what the heck happened to the K31s?

T

tahunua001

New member
less that a year ago K31 swiss rifles were all the rage for cheap milsurp rifles in good condition and as good shooters for ~$350 but a quick trip over to gunchoker does not show a single rifle for less than $500 and most priced over $650... did I miss something?
 
K 31

a single rifle for less than $500 and most priced over $650... did I miss something?
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yes, you missed buying one when they were $69 and the scope mount cost $10 MORE than the rifle!!

its simple supply and demand, and of course, greed. The supply was never all that large, its an oddball rifle, and strange (to Americans) caliber. interest was low for some time, but its now caught up with supply, so the price of the ones available for sale goes nowhere but up.

They're still available, but no longer even remotely cheap.
 
Supply and demand... The supply has basically dried up so now sellers can charge more.

I believe classicfirearms has some coming up for sale today. They have had a bunch of surplus items come up recently from a large milsurp bankruptcy. If your interested in getting one I'd act sooner rather than later. Also the GP11 ammo is available in quantity right now. Once that ammo supply dries up at the regular retailers the prices jump up closer to $1 per round.
 
Yes, you missed out on the initial supply. Get one now, before the price goes up even more.

Remember the Norwegian, Persian, German, and Russian Capture K98s, the Hakims, FN49s, Lee-Enfields, etc., etc., etc.? They all came on the market and were bought up, too.

The Great American Gun Market has spoken.
 
The trick is to watch online auctions and see what they are SELLING for. I watch some stuff on gunbroker and it starts at a ridicules price and just closes with out selling. I am watching something right now that is up for a third time and the start price remains the same. If you are seeing those guns actually going for that price and really want one......
 
well the reason I was asking is because for some reason 3 days ago I freaked the heck out because I haven't bought a milsurp rifle in years so I started out by losing a few bidding matches on some arisaks on gunbroker so I started looking for K31s since they were pretty much an arisaka(oddball round, looks kinda funny, nobody wants one because they aren't easy to sporterize, etc) but prices on those freaked me out. I looked in the usual places, like aim before remembering about classic arms. the K31s were listed at fairly reasonable prices but dammit if they didn't have Finnish M39s for $350 so I got one of those instead, despite my indifference to mosin nagants in general. so now this is more of a rant about milsurps getting expensive despite the fact that I don't ever remember seeing M39s sell for so little before.
 
since they were pretty much an arisaka(oddball round, looks kinda funny, nobody wants one because they aren't easy to sporterize, etc)
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The GI K31's are dang close to as accurate as almost all the other countries "sniper" models.
GP11 matches any GI match ammo.
Production cost of K31s is equivalent to several thousand dollars today.
Not quite the same in my book.

If you weren't reloading a K31 used to be the cheapest combination for a highly accurate system. GP11 isn't cheap and neither are the rifles at this point. Now, if you want to shoot them a lot you should probably reload. I already decided to shoot up all my GP11, as ammo loses so much value at resale, and sell my rifle. I'm not big on dusting.

The K11 and others available now are nice rifles, but the K31 is clearly a more mature design. I also have a K11 that was re-chambered to 308 and is not safe to shoot(observed signs of over-pressure, not internet rumors).
 
I was comparing from a practicality point of view. my Arisakas are some of the most accurate milsurps I own, the type 44 regularly rings steel out to 400 yards which is impressive given my wobble, and the K31 has a reputation for accuracy as well. gp11 as good as it is, is going to eventually run out and when that happens, a fellows going to be stuck reloading just as they would with 7.7 and 6.5x50mm. that's basically the comparison I was making. anyone with eyeballs can tell you there is almost nothing in common between the two from a design standpoint.
 
Now that I think about it, I don't think I have ever even held one. It is just one of those guns that does not appeal to me. Oh well, more for someone else.
 
Where Did They All Go ?

Well, this can be said for many of the once plentiful and economical military surplus firearms.
I'm hoping they have all gone to good homes where they are loved and cared for with proper maintenance and shot regularly.
:)
 
Century shows them (but they usually "show" a lot of stuff they don't actually have- so you need to call first, and you need to have an FFL/be registered with them before they'll talk to you) sans magazines- with cracked stock- for $250.

