Krag carbine ??'s

[coneten]

Marked US, Springfield Mod. 1898 SN#484791. It is carbine length, nice wood and bore. The front sight has a small screw on the underside. I am wondering if this is cut down by someone other than the armory. Thanks.

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[sdkrag]

Yes. The NRA Krag would not have the screw. It would be pinned.

[5MadFarmers]

Marked US, Springfield Mod. 1898 SN#484791. It is carbine length, nice wood and bore. The front sight has a small screw on the underside. I am wondering if this is cut down by someone other than the armory. Thanks.

I will be very very very surprised if that serial number isn't 434791 and not 484791. Very surprised.

[coneten]

When I checked the serial number data it did say that it exceeded the range..so you are right. I probably wrote it down wrong. I think the front sight is an 03 .

[5MadFarmers]

Never say "never" and never say "always" but the guns in the 400K range seem to all be rifles.

The highest serial that I can "prove" is in the 482K range. I've had numerous reports of guns up to 487K but none seem to pan out.

[coneten]

Sorry...I went back and checked again..it is SN#481784 and still marked Mod.1898.

[5MadFarmers]

That's a pretty high serial. As stated, I can prove they go into the 482K range and that's it.

Your rifle is right in the middle of the GPs. Gallery Practice. Krags converted to .22 rifles. The GPs are interspersed within the top of the Krag serial range, nothing odd about that, with your's being right at the top. There is a GP 150 in serial above your gun.

1898s are rifles. Carbines with the same basic guts are marked 1899.

Cheers.

[DRB]

Not all 1898s are rifles there were 5000 carbines made as 1898s but they were all made in the 1898 time frame so with your very high serial number your carbine was originally a rifle. Does it have carbine wood (no rear sling swivel cuttout)? It may be an NRA carbine if it does but the screw in the front sight base is not correct.

[Bill H]

The front sight base was made by a company called " W. Stokes Kirk", somewhere in SE PA. They made many parts for 03s, and also sold ersatz rifles, somewhat like Bannerman did.

Cut down Krags are very common here in Eastern PA, and this sight base was fairly common, as it was inexpensive and easy to install.

It was not installed by the military.

[5MadFarmers]

Not all 1898s are rifles there were 5000 carbines made as 1898s but they were all made in the 1898 time frame so with your very high serial number your carbine was originally a rifle.

Eeek, good correction. I wasn't thinking of them as they pre-date the 1899s and those start down pretty low in the "1898/1899" receiver range.

There were some "overstamps" late in production, I've seen one myself, but I don't have a range for those. I don't think I even kept the number of the one I viewed.