Milsurp warhorses of history- K98, M38, K31

I GOT'S me a K31!!!>>>>>>>>>>>>>


Now, this is the kind of fun silly happiness our late pal Rusty would get such a kick out of. What is it about old surplus weapons? We enjoy finding and shooting. So happy. I think it's because you don't buy any of these warhorses to be state of the art or ninja or prepared for WWlll, (though of course they can do the job) but for a kind of life enjoyment. I'm not sure it can be explained to a non gunny, either.

It's a heck of a lot of fun, historical, culural, a fine tool to admire, a tool to operate and enjoy a moment of living while doing so....well, it's that Old Cosmoline Sun is Out Happy To Be Here Boom Boom Blues.

Now, just add the Mojave desert or any place with distance to spare, and you have an afternoon of delightful 'rock chucking'.

munk
 
Congratulations on your purchase, Steve.

At the rate we're going, we're soon going to need a K31 subforum in the Cantina. ;)
 
At this rate, we could hire ourselves out to defend a small South American Nation.





munk
 
Ah...I've often thought about buying my own little island when I'm rich.

A well armed and polite society, we will be. ;)

John
 
ferguson said:
I GOT'S me a K31!!!

Just got back from the gunshow in Greensboro, and got a nice 1955 model, ser #249xxx for only $119. And it's even got the paper tag with the name and unit of the soldier that it was issued to. The stock is Birch, but has some flame. Should woodchuck well.:) The bore looks like a mirror, and the trigger feels like silk. Got me a couple boxes of surplus ammo. As you said, it's not cheap.

This is too cool.

Steve
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One of the guys over at AR15.com took the name/unit info on his K31 and did some searching on the web. He found and corresponded with the guy!
Too cool.

DaddyDett
 
Steve, congrats!

Gotta get me one too, I guess. My older swiss rifles maybe could use some younger company...

Then, I will have an excuse to buy the $300 diopter sights made for them...

Now, if someone would just figure out how to attatch a Khuk to the bayonet lug...


:D

yeah! Somehow, this is making my day!

Tom
 
Steve, you're gonna love it! Sweet shooter. Will get you comments on the range. Positive ones.

I just saw some sabots, .22 into .30. Thinking about loading some 4,000 fps 7.5x55 rounds. :D

MGS has the GP-11 ammo for $18.95/60 rnds. Grafs has the Hornady and the Wolfs is around; cheaper too.

Reading back through this, I'd like to thank Dave Rishar who did send me that headspace gauge; I did fix the M38- it had a GO headspace issue. New bolthead- $6. Many thanks, Dave.

I've never even seen crack, but it can't be any more addictive than the milsurp hobby.

Wish Garands, M-1's and '03's were cheaper- I don't have one American veteran rifle. Yet. CMP's rifles are pretty picked over; the Greek ones need a bunch of work. And $600 sends you to the range with an armload of K31's 59/66 SKSs, Mosin-Nagants and ammo...


Mike
 
Ad Astra said:
. . .
Wish Garands, M-1's and '03's were cheaper- I don't have one American veteran rifle. Yet. CMP's rifles are pretty picked over; the Greek ones need a bunch of work. And $600 sends you to the range with an armload of K31's 59/66 SKSs, Mosin-Nagants and ammo...

Mike
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If it were not for Grandfather's M1917 Winchester, I wouldn't have a U.S. military rifle. He bought his when he was demobed. The foreign stuff has always seemed a better deal. :o
 
Dave Rishar
"I'm a M-N man at heart. They're ugly, they're clunky, they're completely unrefined, and they're nearly foolproof"

I gotta agree. The Russians just seem to get it right when it comes to their guns.

kuraa pokha, manmaa naraakha
Jeremiah
 
bullfrog99 said:
I gotta agree. The Russians just seem to get it right when it comes to their guns.
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If you haven't already, spend some time inside an SVT-40 for an example of the Russians getting it wrong. ;)

I'm being overly hard on it, actually. They were attempting an amazingly difficult feat: a reliable semiauto (when semiautos were still a new idea) that fed a rimmed round, could be manufactured by semiskilled labor, and would have to tolerate some rather extreme climate changes depending on where it was sent. They are handsome rifles, they "hang" well, and the muzzlebrake really does work and was ahead of its time.

Just don't take one apart without good instructions handy. :)

I consider the SVT's to be one of the coolest WWII long guns in existance, but I can understand why the Russians weren't happy with them.
 
Dave Rishar said:
If you haven't already, spend some time inside an SVT-40 for an example of the Russians getting it wrong. ;)

I'm being overly hard on it, actually. They were attempting an amazingly difficult feat: a reliable semiauto (when semiautos were still a new idea) that fed a rimmed round, could be manufactured by semiskilled labor, and would have to tolerate some rather extreme climate changes depending on where it was sent.
Click to expand...

SVT-40.
Another Linky

Yup, nice lookin rifle.:D :cool:
 
True the SVT was a little finicky. Pretty, but finicky. I didn't really think about that one. It didn't make it into full production, if memory serves. It was replaced before it was produced in too huge a number by the M44 type Nagants I believe. Still, they are neat looking.

kuraa pokha, manmaa naraakha
Jeremiah
 
dave1.jpg


No, I'm not happy in this picture. Thank God for the internet or reassembly would've turned into a day long evolution.

Mine's a bit pitted in the bore but not enough to worry me; I have guns with bores far worse that shoot fine. It is horribly inaccurate with Czech surplus. It may do better with the Yugo or Wolf stuff, but if the Czech is any indicator, I doubt it. I haven't taken a close look at it yet but if I had to guess at what the problem was, I'd bet that the muzzle crown is hosed from jam'n'ram cleaning methods. One of these days I'll work up the nerve to pull off the muzzlebrake and have a look. I do hope it's the crown - it's easy to fix and the repairs will be hidden.

Pleasant to shoot, though, and it chugs along happily on a gas setting of 1.3.
 
Well the stock looks nice at any rate Dave. As to accuracy, the muzzle is usually the culprit on surplus guns, but I might point out that Czech is loaded with 149-grain bullets loaded to 2825 fps, and the Russians were still shooting 182-grain bullet at 2650 fps, when the Tokarev was issued. The newer, lighter and faster x54's might have a pressure curve, which gets the gas system into motion before the bullet clears the muzzle. I know it has an adjustable gas system, but the faster burning/higher pressure powder in the more modern ammo might be blowing the op rod back too early, yet if you choked the flow to the point where it wouldn't do it, it probably wouldn't have enough energy to function reliably. Such a thing isn't unheard of. M-1 Garands for instance must be fired with bullets in the 140-168 grain range to function properly. 200 grainers don't play well with the gas system. PSL's are weight specific on what they can shoot. 140-150 grain bullets work beautifully, 200 grain bullets chew up the action and render the gun useless within 200 rounds. Just my $0.02

kuraa pokha, manmaa naraakha
Jeremiah
 
i dont have pictures of all of my surplus but heres just a few, the enfield shotgun aint mine. its my girlfriends.

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Nice, Nice Pix, KaBar!!!! :eek:

I like the laminate Mosin-Nagant.

Hey, y'all. Check out the crazy hard-chromed Mosin M-38's and M-44's at Classic Arms.

http://www.classicarms.us/

Trying to decide... <drums fingers> But they're so cheap maybe I'll just order one. Hard chrome would make it more rust-resistant, right? And they probably picked some pretty good ones to bother with the work and expense of hard-chroming...


Ad Astra :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
 
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