I have two -- the sister has been kept original.
I have two -- the sister has been kept original.
Ignore Alien Orders
Hahaha. Exactly the reason I chose to buy a bubba'd rifle to start with as a project gun.Originally Posted by Tamara
Doc,
That's awesome! Nicely done. Is that a Mauser scout mount I see? Require any modification to install, or was it solid as is purchased?
The Richards stock looks great, man. A correctly sporterized milsurp such as yours is the way to do it. I die on the inside everytime I see a half-assed bubba job.
[QUOTE=TGS;99184That's awesome! Nicely done. Is that a Mauser scout mount I see? Require any modification to install, or was it solid as is purchased?
The Richards stock looks great, man. A correctly sporterized milsurp such as yours is the way to do it. I die on the inside everytime I see a half-assed bubba job.[/QUOTE]
-- It's an Ashley, and just to be on the safe side we bedded it. The Richards stock is interesting. It won't take any sort of finish, so it may get rattlecanned at some point. The intended application is a deer rifle, on the off chance that I get interested in that someday, and with the known flaw in the concept being sunlight on your six at dawn or dusk.
Anything new on your K31 Scout, Doc?
So my FFL finally got his power back, and I went over to pick up my rifles today. Quick crap picture of my K31s and the Schmidt-Rubin:
The walnut K31 is awesome in person. It's got some really nice grain that you can barely start to see in the picture, and the nice reddish tinge to the wood from the old linseed oil is fabulous. It has a lot of dings but no water damage. Now that I have the rifle, I know it was issued to Emil Rohner from Reinach, born in 1927, assigned to Schwere Fusiliers Kompanie 4 (Heavy Infantry Company 4). I can't make out the battalion.....the writing is impeccable quality, but I'm not sure what it means....it looks like an eszett ß but with a long J-like tail attached to it. Usually that place on the tag just has a number for the battalion.
I'm also kinda confused by the Schwere Fusiliers designation. Since the word Fusilier was used originally for light infantry (carrying the Fusil, a light musket), it's confusing me why they have a heavy fusilier designation. I'm wondering how they came to use that. I'll have to ask over on the Swiss Rifles forum.
Very excited! The walnut will clean up very well, and it's already become my favorite rifle. The Schmidt-Rubin is in great condition, and should provide a great project over the next month or so.
ETA: There used to be two different units in the Swiss army..fusiliers and schutzen. The fusiliers carried smoothbores, whereas the schutzen had rifles. So by the time the K31 rolled around the distinction had obviously been dropped for a while, so fusiliers were just regular infantry. The heavy fusiliers, the 4th company, was the heavy weapons company similar to how a US battalion is structured with the 4th company being heavy weapons, or the 4th platoon in a USMC rifle company being the weapons platoon.
Last edited by TGS; 11-09-2012 at 06:20 PM.
This thread needs more pics.
Hopefully I'll have some good pics for you by the end of the week.
The walnut K31 is disassembled and the stock is drying right now. It had a coat of shellac over top the linseed oil, as was common for Swiss armories to apply after they switched wholesale to shellac with the adoption of beech stocks. It's a nice combo, the amber gloss of the shellac really adds a nice touch to the oxidized linseed (what causes the red tint).
Instead of stripping it entirely, I just took off the shellac last night, cleaned it this morning, and just steamed it. Then I'll hit it with sandpaper to take out a lot of the dents, which this rifle has a lot of. Hopefully the base raw linseed oil will hold up through that so I can keep some of the oxidized look, at which time I can rub in some more oil and then probably a top coat of shellac. If it doesn't work, then I guess I'll just fully strip it and start from scratch. I don't know if I'm willing to put up with the labor of raw linseed oil, so I'll most likely use some Lin-Speed (boiled linseed oil with dryers) I have.
The amount of dents this rifle has is staggering. Like previously noted, it has no water damage.....truly out of the ordinary for an issued K31. My guess is that since Emil Rohner was assigned to a heavy weapons company, he may have never taken it on exercises as he must have been manning a crew-served weapon. Thus, no water damage from sitting it in the snow/banging cleated boots against it, with all the superficial bumps from it being banged around in armories or whatnot.
I was wrong about the 1911, as well. It's not a 1911, as the seller listed. It's a 96/11 (Model 89/96's converted to the 1911 standard). The serial number places it as a 1900 manufactured rifle. The mixup by the seller is inconsequential to me: it was still made to safely shoot modern loads. However, it really angers me when I see M1889's listed as 96/11s, G11's, ect. Those weren't even strong enough to hold up to use with the weaker GP90 cartridge.....shooting modern 7.5 Swiss (GP11) out of them is a ballistic facial reconstruction waiting to happen.
Last edited by TGS; 11-11-2012 at 12:49 PM.
TGS,
What is the condition of the bore on the walnut K31? Do you know year of manufacture?
The condition of the bore is superb, brand new looking. It's hard to believe that you could find better than the average K31 bore, but this one is. The serial number places it at early 1944 manufacture. All parts are matching, of course.
Another thing that leads me to believe that Emil rarely used it is that it doesn't show the typical bluing wear on the back of the receiver from being carried in the field pack when hiking:
Last edited by TGS; 11-11-2012 at 02:11 PM.
Emil might have been the guy always on Rear D.
One trick I've read* to get rid of wood dents- use a soldering iron and a wet cloth to steam the dent out.
Practice on something else first, of course.
*in a guitar repair book
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