Unusual Krag modification

[us019255]

An old friend has a weapon collection he purchased 20 or so years ago from a private museum in Iowa. Until the last month it has been hidden away in an attic. He now has a vault on his place. When I was crawling around under the eaves and handing rifles down to him, I ran across a Krag that was obviously not original.

Yesterday I had a chance to photograph the piece and look it over.


It is a:

• Model 1898, serial 447811
• Barrel measured exactly 29 7/8" from bolt face to crown
• Front sight appears normal Krag, with no evidence of Bubba
• Stock appears to be a finger groove M1903, complete with reinforcing bolts.
• Zero stamped markings on the stock.
• Front barrel band has lug removed, nicely, and reblued.
• guard band stamped with "U", looks like Krag

This link will take you to a Photobucket album with a bunch of pictures:
Johns_Krag pictures by us019255 - Photobucket

While a lot of Krags have been "sporterized" with various degrees of craftsmanship, turned into "fake" carbines, and rehabilitated by dealers like Bannerman into ersatz military rifles. This one does not really fit any of the catagories.

If sporterized, why not use a sawed up Krag stock? If a fake carbine, why no chopped barrel and why no bayonet lug. If ersatz military, why didn't dealer cut barrel to M1903 length, and affix a M1903 sight?

John and I will be grateful for any insight this group can give. By the way, this is the only Krag in the collection, but over the next few months, other interesting pieces may show up.

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[andiarisaka]

You hit the nail on the head when you said Bannerman. Apparently they made quite few of these Frankenkrags, just trying to get rid of whatever was left over. Google Bannerman Krag and you'll find mention of the 03 stocked rifles in quite a few forums. Do a google image search of the same term and you'll find some real conglomerations from the castle.

[us019255]

You hit the nail on the head when you said Bannerman. Apparently they made quite few of these Frankenkrags, just trying to get rid of whatever was left over. Google Bannerman Krag and you'll find mention of the 03 stocked rifles in quite a few forums. Do a google image search of the same term and you'll find some real conglomerations from the castle.

I have looked around and am familiar with Bannerman's activities. The detailed descriptions I found were for rifles with M1903 barrels, or barrels chopped to carbine length with M1903 sights installed. This rifle has neither.

My other problem is the bayonet lug removal. I don't think the PC Police were active in objecting to "evil" bayonet lugs at that time, and removal would have been an extra expense for the maker.

This is not at all to say that I doubt a Bannerman origin, I would just like some confirmation. This morning I am going to Google specifically images of Bannerman Krag and see if I missed one last night.

[andiarisaka]

One well known Krag parts dealer had some of the no bayonet lug bands in stock at one time. With everyone rebuilding cut offs, the front bands are now hard to find and bring over $100 on ebay. I've seen a couple theories. The parts dealer thought they were perhaps for engineers or artillerymen who wouldn't have been carrying bayonets, and another theory was they were from drill rifles where anything that could snag while doing those fancy drill moves was removed. Can't say which is right, if either. It would sure take a looong handled bayonet to fit that rifle and it would have to have a slot cut in the ring to get past the front sight without said looong handle. So perhaps that's why it was removed. The reasoning behind things done long ago is often hard to uncover.