Armory Sponsor
Posted: 10/9/2015 3:50:37 PM EDT
|
Picked up a decent carbine from Gander Mountain this week for $299 and no shipping. During the in store inspection I was pretty happy with it. The barrel, bolt and mag serial #'s all matched and placed it as being built in 1941. It has a nice sling and no major issues with the stock. The bluing is easily 90% and other than a little rust on the shoulder plate it looks great.
One thing and one thing only bothered me. Knowing it was built in '41, I wondered why it had a beech stock. After taking it apart today to check for any caked up grease, I found that the handguard and stock #'s don't match. Not only don't they match each other, they are different from the barrel, bolt and mag #. Looks like the furniture was built in 1948. Anyone else experience same ? |
|
Don't assume that a light-colored K31 stock is automatically beech.
Not all of the walnut K31 stocks are the typical dark brown that we associate with walnut. Walnut "sapwood" is typically much lighter than the darker "heartwood". Some of it can be blonde (or even nearly white when raw/unfinished). In addition, some of the walnut stocks have had the yellowish/orangeish shellac that's typically seen on beech stocks applied to them, which further alters the color of the wood, and further confuses collectors. For example, here's a photo of five K31s. Only #5 is beech. The others are all walnut. My 1941 K31 has a 1941-dated walnut stock that is very light, similar to the front of the stock/handguard on the #1 rifle below. 
|
|
Buttstock has a '47 stamp but the serial # has it dated '48. Has the boot marks I have read about. Looking over the barrel again, it's 100% blued. No wear on it at all. Bolt has slight wear and had what must be that Swiss grease.
Very tastily done PW Arms import mark on the left side of the receiver. Am going to use some leather dressing on the sling, naval jelly on the butt plate and re-assemble. Now just need to hunt up some GP11. My 15 yr old Army JrROTC son is salivating over it and is already asking me to pick up a K11. |
|
Hehe, I saw a walnut K-31 at my local gander mountain for $849. It wasn't anything special either.
And that was when Aim Surplus and a few other online retailers had them in stock for around $320. Anyways, here are my two rifles. Top is a well-worn '46 beech with diopters. It's my range toy. Bottom is my safe queen '42 walnut in almost unissued condition. The wear on the beech stock makes it seem darker as the original shellac was almost like yellow paint over the wood. The walnut one is finished in clear shellac. I think looking at the wood grains is the best way to tell them apart. 
|
|
Bought a K31 from Gander Mountain in June, also at the $299 price, all numbers match, all wood, metal and mag. The gun is a '48, so its beech and by the grace of God its not horribly chewed up like some I've seen. The only non-matching part is the sling which is dated 1940. Troop tag is also there, very neat bit of history and was fun to research. I had browsed various gun shops(and 2 other Gander Mtns) for several months before finding the one I purchased.
Beautiful guns in this thread guys, kudos. Hking |
Armory Sponsor