The Kentucky Krag Rises Again

[rcathey]

Gentlemen,
I inherited an affliction from my mother. Once I decide I'm going to do something, I do it immediately. So, without further ado, the rebirth of the Kentucky Krag from this thread:
https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=62174

First thing's first, I had to create a receiver wrench:
(Photos 1599, 1600, and 1601)
I cannot take credit for the idea. I found something similar on a forum but can no longer locate it.

Now that affliction mentioned early arose and I needed to get that bad barrel off immediately so out came the pipe wrench...but here's a pretty posed picture showing how it should have went:
(Photo 1608)

And once removed, you can really see how awful the drill job is on that barrel. They somehow managed to avoid the receiver except for one minor nick that will be inconsequential:
(Photo 1606)

With that out of the way, I can focus on the stock until I scrounge up a barrel.

First, the crack:
(Photo 1631)

This crack runs through an area where the stock was milled out at the Armory (for weight reasons I suppose):
(Photo 1623)

So I filled that milled portion with a custom fitted piece of walnut. I got a bit fancy here because, well, I had access to the mill so why not:
(Photos 1622, 1626, and 1629)

With the custom piece fit, I first epoxied it in place using the barrel and, basically, surgical tubing as a clamp:
(Photos 1634 and 1636)

Next, I drilled for and inserted brass reinforcing screws at an angle close to perpendicular to the crack:
(Photos 1637 and 1641)

Finally, for now, I filled the rest of the void in the stock with expoxy just for extra measure:
(Photo 1642)

And that's it for now! Next installment will be cutting down the brass screw and cleaning up the stock. Then hopefully I'll have the barrel in shortly -- will be interesting to see how it indexes.
I can whip up a sketch of the receiver wrench if anyone is interested.

Thanks for reading!

Information

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[browningautorifle]

Picture 1606 is missing...

[rcathey]

Picture 1606 is missing...

Dang. That was the craziest one. It'll have to wait until I'm back at my work computer. But seriously, imagine a drill bit that would just fit through the receiver -- that's how much they enlarged the chamber.

[butlersrangers]

Thanks for all the updating!

When 'Garber' first posted two pictures of this Krag, I thought there was something 'Funky' about that chamber.

(What do you think? Altered for blanks made from .45-70 cases or .410)?

Keep us posted on the progress.

[rcathey]

(What do you think? Altered for blanks made from .45-70 cases or .410)? .

Oh interesting! I didn't think of that. I have some 45-70s laying around. I'll slide on of those in and take a pic.

[1911Ron]

Holy resurrection Batman! Looking good so far keep us updated on how it shoots and looks when you are done please?

[Doco overboard]

I would like to see the wrench, I just turned down a clunker today because I was worried about the wrench.

[rcathey]

Well I'm not a great shooter but I'll certainly be taking this to the range when I'm done!
Like I said, having this piece of Kentucky history is very VERY cool to me. Getting her running again feels like a duty. From what I've read, the regiment this rifle was issued to also came from my area of the state. Clearly this rifle was meant to be mine

---------- Post added at 03:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:45 PM ----------

I would like to see the wrench, I just turned down a clunker today because I was worried about the wrench.

No sweat. I'll get a drawing put together and post it up. Pretty simple doo-dad, really. Once I get my new barrel put on, you can expect to see this very unit in the Swap and Sell section.

[Doco overboard]

Thanks,I have an idea when I seen the pics but a drawing would be great.

[henry r]

Nice work! It looks like the rifle found the right owner.