New to me Springfield Krag found at LGS
Hello all!
I’m new to this platform but not to Milsurps or other US rifles. This was a big hole in my US rifle collection (all post Civil War beginning with a trapdoor carbine). While not a comprehensive collection it’s fun and covers the eras well - but I needed this one and have longed for one for quite some time.
So here she is! Looks like ~1900 production. Bore is excellent and crisp. I stripped her down to check under to wood line and found a little bit of rust but nothing scary. I wiped everything down, left a light coat of oil, and de-gunked where necessary but this one appears to - generally speaking - been well cared for over the past 120ish years.
The only questionable thing here to me is whether or not many parts have been refinished as I don’t have a known good copy alongside to compare. Either way it appears it will be functional. All bolt internals look great, follower is functioning as designed, etc. in addition to the metal - the stock is either a replacement (but vintage) or was sanded and refinished, removing all traces of Arsenal markings.
The cover plate for the magazine is broken off (no big mystery to solve there). The screws were in far better shape than I was anticipating.
The rear sight was pretty well frozen in-place for windage adjustment but I resolved that with a couple of light taps of a brass punch. Someone bubba’d the rear notch and affixed a lever style rear sight wing - kind of funky but that can be rectified. The upper wood Handguard is in pretty good shape. It appears some remnant of a finish is on it (a strange texture) but I am not going to mess with that as it’s stable and the clips are in great shape.
Any info experts can lend me in addition or correction to my observations above would be greatly appreciated. Now to find some ammo....
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