I'm seeing this episode has lured in some new viewers. If you're surprised by the length and depth of this episode, please give some thanks to our Patrons over at Patreon or Subscribestar! The community has made it possible to fund these massive dives into small arms history in a way that would be impossible with just KZfaq advertising (even when they allow it!) www.patreon.com/CandRsenal www.subscribestar.com/candrsenal For those of you already subscribed, Mae and Kevin (Black Powder Kevin from IV8888) are working on a new perk idea that we're revealing soon.

Neutrality were declared

"Switzerland declared independence from the Holy Roman Empire in 1499" Othias's MP40 episode someday is gonna start with a synopsis of the Carolingian Empire.

There's an old Swiss story, Kaiser Wilhelm II made a visit to Switzerland before the war, he was understandably given the chance to inspect an honor guard, and took the opportunity to compliment the sergeant on their discipline. He jokingly asked the sergeant "what would you do if I invaded with an army twice the size of yours?" the sergeant took a moment before responding "Your Excellency, we will all have to fire our rifles twice."

1:02 "For today's story we are going to have to visit the mysterious land of Switzer, hidden behind a ring of mountains and populated by a race of elite soldiers who never war." Honestly are the Swiss Dwarves? I mean, they hide in the mountains, horde precious metals and are master craftsman.

Me: Alright, I'm caught up on all my usual channels. I think I'm done with KZfaq for tonight. C&Rsenal: Where d'ya think you're going, sunshine?

**Looks around, waiting for Bloke's yay or nay**

See that Ross? That's what a successful straight pull rifle looks like.

These rifles, much like this show, are high art.

Gun Store: I just got 7 of these 1889 Schmidt-Rubins Me: Do you got any ammo for it? Gun Store: *bursts out in maniacal laughter*

Some say the keg handle was specifically designed to remind shooters that there will be beer at the pub after the Feldschiessen.

Man this is a great rifle. _12 round magazine exists_ *cries in Californian*

Swiss factoid: Switzerland has four official languages, the offical German name is Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft. This is usually translated to Swiss Confederation (even in the other official languages and in latin, the abbreviation CH comes from Confederatio Helvetica), but more accurate would be oath fellowship, referring to the oath sworn in 1307 by the representatives of the three original cantons, Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden. So an old school noun for a Swiss person is Eidgenoss, literally comrade by oath. Edit: The gents in the picture at 43:09 have their arms raised in the fashion of the oath, their three raised fingers symbolizing the three founding cantons.

"first draw an S, then a more different S" I see you there Othais

I have a Schmidt-Rubin 1911 and K31. Both are like a Swiss watch (perfection). Really great straight pulls. Just make sure you stock up on the 7.5x55 Swiss ammo unless you reload. My 1911 is over 100 years old and the barrel is pristine. That''s what happens when you do not use corrosive ammo. Thank you for the video. I'm a Patreon menber for a long tine. I hope that helps. Keep them coming!

The straight pull bolt design is absolutely genius. And despite the cumbersome and odd looking trigger Mae seemed to have no trouble on that gun.

Swiss weapons are usually designed to be used defensively from prepared positions. They are higher precision designs and are less concerned with exposure to mud and debris. Accuracy is very important in a defensive weapon being used primarily as an intimidation weapon to maintain neutrality. Weight and handiness, less so.

As an owner of a K11, I am beyond excited to watch this series. The accuracy of these rifles is incredible. The sights are calibrated to 2000m, and in Swiss service with their attention to marksmanship, deadly. Remarkable piece of engineering. My K11 has been rechambered for .308win. Still accurate, even when using the ranging marks as yards vs, meters. And the trigger is absolutely crisp (after the take up of course). Thank you for the work you do to document the evolution of firearms.

If smokeless was introduced 10 years earlier, the rifle would ve four inches shorter and a pound lighter, probably.

"I like the cupping" - Mae, 2020

Here it is, you've set a precedent. Now you'll have to do a series on the small arms of the Thirty Years War.

I must say, I like your version of a walnut paneled study than most others.

