I was given this rifle when I was about 14. I believe he told me it was Swiss, but that was 42 years ago. There does not appear to be any name one it. It has matching numbers on the rifle and the bolt (279478). There are little fat crosses in many places. It says CAL 308 WIN behind the site. It also has 2 stamps that might be gunsmith stamps. It is 3 rings in a right angle and does not look factory. There are some friends who hunt deer with older rifles and I was thinking about using this. I remember shooting this once when I was young. I still have the casings. It has 4 holes that look like a scope was mounted at one time. Thanks for any info.
Need to identify this old military rifle
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It's an altered Swiss model 96/11. A large number of these were made into .308 Win. sporters in the 1960's. Fair market price in the USA is fairly low, not much over $100, but value as a sporting rifle is as high as you make it by your own enjoyment.
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The Swiss military is part of the Swiss government. "Switzerland doesn't have an army - it is an army!" The rifle was originally military issue, made at the federal (government) weapons factory at Bern, late in 1901.
There were companies that would convert these rifles in to 308 and 30-30. I believe the name was alpine. Alot of this was done in the 1960's. I have a few gun mags from that time that shows these rifles. They were advertsised as deer rifles. The 308 winchester operates at a higher breech pressure than the 7.5x55mm cartridge which I believe is about 45.000 psi. The one 30-30 I saw was done on a 1889 model and don't recall what mods were made except that the chamber was bushed then the 30-30 chamber recut. Thats about all the info on these alpine sporters. You could use the remington managed recoil ammunition as I have heard that it is loaded to lower pressures and uses a lighter bullet. Hope this helps. Frank For more info go to the swiss firearms message board for more info as these rifles do show up on that forum from time to time. Frank
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