Milsurp After Hours

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Noticed this one for sale in Switzerland and it dates from the same year that the K31 was first issued.

A total of 18.209 of this type of revolvers were issued to the Swiss military from February 1933 on at a price of 90 francs per gun, the last one was made February 1946. The serial numbers are similar to the 06/29 Parabellum pistols and start at # 50.000, it also had the same three grip color varieties, at first red, then brown and at the end black.

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Guisan.

Any reason why a move to revolvers when the Army had already adopted an automatic? Also what was the calibre please?

The reason is simple, it was during a worldwide economical crisis and W+F was asked to see for cheaper to produce variants of the till then used hand guns, this resulted in a simplified 06/29 Parabellum and 82/29 revolver, both guns were not only cheaper to produce but were also perfected, it made them more reliable and accurate.

The 1882 series revolvers fires the black powder 7.5 Swiss Ordnance revolver cartridge also known as 7.5 mm Nagant (Swiss model), it has a case length of .878" - .899" and a bullet diameter of .305"- .326".

Cartridges for this revolver are still made in small lots by Fiocchi.

Guisan.

Thank you! That certainly clears that up. Did the Swiss see a need to invest more in there defences during the 1930's due to their neighbours?

Well around 1930 it was just a matter of keeping it all running at the lowest cost, from 1936/37 on they started to pump a lot more money into the military.

Guisan.