As soon as you pulled the bolt out, my only reaction was "well, that is very, very Swiss"

One thing about the start: according to historians (not wikipedia) the swiss neutrality wasn't chosen by the swiss on the congress of vienna, it was imposed on them by the more powerfull participants. (they might have gotten the idea from earlier swiss neutrality, but the swiss themselves did not push the idea during the congress nor voice the idea of it it seems.)

At last, the term point blank used basically correctly. _Thank you!_

Absolutely amazing that the Swiss were so incredibly close to what amounts to a semi-modern semi-automatic rifle so early. A gas port, gas block, a spring, and extension to the op rod was all they needed. It even had a 12 round magazine, which is a decent amount more than many of the early semi-automatic rifles had.

Remembering when these old war time guns were cheap, I bought an 1893 Spanish Mauser in 7x57 back in the early 70s for $40 bucks at Woolco. That store was a subsidiary of Woolworth’s. The ammo cost me $5.00 for 100 rounds of Spanish 7x57 that had a 1920s head stamp. The old non-spritzer ammo shot pretty good with only an occasional misfire.

Great work! Bonus points for the Trogdor reference!

Excellent episode, and one I've been waiting for now for quite some time. Against the backdrop of rifles when "war were declared" it gets no love, but I agree with your analysis that amongst its contemporaries it was superlatively advanced even against the Lebel, as evidenced by its successive iterations, where the tube fed bloated whale cartridge of the Lebel was a dead end quickly superseded. Thank you!

This is the show that sold me on American gun culture.

The bolt probably has more machining time than some entire rifles. Absolutely monstrous, but beautifully engineered and made

ah yes, ive been in that situation before when you are walking around in the bush with your schmidt rubin, casually taking aim at 2000m and all of a sudden a bad guy pops out of the bush and i beat the rear sight downwards.

Woooah. After that bolt explanation (~25min mark) I realize how esoteric Schmidt-Rubin actually is. Thank you for the great amusement, Othais!

"What makes a man go neutral? Lust for gold? Power? Or were you just born with a heart full of neutrality?"

The Swiss have always been enamored of complex mechanisms. Nor do they seem to worry about how much their rifles cost. Those goofy looking chargers are the smoothest operating chargers ever designed. I have about a dozen of them. They make Mauser chargers feel like rusted and bent Mosin chargers. And the upcoming GP11 ammo is general issue target ammo. With careful handloading I can duplicate the standard issue ball as made by Ruuag, but it took a long while to get good enough to make better. I've never owned the '89, but I've owned a K11 and still have a K31. And I do remember paying less than $100 each for them.

Well done on this great Eps ,Thank you Bloke on the Range and Chap support on this Video,

I have watched this video over and over and continue to learn more. You, Mae and crew produce excellent learning and historical vids....Thanks so much and keep producing these as I try to watch each and every one!

At last: Eduard Rubin gets his moment. AS usual guys, job well done. Thank you.

I love watching you two, your chemistry and knowledge of Firearms is so off the charts.

I've been waiting for this🤯🤯🤯🤯 thank you you beautiful human beings

One of my favorite rifles. Extremely fun to shoot and operate. Excellent work on the video and research!

And here we have the beginning of the famous beer keg charging handle. They're as fun as they look trust me.

I can’t wait to watch this later - thanks very much!

Superbly researched video, Uthayus. For all the brilliance of early arms developers, no one really thought of using the huge blast of gas emerging from the muzzle end.

Thanx C&Rsenal, Ya'lls videos are pleasantly entertaining and informative. I like the historical and engineering aspects.

Well I'm glad that Mae has a type of firearm that is her favorite. The straight pulls are an interesting group. We need an air freshener that is Linseed oil scented now. Thanks for all you do and When is that strange hand cannon from John Browning showing up?

I woke up this morning, bleary eyed and grumpy, i go online and see a new c&r vid and all of a sudden im smiling!

Excellent video as always!! Fascinating old rifle, love to get my hands on one. Absolutely one of the best channels.! Looking forward to seeing the next one. 🇺🇸☠️🇺🇸

Always nice to see you guys working with other channels. Keep up the good work youzs guys

1:45 sorry about being picky but just fyi yall, Napoleon didn't invade Switzerland in 1798, he was in Egypt and not in charge of the country nor the army.

Man, those empties are getting gone toot sweet! Can't even see them leaving the action, until the slow-mo segment.

