I'm confused about what I have here.

Sporterized and unofficial modified Krags
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butlersrangers
Posts: 9823
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2009 11:35 pm
Location: Below the Bridge, Michigan

Re: I'm confused about what I have here.

Post by butlersrangers »

FWIW - My suggestion is that you enjoy your 'sportered' Krag, as it is, and don't mess with a hand-guard.

(IMHO - they are expensive and there is no good option with your current rear-sight and altered model 1896 carbine stock).

If I had the necessary wood working skills, I would put a 'patch' on the stock "butt", to replace the wood that was removed and fit an original butt-plate.

If this stock repair turned out real well, I might rethink things and economically assemble parts to make a 'Faux' 1896 carbine.

'Warpspasm' - You might enjoy and profit from an inexpensive book by Joe Poyer, "The American Krag Rifle and Carbine", that sells on ebay for around $25. It gives a lot of information on U.S. Krags and part variations.

You can also profit from looking at past threads and search past topics on the KCA forum.

Warpspasm
Posts: 29
Joined: Mon Mar 01, 2021 7:17 pm

Re: I'm confused about what I have here.

Post by Warpspasm »

Baltimoreed wrote: Wed Mar 03, 2021 1:26 am Thought that I’d mention that I used a m1a walnut handguard on my buds carbine to school rifle project. Used steel mauser handguard clips. We tried it on my buds assembled rifle Saturday with his warm [read hot] handloads and it held. Might be an alternative if you have woodworking skills. I’ve used two of these so far, one on my T20 Garand build and the Krag rebuild. Here it is before I jbwelded in the clips. The rear clip had to be done twice but both held after firing 20 rds. You could use rivets too as there are holes in the clips [the first mauser handguard I bought had small screws holding in the clips]. As short as that guard is you might mess with a shorter used garand guard.
That's pretty clever. Don't you have any pictures of the finished product on the rifle?

Warpspasm
Posts: 29
Joined: Mon Mar 01, 2021 7:17 pm

Re: I'm confused about what I have here.

Post by Warpspasm »

Things are actually coming along pretty well. The butt plate I got does a good job once I took the curve out it and made it a flat plate. It just so happened a friend of mine had a hand guard he bought and wasn't using because it didn't work with his 1898 rifle (cut down to a carbine) because he has a carbine sight and the hand guard is for a 1902 sight. He gave it to me to see if I could figure out a way to make it work with my carbine since I do have a 1902 sight. I spent a few hours yesterday and another hour or today cutting off the back of hand guard and inletting it to fit over the receiver and contouring the sight opening to allow for the 1902 sight to close all the way. It was quite a challenge since I really don't have any woodworking expertise and my tools consisted of a Dremel, an Exacto knife and a really cheap set of hobby wood gouges. But, by the grace of God, and sheer determination I did it. The front still needs to be cut off and reduced at the end to fit under the 1896 barrel band. I can't do that yet because I don't own an 1896 barrel band. BUT, I ordered one and it should be here this week. While waiting, I stripped all of the shiny sporter finish off of the stock, ironed out a few dents, then lightly sanded everything with 400 grit paper. I didn't have to worry about sanding off any cartouches or markings because unfortunately, whoever originally sporterized the gun got rid of them. Then, without wiping off the dust, I rubbed in some BLO and did a dust/oil sanding to fill any pores. I'll do that again in a few days. The only thing I still haven't figured out how to do is, rivet a barrel spring clip to the hand guard. I know the first step is to actually get my hands on a spring clip, but I haven't been able to find one anywhere.

Pictures will be forthcoming when it's all done.

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