Mags are hard to come by as the Swiss didn't manufacture spares- how stupid is that?? . Rock Solid Industries is supposedly bringing a ten round mag to market, but no idea on timing.
 
Obviously, they got all bought up. The old Mosin Nagants are starting to get that way as well, and their prices are slowly going up. Supply and demand.
 
supply and demand?

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technically the law of supply and demand states that as demand increases the price of products will increase in order to accommodate added costs on the part of the manufacturer as it increases its ability to produce more items. since the K31 is not even in production anymore, then it becomes a matter of free market profit setting whereby retailers and private party sellers set the price of scarce resources to whatever the maximum price they can justify setting in order too maximize profit margins. it has nothing to do with the law of supply and demand other than the fact that if there is a low supply and high demand, the prices tend to ride higher.
 
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While not in production any more the supply of rifles coming over from Europe has all but dried up. The supply exsisted for a long time because all the rifles coming on the market were decommissioned military rifles.

The Swiss could elect to keep their rifle once no longer in the sevoce or it would go into a military arsenal. From the Swiss arsenals the rifles would eventually be sold off. It's my understanding from following them on various websites that the supply is no longer there. Hence the reason for the recent drop in supply and corresponding price jump The recent supply from classicfirearms was from the Samco bankruptcy and not from Europe.

There's no way to increase production so the prices on the remaining supply just go up and up as far as the market will bear.
 
It is a "Wait and see" kind of thing. Not all guns that go up stay up. After the Japanese movies a few years ago, the Arisakas started to go up. The common ones have leveled out, and I believe will probably start to drop down again. I remember AR-15's close to $1500. I recently saw one advertised (By a major chain store) for under $600. The common Russian rifles appear to be going up, but nobody is buying. I have quite a few 99 Savages, so I keep an eye on the auctions. In the last two years, the prices for them has jumped, but nobody is buying them. I suspect the common ones will start to drop in price. The gun market fluctuates with the times. It is best to buy guns because you have an interest in them, not as an investment. A lot of the mad rush to buy the last of the imports is just a feeding frenzy caused by who knows what. Remember the Cabbage Patch Doll?
 
10 years ago a buddy tried to get me to buy a K31 (not his, just any collectible sample).
At that time, I was in an apartment and I already had 4 types of rifle ammo and didn't for simple logistical reasons. From all the research I did, they appeared to be a high quality rifle and a steal at $200, but it wasn't to be.

They had already been on sale for several years before I was looking, so I can believe that after a decade the well has run dry. Do your research, find a good example and you'll probably have a great time with it, even if it wasn't almost free.
 
To my knowledge- supply has not changed at least in the last couple of decades- most of these milsurps have been available for many decades. It's that the demand for them wasn't large enough to dry up the exports in the countries that have/had them. It's the current "fad" of milsurp collecting -which really didn't begin until just a few years ago- that nearly overnight pulled out most all of what existed, save for what may still be remaining in some former cold-war countries that can't get out due to our State Dept. or conflicts in the region.

It's all about marketing. Burns had countless thousands of Finn M39 Mosin-Nagants for countless years. They'd always been there... then "Classic" comes along, buys most of those remaining and with a marketing blitz (lie) says they just "discovered" the last remaining cache of M39's on the planet- and better get one soon...

And sure enough, everyone did.... because suddenly- they "had" to have one!

All one has to do is look at all the Mosin-Nagants listed for $250 that don't sell anymore- as the surplus has dried up and they're no longer the "cheap shooter" for those that bought them for that reason. They are the prime example of a milsurp whose prices have not only plateaued- they've begun to come down to more reasonable levels.

I suspect the K-31, which was underpriced for it's quality for so many years- will do the same as GP-11 becomes unavailable. Many of these surplus rifles have been bought by "quasi" collectors- and those just looking to flip for a quick profit.

Century is selling welded chamber Swede M1894 carbines for $350... now, I know that Mauser production was limited (Gustaf's not so much)- but come on...
$350 for a wallhanger with a welded chamber?? It's ridiculous.
 
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