A Sneaky Swiss Sniper for Israel: the ZK-31 

Ah yes, weapon shipments "mysteriously" disappearing close to the country interested in them... a tale as old as time. Great work on this one Ian!

If I had a nickel for every time Nicaragua was involved in a sketchy deal to get arms where they shouldn’t be I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice.

I’ve got a boating accident story for you. I was in Special Forces, all of us were trained scuba divers, but some specialised in the discipline. I had a good friend that was one of the specialised divers and also dived recreationally. We were scouting out a large area for a proposed multi-national exercise. Adjacent to the area was a large coral reef, my friend went diving for 3 days in the middle of our scouting (we fudged some down time in the month we were there). He came back from the diving ecstatic about the dive and had great pics. A week later he started complaining about head aches. We finished the job and returned to our base. Over the next 5 to 6 weeks my mate continued to complain about headaches, then started to complain about a stiff neck. Everyone pricked up their ears at the stiff neck complaint, we were all trained Combat Medics, with a lot of training and special emphasis on diseases of the 3rd world, alarm bells went of at the stiff neck and without pause we all insisted he go to the Base Hospital. It wasn’t what we suspected, the doctors examination detected something about his neck, they X-Rayed and found a 9 mm slug sitting on his spine at the neck, they put him under and removed the slug. After he recovered, he recalled, on the diving trip after they finished the last dive, he stripped off his gear in the boat, including his “Bang-Stick” (a tube with a cartridge (in his case a 9mm cartridge) screwed into it and a spring loaded firing pin, to use if attacked by a shark), the Bang-Stick somehow went off while rolling around in the bottom of the boat and un-noticed by him, hit him in the neck. Apparently he “wrote off” the blood and small “sore” on his neck, he thought it was chaffing from sand in the collar of his wet suit. If the slug had hit him 5 mm to the right, at best he would have been a quadriplegic.

Israel: "Hello, I see you have some nice rifles there, I would like to buy them, I am desperate!" Swiss: "Sorry, no can do ... for legal reasons!" Israel: "My my, that is a lot of gold you have there in your banks, I wonder where it came from." Swiss: "Let me see if I can find some scopes for your new rifles, my friend!"

So, this is really, really obscure. It doesn't show up anywhere I looked as a weapon used in the Israeli War of Independence. More might turn up, since the Israeli National Archives are slowly (well, actually quickly) scanning their entire collection and uploading it online. Some of the yet to be scanned documents are titled - "Procurement - Switzerland" and are dated 1949. I also found documents about trade between Israel and Switzerland as early as 1949, but they discuss textiles, paper and clockworks. There are other documents though, for example about arms procurement from Czechoslovakia, but that's a bit more public knowledge.

The Swiss just needed an end user certificate. Somebody in a Nicaraguan Conslolate may got his hand greased.

Smoothbrain: "The merchandise fell off the truck." Galaxy brain: "The boat fell in the water."

I've been amazed at just how accurate the Mosin Nagant, Swedish M-96/38 and Swiss M-1911 and K-31s can be.

IDF optics and night-vision instruments have their own serial number (unrelated to the number of firearm). The scope is, therefore numbered on the bottom and then matched to a rifle and numbered again to indicate the rifle it was zeroed to. Today, at least as far as I know, scopes are not marked or numbered to a particular rifle.

The coolest thing Ian covered was that this Swiss rifle was the only Swiss firearm which was used in active combat 😎🤙

LOL! I actually know a few duck hunters who have had legitimate "boating accidents." As in they capsized their canoe, and "lost" their shotguns. Both of them went diving and got their shotguns back. You don't just let expensive Italian shotguns sit at the bottom of a lake. LOL! ^-^

Amazing simple and accurate scope mount.

A great semi-historical novel about the clandestine aspects of establishing the Israeli state despite having the official support of no government on the planet is Exodus by Leon Uris. Well worth reading.

Kahles is Austrian scope . Still made today . They were making ordinary scopes when Zeiss were making prismatic scope sights very early on.

I'm pretty sure the legal issue for Switzerland wasn't specifically that it was Israel, but that Israel was fighting a war. Swiss law to this day forbids selling weapons to combatant nations. Nicaragua wasn't fighting any wars in 1949, so it was legal to sell them rifles. And as for scrubbing the markings? I would imagine that's not so much out of any silly attempt to hide that it's a Swiss rifle, but so that it'd be harder to identify who smuggled the rifle.

Sorry but losing my gun in a boating accident will never get old.

