I'm going to try and get a Krag back,,,

My Father was killed in a truck accident when I was an infant,,,
When I was about 11 or 12 his brother gave me what was supposed to be my Father's deer rifle.

It was an 1898 Krag in 30-40.
(were they ever chambered in anything else?)

Anyways, the front sight was this big ugly homemade thing,,,
It looked like a big blob of brass filed to an edge,,,
I couldn't hit anything with it.

When I was in my early 20's (1973) I decided to give it to my nephew,,,
He being the only male descendent from my Fathers line.

He said he was going to have the front sight replaced and hunt with it,,,
I recently found out he never had it repaired,,,
In fact he never fired the rifle even once.

He recently told me that he took it home, oiled it up, and put it in a case,,,
The poor old rifle hasn't seen the light of day in about 43 years.

I'm going to talk to him and see if he will let me have the rifle back,,,
It had the short stock that I always assumed was cut down,,,
But it might have been the carbine version of the gun.

My nephew and I don't see each other very often,,,
But we do get along with each other very well,,,
I'm hoping he'll say, "Sure Uncle Aarond."

I'll almost certainly give it back to him in my will,,,
But I sure would like to fix and fire the old rifle a few times first.

It might have a problem though.

When I had it as a kid,,,
I was cycling some live rounds through it,,,
Racking the slide real fast just to watch them fly across the room.

I slammed the bolt home and the rifle went off,,,
Blowing a small 30 caliber hole in my bedroom wall,,,
The hole on the other side of the wall was considerably larger. :yikes:

Believe it or not that taught me a lot about gun safety,,,
That was the last time I ever played with a firearm again.

I might have had a finger on the trigger,,,
Or the rifle could have a defective firing mechanism,,,
But I did tell my nephew he should have it looked at by a gunsmith.

This is maybe why he never messed with it.

Anyways I'll see him this Thanksgiving,,,
Perhaps I'll be reunited with an old acquaintance.

Aarond

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Originally Posted by aarondhgraham:
I might have had a finger on the trigger,,,

You can bet the farm you did. We all know they don't go off by themselves. :nono:

If he doesn't give it back tell him you have one more thing to discuss with him. At that point inform him he was in fact adopted by his parents after they where paid to take him, his mother was a prostitute and YOU are his father....Happy Thanksgiving son!!! :madsmile:

Originally Posted by :
I might have had a finger on the trigger,,,

Originally Posted by :
You can bet the farm you did. We all know they don't go off by themselves.

Possibly or even probably,,,
Although I was jacking that bolt pretty dang fast and hard.

You can imagine just how scared I was,,,
I had to fess up and tell the parents before they found the holes.

Anyways, my nephew knows his parentage,,,
He's been told all his life he was left on the porch by gypsies.

Aarond

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Did the same with a semi auto SKB 12 gauge when I was 18 y/o got tired of cycling the bolt 1 round at a time to check for sticky reloaded cases as I would use them on a pattern board not trying to hit a clay when it could cause a jam.
Any how placed the safety on put 4 in the mag and one up the spout sat the shotty on the heel and proceeded to pump the barrel and cycle the action things were going well did that twice 3rd time the 2nd round stuck out the ejection port and another was on the lifter, okay I will just pull that round out the lifter will function as the bolt slams shut.........I remember my left hand being 2"below the muzzle grabbing the barrel I was on the Rt side of the weapon I bent down (sitting on the bed) and used my right hand to remove the shell from the ejection port remember the safety is on and I had the shotty on the heel of the stock with the barrel grasped in my left hand.
Now with my left ear not 2-3"away from that muzzle and no third hand to pull the trigger the moment that bolt slammed shut that gun fired, in a small bedroom with the door shut and my ear where it was it was frigging loud.:nono:
The wad punched a nice neat hole in the ceiling and the 1 1/4 once of shot punched a 6"dia hole in the tin roof as I climbed up to fix it, I never did that again nor did that weapon ever do that stunt again for all the years I shot it until forced to hand it in for destruction when the Govt collared all our semi-auto weapons. (Sorry Badger had to get that swipe in):p

Aarond, that's a good story. get the Krag back and go hunting with it.

jn