First K31

Picked up my first today, 1940 all matching with troop tag and walnut stock, of course I can't read it because its smeared, always my luck. More concerned with ammo, understanding it's a rough time right now, would this be a good time to start learning about reloading? I'm waiting to break ground on my house in the spring and plan on having a "gun area" in my garage. I say this because I haven't seen 7.5x55 in any store for a long time, going back to early 2020 I don't remember seeing it then. I'm just trying to feel out the ammo situation like everyone else.

PPU in 7.5 was pretty common before the panic.

Reloading is fine in normal times but you can't get components right now. I think Primers are the hardest.

Equally, its not cheap to get setup for it. I probably have $1500 into my setup now. Updated as I went along. What I have suits me but not a has to for anyone else. Coaxe press, RCBS Powder dispense, Trimmer setup for cse length and chamfer and deburr, an annealer to preserve the cases life.

PPU makes 7.5 cases but I don't know what availability is (Lapua does too but have not seen those in a long time). Any 308 caliber projectile works as the size is the same (or so close as to make zero difference)

Not sure when ammo or parts comes back, you have like 3 factors going now. Fear of Biden (misplaced) Covd (lots reloading) and Democrats buying guns now (opinion)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RC20

PPU in 7.5 was pretty common before the panic.

Reloading is fine in normal times but you can't get components right now. I think Primers are the hardest.

Equally, its not cheap to get setup for it. I probably have $1500 into my setup now. Updated as I went along. What I have suits me but not a has to for anyone else. Coaxe press, RCBS Powder dispense, Trimmer setup for cse length and chamfer and deburr, an annealer to preserve the cases life.

PPU makes 7.5 cases but I don't know what availability is (Lapua does too but have not seen those in a long time). Any 308 caliber projectile works as the size is the same (or so close as to make zero difference)

Not sure when ammo or parts comes back, you have like 3 factors going now. Fear of Biden (misplaced) Covd (lots reloading) and Democrats buying guns now (opinion)

---

Yea, the three headed hydra actually has me a bit worried unlike some of the other panics in the past. I think permanent changes might result from all this, guess some of my shooters are likely headed to the safe to collect dust😩

I think it will change, give it 6 months. I suspect there is a lot of "Honey, what is all this stuff stacked up in my pantry " going on.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RC20

I think it will change, give it 6 months. I suspect there is a lot of "Honey, what is all this stuff stacked up in my pantry " going on.

---

Once my new house is completed I already have a reloading station drawn in, looking to be done this fall. Hopefully by then I can just focus on the necessary components.

You can trade a case of ammo for a rifle now. A bit ridiculous. I saw a posting yesterday where someone found the Swiss battle packs, ONE PACK for $129.99 I thought I read it wrong. The guy only had 5 left. That's over $2 per round.

I don't think I have ever sold ammo but I'm seriously considering it now. I think I paid about $20 a battle pack last time I bought it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Aragorn243

You can trade a case of ammo for a rifle now. A bit ridiculous. I saw a posting yesterday where someone found the Swiss battle packs, ONE PACK for $129.99 I thought I read it wrong. The guy only had 5 left. That's over $2 per round.

I don't think I have ever sold ammo but I'm seriously considering it now. I think I paid about $20 a battle pack last time I bought it.

---

I'm headed back to the shop to make a trade, offloading the K31 as I'm not going to chase invisible ammo for the next 3 years. My hopes for reloading are likely dashed for now as well, don't like having rifles I cannot shoot, just seems pointless to me.

You can't find ammo for anything right now. Swiss ammo is out there people are just hoarding it like everything else.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Aragorn243

You can't find ammo for anything right now. Swiss ammo is out there people are just hoarding it like everything else.

---

I have stores of ammo for all my other rifles but greatly underestimated the lack of 7.5x55. I just bought 100 rounds of 303 the other day at 60 cents a round. Would you keep the k31 "hoping" the swiss ammo comes back around or continue with the trade? I just have a bad feeling about what I'm reading on commercial 7.5x55 availability moving forward.

