Good morning:
I recently acquired a .22 Krag in a rather complicated trade deal, and am wondering a bit about it. It appears to be the Gallery Rifle, and is stamped on the side with the usual US Springfield Armory Model 1898, but with the addition of a Cal .22. The serial number is 4764XX. The rifle is full wood, full length, and appears to have a full bore centrefire magazine and feed well, and also the usual bolt, but a .22 barrel. I haven't gotten out to the range with it yet, but I've chambered a spent .22 casing and it appears that the .22 chamber must be very slightly offset so that that standard centrefire firing pin in the bolt whacks the casing just inside the rim. I would think it should fire just fine. The rifle is complete except for one screw holding in the rear sling swivel assembly.
I haven't been able to find a lot about these, but it seems they were purpose built AFTER the Krag was withdrawn from service? Was that because the reserves or militia were still armed with Krags, or was it just because there was a demand for small bore military weight rifles and there weren't enough Springfields made yet? Were there many of these made, and do many survive? Were they in a specific serial number range or just higgeldy-piggeldy? I live North of the 49th, and generally collect Rosses and Lee Enfields, but also have a reasonable collection of small bore trainers from different countries. For US stuff, I've run across the Springfield M2 of 1922, Mossbergs, etc, but never a Krag .22 before. It seems very practical and very nicely done.
I can post some pictures if anyone is interested. If no one is interested, I might post some anyway just for the heck of it. :madsmile:
Ed
