Love it. What's the hole in the left side of the reciever from?

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I have no idea. I have a couple of Danish Krags, a Norwegian, and a US M1898, and the book on the Scandinavian Krags, but no references on the US ones. Until I looked at my other M1898, I thought it might be a US Krag thing. There's only one hole, so it's not some dumbass drilling it for a scope. I searched the Gallery rifles on the internet, and found this reference from Cowan's Auctions, which specifically mentions a hole in the receiver, so maybe it's something to distinguish the 22 from its big brother??? I also found a reference to the rifle on the NRA Museum website saying only about 850 were made in .22, but it doesn't mention the hole

* Springfield Model 1898 Krag Gallery Practice Rifle, - Cowan's Auctions



I also found a reference to the rifles on a Gunboard called Culver's Shooting Page (ain't Google great?), in which one member told another that the Gallery Practice Rifles only had an undated, script cartouche stock. I don't know if that's correct or not--the fellow might be wrong, in which case I don't want to perpetuate an error....

.22 Gallery Practice Krag

However, there was also a story about a Gallery Rifle on the Krag Collector's Forum, which mentions that the rifle the fellow bought had no cartouche, which he attributed to sanding, so perhaps it is correct these rifles never had one--restocked when converted perhaps? The hole is still a mystery though.

Krag Collectors Association

Ed

Ed

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That's a beautiful example of a Krag Gallery Practice Rifle! There's some excellent information on the GP rifle in both Brophy's book "The Krag Rifle" and Mallory's book "The Krag Rifle Story". The hole in the side of the receiver is where the extractor cam is located inside the receiver. This modification was necessary because of the poor performance of the regular .30 cal extractor.

There appeared to be only 841 (Brophy) manufactured, so they are relatively rare....especially in the condition yours appears to be.

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