Bequeathed an 1898 Krag rifle

[beltbuckle]

Ahoy, all! Stumbled on this site awhile back and have been trying to read up on the wealth of great info here. As long as I'm here, might as well share with you my puzzler.

I was recently bequeathed an 1898 Krag rifle by a long time, older amigo. Last time he took it out he and his partners bagged three deer with it in one weekend, but that was about 45 years ago. He knew I love old milsurp rifles, and when I asked him to show me his Krag a while back he was happy to oblige. When he saw how much I liked it he said "It's yours."

Brought it home and disassembled it to clean and evaluate it in detail, and the stock fell in two on me via a crack in the usual place. I've got a replacement stock from Boyd's I'm fitting and finishing, and am looking to return it to more or less the configuration (if not the condition) it would have been in when in service. But here's the puzzler: the stock that came to me had no cartouche, no pressure tests or inspector's marks of any kind, yet it is clearly quite old. Finish remaining is maybe 20% (receiver in the white), but the thing that has me puzzled is this -- the barrel is 29.5". It's not 30", it's 29.5. Serial number indicates probable mfg date ~1902.

The stock had been shortened, with the section forward of the lower barrel band removed. The lower barrel band is not a rifle band, though, but a carbine band, and the stock had been fitted with two screw-in carbine sling swivels (sling came with it, but I think it is a later Springfield 1903A3 sling). It wasn't chopped or bubbaed, but it doesn't look quite like an armory job, either. Attached pic shows a very similar rifle, though this isn't mine.

I suspect it may have been re-crowned (haven't shot it yet but it is reportedly very accurate) and I suspect the wood was reconfigured by somebody who knew what he was doing and had access to spare parts.

Anybody got any thoughts?

Thanks!!

Information

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[KenK]

By your picture your Krag is a standard 98 with the forend cut off. The swivels are corect for the 98 stock. What are you going to do with the broken stock?

[jon_norstog]

Beltbuckle,

You have the makings of a pretty decent shooter. If you post the S/N, there are guys on this list and the CSP Krag list who can give you a pretty good idea of its provenance and place in the Krag story. I'm thinking the 29.5" is the correct barrel langth. Two ways to go, one is to finish up th bubba job and use it hunting, the other is to get a stock and some hardware and use it for show, or for vintage shooting. I think that in the future good restoration jobs will be worth money

You did good.

jn

[beltbuckle]

By your picture your Krag is a standard 98 with the forend cut off. The swivels are corect for the 98 stock. What are you going to do with the broken stock?

KenK -- Thanks for the feedback. I agree that I think mine is in more or less standard config for an 1898. The pic I posted is one I cribbed from another post on the Krag Collectors Forum. It shows a rifle similar to mine, but not mine. The pic I posted does look like the right sling swivels. Mine differs in that the lower barrel band is a carbine band, without attached/integrated swivel; the upper swivel attached to my stock looks like a screw-in carbine swivel (haven't pinned down from which model yet) and the lower is the same, but in the right place for the standard 1898 model rifle swivel (which is inlet and quite different).

Sorry to confuse things with the wrong pic, but the pics I have taken of my rifle are way over the pic size allowable on the forum, and I haven't figured out how to sort that out properly yet...

the 29.5" barrel is the real puzzler for me, though...

Edit -- sorry -- blew right past your Q. I plan to repair/glue the broken stock. It isn't an original, but it's still old wood, and very nice (looks like black walnut to me, but I could be wrong...). The crack was pretty bad, though, and ancient, with some black edges, so it won't be good as new by any means.

[beltbuckle]

Beltbuckle,

You have the makings of a pretty decent shooter. If you post the S/N, there are guys on this list and the CSP Krag list who can give you a pretty good idea of its provenance and place in the Krag story. I'm thinking the 29.5" is the correct barrel langth. Two ways to go, one is to finish up th bubba job and use it hunting, the other is to get a stock and some hardware and use it for show, or for vintage shooting. I think that in the future good restoration jobs will be worth money

You did good.

jn

Thanks, Jon. The serial number is 469093. I looked it up on one of the posted lists and think I determined 1902 as a likely year of manufacture. I'm sure others much more familiar with the runs can extract more from the record.