I love the Swiss K31 rifle. Mine is a common example, but is very accurate. I have put a scope mount on it, but the offset takes some getting used to. I have carried it hunting but never lucked into bagging game with it. The surplus GP11 7.5X55 ammo is virtually match grade compared to our issue 7.62X51. I have handloaded for it by reforming a different caliber brass. I have nearly, but not quite equalled the performance of the GP11. All in all, an excellent rifle. I can well understand why the Israelies would use it as a sniper rifle.

I always wondered if Swiss straight pull rifles were ever actually used in combat. Now I know. Thanks!

I bought one of the Brno Czech built Mausers that were imported into Israel in 1948 and later factory rechambered into .308 in the early 60s. They were issued to training units and the Home Guard. I trained on one in the early 1970s

A good 3\4 of the enjoyment I get from Ian's videos is the stories behind each gun he shows. The other1\4 is the technical marvel (or lack of!) that goes into the engineering.

Fascinating! I was unaware these existed. My father, however, has a K98 that's chambered in .30-06 and covered in Hebrew markings. I've always wondered at the story behind it.

Absolutely fascinating! I don't know which is more interesting...the rifle or the fact that you have the Kahles scope "in white" to compare to the other models that look "used"! Can't be many around like that. Excellent video as always. Thanks Gun Jesus!

no idea about how things were done then, but today in the IDF the scope would have it's own serial number, independent of the rifle, the mount may or may not be matched to the scope

The first modern use of "I lost my guns in a boating accident"

Sounds like what would be the case with FALs in Rhodesia

Too bad that you don’t know the full story of how they got to Israel. It sounds like quite the adventure and the story behind the gun is always my favourite part of the video

The scope needed to be offset not only for charging clips but also ejection. Just as the zfk55 accomplished with canting the magazine, ejector, and cutout in the top of the receiver 11° clockwise in relationship to the rest of the action.

Great video! A truly interesting case!

I like the scope mount I bought for my 96/11 because there was no modification to the rifle involved. All I had to do was replace the screws for the magazine plate and it bolted on perfectly.

Dr. Ruth Westheimer was an Israeli sniper .

First, thanks Ian for all the hard work for our entertainment.

Really great info that I never knew. Respect from Australia

I remember reading that many years later Israel wanted a special version of the Dassault Mirage, but there was an embargo at the time and the French said "no". At which point Dassault managed to mislay the blueprints and also a bunch of knock-down kits, which coincidentally ended up in Israel shortly afterwards.

I really can appreciate that scope mount clever , simple and functional.

A gift from the Swiss branch of the Kosher Nostra.

My K31 is dead accurate. Even with iron sights banging a 8” plate is easy at 200 yards. The level of fit in these rifles is superb in my opinion.

Great set-up

This is an interesting scope mount, but it would only be really accurate if (a) the pins (and holes) are slightly conical, otherwise the clearance necessary to fit the scope becomes an uncertainty or (b) the clamping action can brings the two sloped surfaces on the mount tight against the cylindrical receiver. Even then there would be a small uncertainty due to the short track of the mating surfaces. Tricky business mounting scopes so that they can be removed for safe carriage and put back on without losing zero (at least not much...). Presumably this is in 7.5 mm Swiss? Were there any more weapons on the ship "bound" for Nicaragua?

I wonder if the contract included the price of the rifles + shipping + the cost of the boat that sank. Or maybe it was an old vessel that someone would have had to pay to decommission and scrap anyways.

i wonder how many shipments there were that "sadly got stolen"

that's a nifty mount.

What a beautiful rifle.

I have a Model 1936 Mexican Mauser with scrubbed marks with an ATF serial number. I’ve purchased it legally and from what I’ve been told is that this rifle was part of a batch of rifles, in the early 1970’s, which were destined for the USA market. The story I’ve heard was that the Mexicans wanted to cover themselves, by scrubbing the markings, just in case some of these rifles grew a pair of legs and walked into the Guatemalan Civil War. The same idea would probably apply to the Israeli War for Independence. 🇮🇱 ➕ 💵 🟰 🇨🇭 with no markings along with plausible deniability. 🤔

Beautifully simple optics hook ups .

Thank you, very interesting!

Great video, great story, and that scope mount is a masterpiece. A question, the caliber is 7.5x55? Greetings from Argentine Patagonia.

I had a Belgian mouser outfitted with a 308 barrel with Israel markings completely shot out. Had to re barrel it to get anything decent out of the gun. The action must have been in 8x57 originally. My best guess.

That scope mount is fucking brilliant.

were this chambered for the Swiss GP11 (7.5x55mm)?

Still chambered for 7.5 Swiss? I don't think the caliber was mentioned. Be an odd caliber for Israel.

