Military Surplus @ MindSay

That would be a rifle and three handguns. :)

I got my Swiss K31 at the gun show today! It was manufactured in 1936, according to the online serial number info I could find. All of the parts match. And for anyone who was wondering, I already removed the butt plate, there was no note under it like some people tend to find in them. But the plate was quickly replaced after I found some not so good looking things under there, including grass, a few blonde hairs, and I'm not sure I want to know what the spot of dried goo was on the one edge. I know what it looked like (and it was in just the right spot for it), but we're not going to think about that.

For a rifle of this nature the stock is in decent condition. I mean, it's horribly dinged up and scared all over, but I've seen worse and it's nothing that needs any real attention. I believe the wood is walnut. But I have no plans to refinish the stock. I've heard it makes them look nicer and I've seen the finished products. That's all well and good. But I'm the type of person that... let's just say I didn't even disturb the grass under the plate. This thing may have seen some sort of combat. As far as I see it, the dings tell a story.

So it was interesting trying to find it. I walked the whole show and found several tables with these rifles set up, but I couldn't find the guy everyone was sending me to. Every one I saw was going for $250 to $350, and this is not the average price for a K31. But when I found mine, it was in better shape and only going for $10 more than I had expected. I got it for $169.

The guy gave me the 4473 and just laughed when I went through the whole thing like it was nothing and didn't even make one mistake. "Fill these out a lot, I see!"

"Usually from your end, though."

Finding the ammo was harder. No one had the ammo for a decent price, I kept thinking to myself, "I can order this cheaper through Cabela's, even with shipping!" Only one guy had surplus ammo, and only a little of it. I cleaned him out of it, too. To give you an idea, that only put me back $46.

So I sit the rifle in the back seat and head back to my place of employment to shoot him a bit. I went in without thinking of accuracy. My first time with a gun on the range I figure accuracy be damned. I got a used bag for it that cost me a whopping $5 and headed for the range to try him out.

Now, I've shot one before, but I had no instruction on doing so. So I asked one of the range officers if he could show me the basics of working my rifle. All I wanted was the basics. What does he do? While trying to figure it out himself, he decided to not admit to me that he didn't know what he was doing. Somehow, the bolt fell out and flew into a million pieces. He couldn't get it back together so one of the sales guys came over to try. He knows what he's doing and it still took him 30 minutes to get the bolt back together. I really thought at one point I was going to have to take it to a gunsmith, it was that bad. Of course the guy who dropped the bolt never even apologized. He didn't even recognize that he'd fucked up. Instead he decided to chastise me for my taste in weapons. It's another case of someone who thinks he knows everything but actually knows nothing. I guess I should have known. I let him play with my Sig one time and the next time I went on the range there was gun lubricant oozing out of the fucking trigger and everywhere else. I had to stop and strip the gun down right there, and the amounts of lubricant I had to wipe off was amazing. He easily used an entire tube of Tetra Grease on it. And he has the balls to bug me every time I mount a scope asking me repeatedly if I know what I'm doing. Apparently I'm doing better than you, dude! Needless to say, he isn't even allowed to look in the general direction of any of my guns anymore. I'm just about on speaking terms with him after the issue with the Sig and his trying to make me look like a fool after I confronted him with it. It took everything in me to not curse him out there today when he dropped the bolt on a rifle I'd owned for less than an hour.

So I got the rifle home before my parents left for their party at the art gallery (they got tickets through my dad's job for a special event to see the Monet exhibit. I really want to see it myself). They were almost late because dad was playing with it. LOL! That tickled me a bit. I don't think he realized what I was getting when I told him I was buying a rifle. But when I pulled it out of the bag his eyes just about popped out. When they got home, I sat him down with it and showed him how it worked and told him what I knew of the history of this line of firearms. He spent some time playing with it and he even wants to shoot it! I told him he was welcome to shoot it... with a note from his doctor stating he was allowed to. His doctor isn't going to OK it. They had to break his chest wall to do the surgery and he's not healed yet. Shooting this rifle is going to be far too painful. He couldn't even hold it up to his shoulder without me holding it up from the muzzle. Painful is the least shooting this rifle could be. More than likely, it would set his broken bones off and cause more damage than it would ever be worth. As far as I can tell from our customers, shooting rifles is no longer going to be an option for the rest of his life. I've taken in rifles from people who have had the same surgery and were told by doctors that their rifle shooting days were over. I'm not going to tell dad that, of course. But I am also not going to allow him to shoot the rifle without his doctor telling me it is ok for him to do so.

Mom is cut off, too, so he shouldn't feel too bad. LOL! Mom had expressed interest in shooting it before I bought it. With her shoulders, that isn't going to happen. She backed down herself when I handed it to her to hold. When she felt the weight of it she decided it wasn't something she could do. Especially when she saw that metal butt plate.

Anyway. It is a good little shooter. I didn't test for accuracy, although I do think the sights need some work. I was sort of aiming, but when I brought the target back in I saw most of the shots never even struck the paper (I wasn't really lining it up to hit the middle bowling pin, like I usually do, but I was aiming it at the paper in general). The few that did were way up high. Of course I am not used to shooting at 50 yards, either. Throw in the darkness of the range and the use of iron sights with my bad eye and it is really a nice mix of bad shooting. So it is not yet determined if the sights need work or I do. I am sure there is a real good mix of both in there. Heck, the first time I pulled the trigger the rifle surprised me and jumped up off the sandbag I was using to support it! And eventually I knocked the table and bag aside and shot the thing standing up! LOL!

Damn thing tore my shoulder all to hell. It left a mark on there worse than any 12 gauge has ever left, I'll tell you that! I need to look in to getting something for my shoulder that is padded. I don't really want to alter the rifle in any way, so padding me instead of the rifle is my best option right now. The rifle itself works beautifully. It ejects shells really hard! I was shocked! It tosses them hard enough that it knocked down a bunch of things behind me with one casing. And not one ejected casing hit me in any way. Wish my Sig would do that! LOL! But now I know why they told me to make sure I was wearing eye protection. Most of them don't use it when they shoot. I always do, save for that trip to SSI, but if I hadn't today and one had hit me in the face that would have been much worse than the casing burning my eyelid that one time.

The rifle gets really hot, too. I only put 20 rounds through it, and even 40 minutes later it was still warm.

I guess after all that you'd like some pictures, huh? Ok, well, here he is. No name yet, just "he." Enjoy!



Updated family portrait: