so I am pretty pleased.
PS Lots of nice accessories about as well.
Slings are available for these from several sources. Muzzle caps are priced all over the place, if you're lucky, the same place that has the sling will have cheap muzzle caps. The cleaning kits have become scarce and the prices have gone up. From what I can see, this one looks to be in above average shape stock wise. It could have been sanded. Check to see if the Swiss emblem is on the side of the butt and how deep it is. If it's shallow, it's been sanded. This was probably done in Switzerland by it's owner so not unusual. A lot of the rifles Cabela's had a few years back were like that. The slings are dated so you may want to try to get one near the year of production. That leaves you with watching ebay. Probably late war or post war production due to the beech stock.
No markings on the stock so it may have been sanded. If so it appears to have been done some time ago as none of the dents/dings/scratches edges seem feathered and they did a nice job (no sanding marks).
How do you determine the year of manufature?
I may have answered my own question about date of manufacture k31swiss.com indicates 1943 736076-786550 per the 7383 series serial number on mine.
The stock will be dated under the butt plate but that date will be a year or more earlier than the production date. The Swiss sand a lot better than the Soviets did. I believe mine was produced in 1943 but I'm too tired to look it up right now. I have a Walnut Stock. It's possible yours may be a replacement stock. Or it was just around the transition to beech.
http://www.k31swiss.com/page1/page5/page5.html This is the link to the production dates. Is my stock Beech? In tone it looks a bit darker than the photos of Beech stocked k31s I have been looking at. I will try and pull the butt plate today.
The rifle does seem to have been restocked due to the 1944 stock date and the 1943 serial number. Fred Schriber Kp (Kompagnie) = Company III /253 Tagerig Switzerland is the best I can interpit the tag information. The number on the rear is the rifle serial number. Not sure about the FLis part. Any Ideas?
Probably a replacement stock as the wood cured before they matched it to the metal.
My rifle is a 1942 production, probably February or March and the stock date is March of 1941 so that's roughly a years difference. A 1943 rifle could have either walnut or beech as that is the year they made the switch.
It is odd that they would need to replace a stock after two years of use.