Hi Ian, I have a scope made by Wild Heerbrugg of Switzerland that looks very similar to the one on your rifle. It’s 4x and the reticule is exactly the same, I can’t find any information about the scope and was wondering if you could help me. Kindest regards Mike

Always nice to see historical guns from my countries history 😁

Are any of the Thompson sub machine guns that Golda Meyier bought known to exist?

im not a gun guy, about the scope ,the cross mark actual paint on the lens ,so when you adjust the scope , is the lens moving or whole thing moving ..?

5:52 it's easier to read from the footage that the second "6" is actually a "5", so it's 60351, but it doesn't really change anything, probably too hard to read without magnification.

What was a ship bound for Central America doing near Egypt? I guess we'll never know.

Thanks for a very interesting video. Are these in GP11 ( 7.5x55)?

Been waiting on a k-31 video 😂

I believe that this exact thing happens to this day to get arms where needed on the hush, hush.

Ooh local gun, Hämmerli was producing nearby.

What clambering are these in?

Ian, you never mentioned the rifles caliber? (or did i just miss it?)

I didn't know they fielded the k31 . That's interesting

It looks like the scope points up, when its supposed to point down... Is it an optical illusion or something?

I love how the Wikipedia page for the K31 references this video for Israels usage of the rifle.

Thank you , Ian . 🐺 Loupis Canis .

Stupid question time - have you done a video on the USN 1.1 inch AA weapon from WW2?

なにこの格好いい銃。。。ボルト周りがやばいい。

Not exactly the best “plausible deniability” scheme ever. I suppose the “story” could’ve been the shipment was going to the a Pacific West coast port in Nicaragua. A Kar 98K based rifle would’ve been far more “sterile” as 100,000s formerly in German, Czech, and Polish service existed but perhaps under lock & key or rusting away in Allied hands or GI duffle bags.

Wonderful

Were these in 7.5 Swiss? Or 7.92 Mauser?

8:42 This is the FIRST instance that I have heard a distinction between 'stripper clip' and 'charger clip.' I have known of both for years but basically presumed that 'charger' is more British while 'stripper clip' is more American/Canadian. Don't know where Australia and New Zealand are on the matter. If Ian, or anyone else with a view on the subject, sees this message, then I welcome you to reply :) I have been functioning on the view that stripper/charger clip are both the exact same concept.

Were they still in 7.5x55 Swiss? I gather they were, but there is no confirmation.

I have a rough K31.... Itd be interesting to clone this

5:59 rather 60351 than 60361

Have you heard of any k31 that were converted to 308 and sold commercially?

What happened to the contract with Nicaragua?

A hint of plausible deniability goes a long way in dragging out court cases.

Those Swiss lads can be a bit sneaky.....

just a slight typo in the description "its war of independence " not "was" but great content as always !

What caliber is it in? 8mm? .308?

Did these K31 use the GP11? Because that would have been a difficulty too for Israël to find them, wouldn’it?

$10k for the Swiss domestic sniper last time I saw one

Nevermind the chargers, the K31 ejects up and over your head... and down the back of your pants... to offer "inspiration".

As an Israeli myself which studied about wars in my country, never really know about this rifle. I like to study about our historical wars, and theres always mentioning about weapons from Czech,France, US and many more but can't remember i've heard of the ZK-31 being used by Israeli armed forces. Learn something new everyday.

Were these chambered in the standard 7.5x55 caliber? Since you didn't mention the caliber, I assumed they were in the standard caliber but since they were a special order, the Israelis could have had them chambered in something else to simplify logistics.

Oooooo that's one helluva fine specimen 😍

very nice video, and sneaky isrealis with disappearing swiss guns

4:40 Some level of plausible legal deniability.

Ian it would be cool if you use the correct therm Kar.31 there is no sutch thing except on few intern w+f documents where Kar.31 was to long…

Thank s

"So you guys sold a bunch of K-31 snipers to Israel?" "What? *NO.* We sold them to Nicaragua and they all mysteriously disappeared on the high seas. Very tragic." "So what about this K-31 sniper that clearly came from Israel and has very distinct IDF proof marks on it?" "Could've be made by anybody." "But you're the only factory in the world that even _makes_ K-31:s!" "Are we tho?"

It'd be neat if there was a service where people with mismatched firearms could get together and see if the parts that match their firearms still exist. I know they don't need to be matching to work, but as a collector it'd be good to have.

A Swiss gun that has seen battle OMFNG

If it’s possible you guys got to do a video on the Russian PP-91 Kedir PDW

Cool but not the best solution, with the scope on the left side. Have a similar system

The H likely stands for Helvetii.

Switzerland made the sexiest wood and steel rifles

Pretty cool lore on a cool rifle

Pozdrawiam serdecznie