Ever since you mentioned the Rubin test rifle in the Lee Enfield episode, I’ve been wondering what that entailed. Glad to see I wasn’t disappointed.

That bolt assembly shows why this rifle is so praised in the collector community. They really were a spring and gas system away from making a semi-auto.

One of my favorites in my collection. Shoots well with mild loads in 7.5x55 brass. So I shoot the factory ammo in my k31 or 1911, and load the brass for the 1889.

Working the bolt on these is just a treat. Unlike an Mannlicher, you can kinda “throw” the bolt home on the forward stroke ( using thumb and index finger). Easier on a K31, but it works on the un-Furrer’d actions too.

Great episode! Thanks for the nuance about the interplay between designs adapted to black powder and smokeless tech. ;)

That damned Swiss rifle that you load on Sunday and shoot all week!

I think 'rifle teepee' would be a great shirt for the next fundraiser. Words in a cool font, and a neat drawing of it.

Oooooh, Swiss straight-pulls. *settles down to watch*

It looks like your barrel bushing needs cleaned. You can pull the stock off and wrap an oily index card around the barrel and pull the bushing back over it. Then twist it back and forth to clean the corrosion off. Also soak the bolt knob in oil because the screw will continue to rust until the knobs crack and fall apart. You usually can't remove that screw so don't try.

Very good review. I grabbed one of these rifles from a small gunshop going out of business, got it for a benny. Look forward to next episode on shooting and reloading maybe? Ive done a lot of homework on that issue so look forward to what you share .

Thanks for this nice episode and explaining this particular system in detail (from a happy owner of a '44 K31)

Thank the gods - over an hour of Othias and Mae, and I've just finished catching up on _all_ my youtube subs. YAY!

I just love how this rifle looks, very elegant

Oh awesome. Appreciate the uploads

l love this post , as l collect Schmidt Rubin's . l do not shoot my 89 or 96 , but l do shoot all of my 1911's and 31's . My first was purchased because l liked the very different design . THEN I discovered just how incredibly accurate these rifles are . And l do like accurate rifles . Launching small pieces of metal , at high speed , over long distances, at small pieces of paper , can't be beat .

Glad I got one before the Primer came out lol. The pries will no doubt go up now. Great video guys. Wish I could find some ammo for mine.

I loved hearing about how that was Mae's gun and some talk about the market and all that. Would love to hear any personal history like that on guns you own in future episodes. I got into guns around 2011 and as soon as I bought a K31 I knew the Swiss guns were a steal at the time and would go waaaaaay up in price soon so I grabbed one or two of each. I could just tell with how well they were made and how accurate they are that the market hadn't caught up to how awesome they are. Same with GP11 ammo at the time.

Very interesting firearm. Keep up the good work. I enjoy each and every episode.

Dang that is a beautiful design! It seems to be cutting edge for it's time.

Boat tails create an expansion fan at supersonic speeds (basically smoothly decompressing the air compressed by the bow shock), recovering some of the energy put into the compression wave at the tip and thereby reducing drag. By doing that, and by virtue of having a smaller bullet base, one reduces base drag which shifts the bullet's centre of pressure a bit further forwards. Sounds like an insignificant change, but this results in increased pitching moment rate (the amount of pitching moment added per degree of pitch... or radian) which in turn decreases static stability. This is why boat tail bullets tend to require a bit more spin (thus tighter twist) than square base bullets to maintain stability. More importantly, adding a boat tail shifts the Magnus centre further forwards which has the potential to create dynamic instability, though this is more pronounced in spitzer-type projectiles (representing a further drag reduction), where a Magnus inversion (Magnus moment changing direction with pitch due to the Magnus centre's proximity to the bullet's centre of mass) can create the type of dynamic instability that can make a bullet tumble no matter how fast it's spinning. In some more modern projectiles (168gn Sierra MatchKing comes to mind), this type of dynamic interaction results in interesting (and somewhat beneficial to precision) limit cycle motion, where at very low pitch angles, the projectile will tend to tip its nose away from the centre of its trajectory, whereas at higher angles it will tend to return. If I remember correctly, the 168SMK likes to settle somewhere around 1°-2° of pitch and then just spiral on nicely towards the target (or backstop). The upside of this is that any significant perturbations during firing tend to upset its trajectory less. The downside is that with a reduced margin of dynamic stability, they tend to tumble as soon as they go transonic, effectively limiting their range to around 1000-1500m.

