K-31 Rebarrel

M

Mosin-Marauder

New member
While my Barrel shows no signs of giving up now, I've been worried about what happens when I shoot out the barrel? I can get NEW M48 Barrels for my M24/47 and Used Barrels for my Mosin, but I'm confused as to what to do what to do with the K-31. Since I got these rifles when I was 14-15, what happens when I'm 30,40,50 and I'm getting shotgun patterns at 5 yards? Could I just use a regular .308 diameter barrel, turn it down to the original outer barrel diameter on my Lathe, run the pins out on my front and rear sights, and Ream the chamber/thread it to the K-31?

Thanks for any help you can provide!

Regards,

-Mo.
 
If I recall correctly the K31 has a complicated breeching system with helically cut locking seats; thus it would be a lot of work and expense to rebarrel. The original barrel ought to last 5-7000 rounds and that is a lot of shooting especially for an esoteric caliber. Just buy a few more rifles as you go thus spreading your barrel wear.
 
No. Just don't. Destroys the value and doesn't need it. Either get some dies for the 7.5x55 (which can be found online), or sell it, or just keep it as a display piece / heirloom.
 
Mosin-Marauder - Never heard of a Swiss rifle barrel needed to be replaced.

The Swiss make their rifles like their watched: built to last and last
 
You're talking about something that is waaaaaaaaay off in the future. You might not even have the rifle 30 or 40 years from now. I wouldn't worry about barrel wear right now.
 
You don't use bigger bullets - you'd never need that unless you shot like or 20K or 30K rounds (but yeah, I suppose if it wore a lot, you could use .309s to .311s). But much more likely, if the throat wears, you can seat the bullets out longer to be closer to the lands upon firing, if accuracy fades - but even that would take a LOT of shooting, as it's not terribly overbore, and I don't think they were shot that much by the Swiss military - the stocks got the hell beat out from training, on most of them, but not the barrels. Neat rifles. I remember $150 K-31s and $125 in-the-cosmoline Russian SKSs - and I'm not even that old - that was just the mid-90s.
 
Just buy another nice K31 and sell your shot-out rifle. You'll never shoot it out, though, unless you turn stupid and run hot reloads through it. Don't worry about it, might as well worry about getting hit by Russian space junk.
 
This guy claims to rebarrel K31's, after using part of the old barrel.

http://www.lprgunsmith.com/K31_rifles.htm


You shoot enough rounds through the barrel and it will wear. You should have an accuracy life around 3000 rounds and a decent life of 5000 rounds, this is typical for 308 service rifle barrels. The rifle was already used when you got it so who knows how many rounds you can shoot, but personally, I would not worry about it.

I have shot rifle barrels out in NRA competition. Takes a lot of shooting and a rifle barrel that won't cluster at 600 yards, will still shoot very well at 300 yards.
 
"Since I got these rifles when I was 14-15, what happens when I'm 30,40,50 and I'm getting shotgun patterns at 5 yards?"
Clean the bore with grease using care, and it basically won't wear out in your lifetime. These are service guns with thousands down the pipe already, showing no signs of giving up. If you are worried that your shooting of, what, ten thousand dollars worth of ammunition in today's money will wear your gun out, I'd suggest buying a second K31 early.

A better reason to rebarrel is to rechamber to something more common if we ever run dry on GP11 or brass. They chop the barrel, bore & thread it, and install a new one. Looks like utter garbage, but it works. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

You're far more likely to need a new operating handle & extractor that will be quite non-existent in another 50 years, btw ;)

TCB
 
Just buy another one. They are still fairly cheap. Not as cheap as they used to be though. I bought one for $59 about 10 years ago. Wish I would have bought 10.
 
Since I already reload for it,nwould just increasing the bullet diameter as the bore wears be a good alternative?
Click to expand...

The term "wearing out" a barrel is most usually referring to burning out the throat. It takes a lot of rounds to wear out the rifling- and the throat usually erodes before you'll wear out the lands.

The best thing you can do-since you handload- is avoid hot loads as they accelerate throat erosion.
 
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