Refurbished Krag 1898

[skeet1]

After making an action wrench I got the old barrel off my 1898 Krag today and replaced it with a barrel that was much better. I'm anxious to shoot the rifle now and see if it will group instead of pattern. I also refinished the stock as the rifle when I got it had been refinished sometime it's past and was terrible however the wood itself was in good condition with a 1901 cartouche on the left side wrist. After removing the old varnish it was found that the wood was very light in color and I think I read someplace that in 1901 they used some Italian walnut that was lighter colored. I don't know if that is true or not. I used some raw linseed oil and put several coats on the wood and it all turned out very good. I first posted this on the Krag Forum site and thought you guys might be interested. Here are some photos.

Information

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[browningautorifle]

I wish your pics were a bit bigger though, I think it's possible that your stock is stunning... Glad the barrel thing went fine for you. I'd sure like to have that rifle, I have brass and dies, just need the gun again...

[skeet1]

Larger photos.

[browningautorifle]

Larger photos.

Yes, but only a bit. Still, nice rifle. Wish it was mine.

[Salt Flat]

Skeet, Looks good! The full length rifles are getting hard to find. Salt Flat

[skeet1]

Salt Flat,
I was fortunate to find this one. I traded a Styer straight pull carbine and a Yugo 24/47 for it. I didn't have that much in either of those and they weren't very good specimens and I always wanted a Krag. The barrel looked like the inside of a sewer pipe but the rifling stood out fairly well and I thought maybe I could clean it up but was wrong. I then found a barrel that was advertised as having shine and good rifling and bought it. I think I have in it about 1/2 of what it's worth. So it all turned out OK.

Ken

[butlersrangers]

The "foreign wood" is a fact, not a 'folktale'.

Per Franklin Mallory, "The Krag Rifle Story", 2nd edition, page 87: '.... use of foreign wood for stocks and hand-guards occurred in June, 1899, when the firm of Louis Windmuller and Roelker in New York City furnished 13,000 stocks of Italian walnut. They were given a contract for 20,000 additional stocks in July, 1899. This wood is readily recognized as being lighter in color than the American black walnut used for all other Krag stocks'....

I have seen Italian walnut Krag stocks with 1899, 1900, and 1901 'stock cartouche' dates. Some of these stocks were stained at some point to darken the wood, apparently for uniformity in a military or State Militia unit.

Attached photos show such an Italian stock, that was darkened with stain. (This stock's barrel channel is much lighter in color). By contrast, the hand-guard is black walnut.

Attachment 86058Attachment 86059Attachment 86060

[oldcorps]

I have had many US Krags in otherwise fine condition but with the worst bores and chambers imaginable. Chambers in many were so corroded that a spent casing wouldn't extract and the recovered casing was actually blistered from the deep pits. These were typically old VFW color guard rifles that had been used at funerals with corrosive blanks for generations and rarely, if ever, cleaned. At least now the blanks for our Garands are non-corrosive. Anyway, finding decent original Krag replacement barrels was nearly impossible but thanks to the internet I'm happy that you gentlemen are finding them. Given the likely demand, I'm surprised no one's making repros.

[skeet1]

Just for you information Criterion does make new replacement barrels also Numerich has a replacement barrel but I don't know who makes it.

Ken

[oldcorps]

Should probably pay more attention to those matters. My firearms interest ends with those more recent than my own vintage.