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The PE57 currently can bring $2,000.00 to $4,000.00 in the US. Are they worth it? In the US, to a number of shooters, maybe. In fact they sell for around $450.00 on the street in Switzerland. We can thank US politicians for that idiocy, but what about the rifle itself?
It's a quality made/designed rifle for sure, but it is also a stamped receiver, so the question becomes real manufactured value, not what a US shooter will pay. The street price in Switzerland tells the tale, and you can bet there's a good markup built in. Some years ago my Father traded a 57 for an Armalite AR10A2, and AR10A4, a ruger snubbie .38 and a CZ 9mm. Right around $2,700.00 in actual US value. So what's the difference?
Both the AR10s matched the PE57 in accuracy and the A4 beat the 57 hands down, and both worth less than 30% of the 57's selling price. The coolness factor? That's in the eye of the beholder. By this time most of you know how deeply our Family is into Swiss rifles, but reality is reality. I rmember a long time ago I asked questions about accuracy as opposed to parts and appearance, and my Father answered.... "If I have an excellent 3 Star Premium barrel, a mated bolt and a good trigger group mounted in a chiseled 2"x6" piece of wood simply shaped to receive those parts and it shoots sub-MOA every time, and you have a brand new PE57 that shoots 1.25 to 1.75" MOA, which would you rather have? "
My answer was too quick and I was a lot younger, but if your life depended on that accuracy, which would you rather have?
That sounds like an over-simplification, but you do apply that logic to some degree in most firearms and their inherent costs. Do the more expensive whistles and bells outweigh factual lesser costs in a less optically appealing but tighter functioning rifle?
I don't need to talk about the SIG AMT (American Match Target). Super high coolness factor and eye appeal in great, well made rifles that we could never get better than 1.5 MOA from (over a 25 year period) , and that was a 6 rifle spread. All that means is that maybe some load developed by someone could make it perform extremely well (maybe), but us average Joe's would be hard pressed to make it match most of our own present day US made auto loaders.
I love Swiss rifles, but as well made as they are, ther are no machines the Swiss have that we don't have....... just maybe the Swiss have better and higher quality control standards in some aspects of rifle manufacturing, but we too have our super high quality manufacturers here, you just have to be selective about what you buy.
In our experience there are no production Milsurp bolt action rifles that can consistently match the Swiss rifles in quality and consistent accuracy, rifle to rifle. To manufacture a brand new k31 in the US today would easily cost $2,800+ dollars.
As for reloading for the PE57 and AMT, this is a response to a reloading guy my Father sent a lot of years ago.
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David, the problem you're having is a common one with the 57s.
The chamber fluting that allows for the blowback cycling is the culprit. Note the longitudinal striations on your expended cases. The brass has bulged into the fluting and you can feel the ridges with your fingers. With a k31 chamber the expansion of the brass is a relatively overall expansion. Not so with your 57. Besides the immediate overall, the expansion is also into the fluting with their sharp edges. This stresses the brass unlike any other chamber. (Except the H&K 91, 21 and 93 and AMT)
Resizing this brass is not only an overall, but inclusive of the bulged striations as well. Bcause of the fluting edges, these striations immediately become the stress points in the brass. Its like bending a piece of thin brass back and fort along a crease. It soon weakens and simply breaks at that point.
If you're determined to resize this brass, do it once and once only. You may not easliy see the minute stress crack (or multiple cracks!), but its not uncommon for a case with unseen interior cracks to open up along more than one longitudinal plane, thus releasing an inordinate amount of gas from the sides of the case all at once.
Be careful, David. Particularly with softer brass such as Norma 7.5x55. I advise that you stick with new GP11 or at least RUAG match brass which is a bit tougher than most, but whatever you do please understand that annealing will be of little and dubious value with expended 57 cases.
P
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Lots of things enter the picture for autoloaders, but I'm now convinced that the best of the US made autoloaders don't take a second seat to anyone else's, anywhere.
Imagine the possibilities/accuracy improvement if the Swiss installed a peep sight like the US rifles of the era (1917, 1903, 03-A3 and Garand).
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