I have 5 Swiss rifles that use that ammo. As they are the most accurate rifles in the world not specifically made for accuracy, hell yes, I'll keep them. Most competitions require them to compete in the scoped class even when they aren't scoped. Course I have about 600 rounds for them. Privi partisan makes it, if people weren't hoarding everything right now it wouldn't be a shortage. I just came from Cabelas today and they had $28,000 worth of ammo come in and sold ALL of it the next day. He also said they don't really have a shortage, they just sell all of it the instant they put in on the shelves. The only thing they had today was 28 gauge shotgun ammo. Same thing that my local Walmart has. I was in a new Gander Mountain today and they actually had a lot of shotgun ammo and I bought a box of BB 12 gauge that was actually pretty reasonable. One gunshop, not a single cartridge for sale, another gun shop, a couple boxes each of maybe a dozen or so odd ball size boxes. No one is shooting the ammo either so when normalcy returns, there will be a massive glut of ammo. People are sitting back, watching and waiting.

After 20 years of running accuracy matches for as issued military rifles each weekend with about 300 different shooters and every military rifle , I did not see the K-31 as the most accurate rifle ever . They shot well but never dominated the matches . None of our match records were held by a K-31 , 100 yard bench group size , top score , 200 yard , rapid fire , sniper , to name some . There are a few reasons people feel the K-31 is so accurate . First GP-11 ammo is very good ammo and most other rifle types do not have loaded ammo of this grade to use and need good reloads to shoot well and most people can not reload accurate ammo for military rifles . Also K-31's were all checked for wear and rebarreled if needed before storage and are in excellent condition , that can not be said for most other type rifles . And last most people do not shoot old iron sighted military rifles well enough to see a major difference . The only time we had to separate a rifle type was it just was not accurate enough to compete with the others and enough people had that type and wanted to shot them . Two types that come to mind were the Enfield's [ nobody ever got one to be competitive in a pure accuracy match ] and the Type 99 [ the large dia peep sight just did not allow for benchrest accuracy ] . Both did do well in speed or combat type matches . It took a pair of sub 1 inch 5 shot groups at 100 yards shot on demand to win most of our matches and we had many shooters that could do that with about any type of military rifle . That is 5 on demand , no do overs , not the best five of 8 , not the best ever shot once . Also we were shooting for score , so the group had to be in the X ring to win the match .

Here in Italy the Carl Gustafs 96 are king. But the K31 are also well represented. Some Brazilian and Persian Maulers, and also other South American ones also do well enough and win.
But there are just too many CGs.
I never compete. Never had the time before.
Now, with this Covid thing, I actually could do it...

After a few years our matches got very competitive . The top finishers were also the best reloaders . Good ammo could always beat the best shooter with average ammo . The top finishers would shoot about 100 to 300 rounds of reloads in load testing before the match .

That would be beyond my possibilities

A lot of our shooters were very serious and had the time and budget . We had many national ranked CMP , Benchrest and Sil shooters that got into the military rifles . One guy was retired and spent every day at the range and his reloading budget was close to six figures . I run a ballistics lab and custom rifle shop [ some benchrest rifles ] . So you can see how they got really good at it .

I can imagine. My problem is simply time and also available space (ranges) for that. If I had the time, I'd have to drive 80 km to the only range which is open every day. Otherwise I'd have Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning (but this range, Sunday's, would be over 60 km from home).
The only relatively close one is where I usually go, Saturday afternoon. 40 km.
That is really a problem...
The guys from the shooting team there are all retired folks and last year they offered me a place in the team. But they are there every Saturday and they all live closer than me to the other range, that is always open.
And the shooting contests are all over northern Italy just for the first rounds, with some places, like Tuscany, where you need 6 or more hours to reach the range.
With my job (before Covid), I was out traveling on average 4 days a week, so I never felt like taking shooting that seriously. Now i'm home 4 days a week, exactly the opposite, which would make it possible.
My problem is probably that I just like to shoot all my rifles, so I never use the same more than two or three times in a row.
I shoot well, but will never get to very well like this...
I'll have to accept this and remain a shooter who is trying to become some kind of a collector.
And still, there are just the guys from the shooting team beating me at "my" range. And not always.
Bragged enough, I go buy the birthday present for my wife. Tomorrow's the day!

Cheers folks!

I quit benchrest shooting because it was so much work it became a job , not fun anymore . The military rifles were much more fun . 20 years ago they were cheap and a new type was imported every week . I would buy what was showing up and then work up a load before the match . Always a different rifle . It was fun winning a match with something different like a M-95 Dutch carbine , back to back sub 1 inch groups . The strangest rifle I ever won with was a 10.35mm Vetterli rifle . It took me over a month to find a bullet and load good enough to be competitive . It was not the smallest groups , but they were dead center on the 10 ring and the big bullet hole does help to cut scoring lines and add points .