Stokes Kirk and Sedgley Krags

[Frederick303]

Butlersranger

I have seen a Krag with that piece to cover the threaded barrels shown in the Rice ad. I had no idea that was a part that one could buy, I assumed the man who sported the rifle fabricated it.

I am kind of fond of Krags, though I have only 2. Neither has any family history, but as close as I could come to the arms described by family members. Unlike many of the other family heirloom arms both Krags that were owned in that era were lost, the other was sold sometime between 1950 and 1970 by my grandfather, it spent WWII wrapped in a oil cloth hidden underneath that family home along with a 1934 Winchester model 12, which I do have.


My personal interest is more in the short "school carbines" with 22 inch barrels based on the 1896 carbine. The Sedgley I have is very nicely carried out, but on a 1894 dated action, about 16,500 digits from where I want the serial number to be (37,xxx).

It all comes down to a Krag 1896 carbine/short rifle configuration that was mounted in a short stock that was in the family from 1944/45 on. It belonged to my grandfathers brother, or at least it was at his house when he died in 1944 and the household was broken up. It has stood in the corner of the study for years prior and my gun crazy uncle wanted it, it was the specific item he asked for. My mom was with her mother when they went up to break down the household and she made sure it was brought back down to PA (like a good Swiss Mädchen would ). In any case in May of 1945 she got to fire that Krag for the first and last time at the tender age of 12. I suppose the experience of firing a 220 grain full metal patched load though the rather worn 22 inch bore was sufficient to dissuade my mother from every firing a high power rifle again, she left that to the men folk. My uncle when asked about it recalled it being an old 10 gauge at the farm, but I believe his memory is a wee bit faulty on that, as my mom could described the bolt action quite well and was sufficiently wise as to avoid any such brother trick.

Eventually it was converted into a fine sporter by Griffin and Howe of New York city by my uncle in the late 1950s, because the bore was rusted out. I have the serial number but not the gun, it belongs to a cousin (his son) who inherited it. A fine sporter it is and where it properly belongs, as he inherited the gun bug from his father.

Story is it was one of a set of carbines that were sold, in shortened rifle stocks, to a new York Guard organization and used by some sort of coastal artillery unit my fathers brother was in during 1918. I have a nifty picture of that man, alas without any rifle. He was supposed to have been able to buy it after service. SRS seemed to confined the story, as a bunch of carbines near the serial number owned by my cousin were in that range and shown as being sold to a state cavalry unit in 1909. An inquiry to the Albany state military museum verified the rifles were sold to the cavalry unit not in carbine stocks, but configured as short rifles (for what reason I know not).

However later research seemed to precede that possibility though the carbine in that purchase block in the Albany collection is supposed to be in a short rifle stock. My guess is it was one of the school type carbines, brought into service for state side artillery arm duty, though I will never really know unless I make the trip to Albany and try to track down how these carbines ended up in short rifle stocks.

In any case in keeping my eyes open for a 1896 carbines in a rifle stock near 37,500 serial number I have seen a lot of reworked Krag carbines of one type or another and find them to be very interesting arms, though everyone and their cousin wants to tell me they are constabulary arms. Seems like it would be an interesting research project for the right chap.