It would be very cool if 29.5" were the right lengthy, but from everything I've read (Poyer and a lot of posts here and on KCA) I thought it should be 30? But I'm the first to admit I'm totally new to all this, and could well be wrong. Where can I learn more about the right barrel lengths? I looked at a couple Krag muzzles I saw at the Chantilly, VA show last month, and as far as I could tell mine was no different from them, but what do I know?

What am I gonna do with it? I'm NOT gonna bubba it any further! I'm going to try and replace all the wood with new stain/fiknished modern pieces to approximate the original configuration. I've scoured up the right hardware, and I'm gonna have fun with the vintage shooting anggle. I'm also gonna repair the broken stock and keep all the parts so I can swap it out easily back into the config in which I received it, for sentimental and respectful purposes.

I suspect the restoration might have a little value, but I've little concern with that. To me it's an heirloom for the history it signifies and the great friend from whom it came, and I hope to pass it along to my own son one day. But only after lots of shooting and fun to come!

Thanks for the tips! The knowledge quest continues! I'll try and get some pics posted when I've got it finished, though that will take a little while.

Watch this space!

[kragluver]

How did you measure barrel length? The Krag rifle should have a 30" barrel when measured from the face of a closed bolt to the muzzle (use a dowel rod or cleaning rod to measure). If yours is 29.5", then chances are someone cut it off and re-crowned it to eliminate a worn muzzle.

[beltbuckle]

How did you measure barrel length? The Krag rifle should have a 30" barrel when measured from the face of a closed bolt to the muzzle (use a dowel rod or cleaning rod to measure). If yours is 29.5", then chances are someone cut it off and re-crowned it to eliminate a worn muzzle.

THANKS, kragluver! My education continues.

To be honest, the way I measured it at first was with a tape measure, on an open bolt, from where I eyeball-estimated the boltface would be when closed.

Your post made me get up off my butt and go break out the rifle (thanks for giving me an excuse for a midday fondle), a cleaning rod, and an architect's straightedge, and guess what? It's 29.5".

So I'm still puzzled, though a re-crowning seems like a logical explanation to me.

Thing is, I've had a couple of other rifles re-crowned, and they never lost more than a very small fraction of their length -- nothing like half an inch. I dunno why anybody would take a half inch if they didn't need to, but... I wasn't there.

This may wind up in the category of enduring mysteries.

[kragluver]

You never know, if the muzzle was severely worn some gunsmith may have hacked off the last 1/2-inch and re-crowned. Is the front sight a regular Krag sight brazed onto the barrel in a small dovetail or is it the slip on '03-style sight? If it is a Krag style sight, measure the distance from the sight base to the muzzle. That might tell us something...

[beltbuckle]

You never know, if the muzzle was severely worn some gunsmith may have hacked off the last 1/2-inch and re-crowned. Is the front sight a regular Krag sight brazed onto the barrel in a small dovetail or is it the slip on '03-style sight? If it is a Krag style sight, measure the distance from the sight base to the muzzle. That might tell us something...

well, the plot thickens. the front sight post seems to be consistent with what was issued (judging by the pics in Poyer on pp 176ff of my edition, 2nd, revised) and its forward edge begins what looks to be exactly 10mm from the muzzle (no calipers, just eyeballing with a good, steel straightedge). and looking more closely at the muzzle, I'm sure my gunsmith will be able to diagnose authoritatively when I get it to him (wish I could figure out how to get a pic with my camera of a size small enough to post here!) but I think I might see some buffing/polishing that might be consistent with re-crowning.

the sight blade, however, doesn't look quite like anything I can find anywhere for either Krags or 1903s. All of those that I find are pinned in with a single brass pin (as is mine) but they are tapered, with the highest part of the sight blade being toward the rear. Mine has what looks like a rectangular, non tapered blade with the top surface carrying what looks like a brazed brass bead along its entire length. I can't find anything like it anywhere!

It makes a nice sight picture though, and it's dialed in for accuracy at about 100m, from what I've heard.

So far, your thinking on this makes more sense than anything else I can come up with.

I will post pics when I can get it figured out...

thanks!

[Griff Murphey]

If you restore it as full military, I doubt that anyone will pick up on that missing half-inch.