I'm so glad I bought these when they was super cheap along with the entire line up till the K-31.

I was happy to see this video make an appearance. I love Swiss rifles (my 1943 K31 especially). In saying that, seeing Mae just casually toss the cartridge chargers aside made my eyes pop a bit. Mainly due to the fact I can't find any to use in my K31 (original or reproduction) at anything resembling a reasonable price.

You should really do a full episode on the Chassepot needle gun! Every rifle you've shown so far had elements of the Chassepot. The way the firing pin can be removed on the Schmidt rifle is exactly how you remove the needle on the Chassepot.

"More different S." Nice homestar runner reference bro.

Awesome history.

That is one of the quickest ejections I ever seen.

Awesome rifles shot the k31 at camp Perry many years

Aww, the straight pull handle even has a little barrel to fit with the Swiss rescue St. Bernards

'Marksmenry' a new word for me in the intro.....

Wait a minute.........we are getting a different M1911 video than what we were expecting relatively soon......aren't we? Lmao

Nice rifle. Can't wait for the next one.

legend has it those cartridges were still flying up to this day.

You've really outdone most other channels with this video. The historical context of Swiss neutrality is best explained by its history, and that's exactly what you did here. Great video. Edit: The uninterrupted sight line is just theoretical, at least on later Swiss straight pull designs. You've got to lift your head on a K11 or K31 when cycling the bolt because of its length. EditEdit: Ah so the change from BP to "semi smokeless" to "smokeless" explains the length of the action.

Excellent content Love the channel

Excellent video.

Noting the "straight pull" concept. Seems like ALL semi-auto's today are essentially straight pull. Love this channel. Gosh I rue the day you run out of content.

Regarding the large "wings" on the rear sight: these can be used as a rapid close-combat sight by aligning the entire front sight - including the base - in the large "U" formed by the wings. It's fast and the sights are easy to pick up for engaging surprise targets at close range. The same technique can be used with the Gewehr 98. Early M-16 Field Manuals retained this technique, sighting over the top of the rear sight (not through it) and using the entire front sight assembly to get the barrel aligned. I just wish I could find the older rifle marksmanship references....

Let me see if I understand this. The locking surfaces for the action aren’t on the bolt they are on a sleeve . The sleeve is at the rear of the bolt. The bolt is something like 5 inches long. Maintaining Headspacing seem like it will be fun. Good thing this is a issued to Swiss troops. The squad watchmaker will definitely be needed.

I have been waiting for this since you started on the neutrals.

Great series! Keep it up!

The complex straight-pull bolt is easier to disassemble than my Mosin bolt, way to go Schmidt!

Looking at that bolt, and it is clear to see how the Straight Pull is critical for development of Semi-Automatic.

very good content. Excellent information. Thank you very much. Pronounciation is ok too.

Outnumbered but defending a castle made of mountains, this so good. Wouldn't like to march across continents with it in a British Empire stylee.

I'd love to go out and shoot mine some day but between not really having the room for a reloading set up and being intimidated by the reloading process I may never get the chance. Love seeing this 1 in action.

One of the things I never saw mentioned in the video that applies not just to this rifle but all the Swiss straight pulls that came before the K31 is that any advantage gained by not having a bolt handle up in your line of sight while cycling the action is lost because of the requirement that you absolutely MUST move your head off the stock. If you don't, the ring on the end of the striker will hit you in the eye. The fact that the bolt assembly is four inches longer than necessary has major ergonomic disadvantages that echo through the entire gun. If you're prone behind the rifle and there's very little room to move your head around, this becomes even more of an issue.

Yo, right as I was getting ready for bed😂. Well guess I'm stayin up. Keep up the great work!

I like the expression of the Prussian soldier at 11:13, on the ground with three cartridges, and missing a boot? He seems very contemplative, "hmm, zhree kartridges, zis vill not do"

I have a model 96/11. It’s a major improvement over the 1889. It’s still very long, 52” overall and it’s accurate & smooth