Geo,
Hunting this year was cold and wet, with very little game in evidence. So I got skunked for elk. But I am getting really good at using the bicycle to expand the area I hunt in a given day.
post-elk season I took the
Krag
up to N. Idaho for late fall whitetails. had a great shot,30 yards at a bunch of fat muley bucks mixed in with does ...and like a fool I had a white-tail tag. At noon break I met up with my brother who said, "man you shoulda shot one, you could put it on my tag." I said,"well that's a conversation we should have had before-hand." Seeing as how it involved a minor but hardly unheard-of violation of game laws.
My own thought is, you should just stick to the law as your Plan A. plan B can be something else, but don't make it up after the fact.
Let me try a few new tricks on your carbine.
I'm willing to put it 89% your soldier was in the 6th cavalry. And I'm willing to give it about that percent he acquired that carbine from his unit's armory, by purchase when the Krags were retired in favor of '03s. The question in my mind now is this: did he buy out his own weapon, or take the nicest one he could get from the armory?
If it was me it would be the latter. But it was him.
jn