New to me sporter

[Jefe]

I picked up this little beauty for a decent price over the weekend, and am thinking I'll just clean it up and making a nice vintage sporter.

It's very dirty and dusty, but the bore looks good and there's no rust visible.

I think I'll track down a barrel band to better mount the front sling, and fill the wood there. Thankfully the swivel in there is done decently and there's no cracking to the wood or major damage in addition to the hole. I've got repro of the correct style sling to replace the beat up 1907 pattern that's on it.

The rear sight has been replaced with a dovetailed Marbles buckhorn, the original sight screw holes have been filled, though it looks like it might be possible to get the plugs out.

The receiver was obviously drilled for a scope base, probably a Weaver? The holes in pairs are ~.35" apart center-to-center , and ~3.10" overall center-to-center.
Any ideas on a "vintage" style scope to stick on this?

[Whig]

That's a pretty high number M1898 Krag made around August 1903. My highest number is 482709 probably assembled soon after yours was.

That was also once a nice carbine stock that was altered for your sporter.

Since the bore sounds good, it should be a good shooting Krag. Keep us informed of your progress and thanks for the pictures.

[Jefe]

Ah, very cool. I was going to look later this evening to see if I could figure out a manufacture date, but thanks for solving that!
Where does one find that information, anyway?

It's unfortunate it was drilled that way, but ya know, I guess it still exists, so that's a plus.
It's got a couple of completely unintelligible markings on it, I can really only get a photo of one, the other just looks like a smudge in the photo.

I'll probably do some light refinish work on the stock, just to get a few minor nicks and dings out of it. It's honestly in pretty good shape and I don't want it to outshine the metal. An aged look is fine, it was made over 115 years ago after all!

[butlersrangers]

'Jefe' - Welcome to the KCA Forum! That is a handy looking Krag 'Hunting' rifle that you picked-up.

I would recommend that you leave your stock pretty much as it is.
It is a desirable Model 1898 carbine stock of the original short configuration.

Taking the swivels off and filling the holes, in a craftsman like manner, is OK.
Hopefully, the rear-swivel is just an aftermarket 'screw-in', like the front one.
Freshening up and 'feeding' the wood by hand-rubbing with some coats of linseed oil would improve appearance.

(If the only major damage to your stock is the sling-swivel screw holes, the stock is the most valuable part of your Krag. Don't mess it up!
In fact, it might be wise to pick up a replacement 'cut-down' Krag rifle stock, to carry out your 'classic sporter' plan).

Weaver made a variety of side-mounts. Some were single piece stampings that 'bolted' directly to the receiver. On later mounts, the "ring-part" is easily detachable from a mounting-plate or block that is screwed to the receiver. (The hole-spacing on Weaver-mounts seems to be consistent).

Your mount-holes are placed rather far forward on the receiver. This may require that both scope rings clamp the 'scope-tube' in front of the adjustment turrets.

IMHO - Your barreled/action is a 'cut-down' Krag rifle, that some civilian put into a carbine stock. Your receiver appears drilled & tapped for a Weaver 'side-mount'. These mounts can still be found on the internet and provide a versatile mount system.
Your current safety-lever appears to be a 'Buehler' commercial safety, that allows the safety to function with a scope in place.

Attached photos showing a couple of Weaver scopes and mounts, on a drilled & tapped Krag carbine. Note that scopes are a bit off-set to the left to allow clearance for ejection and issue safety-lever cannot clear scope and operate.

[butlersrangers]

I would advise against sanding and refinishing this model 1898 carbine stock. It looks worthy of a proper carbine stock restoration. (Model 1896 and 1898 carbine stocks are in demand and even flawed ones bring $200 to $300.

A decent 'cut-down' rifle stock is worth a lot less and will better serve your goals.

Your stock is for a carbine made in 1898. Only 5,002 model 1898 carbines were manufactured.

The stock is not original to your metal parts. Receiver #480111 was manufactured around September, 1903, (per Bill Mook's calculations).

The metal-plate on the left-side of your stock is what remains of the 'saddle-ring & bar', a.k.a. a "carbine-swivel". At one time, U.S. Cavalrymen wore a leather cross-belt, that had a 'roller-hook' which could be snapped to the carbine's ring, for secure carry.
The stock marking behind the saddle-ring plate is the 'Acceptance Cartouche'. Inside the round cornered 'box' are the script letters [J.S.A], for Joseph Sumner Adams, foreman of the assembly room at Springfield Armory. Below the initials is likely the date, 1898.

Behind the trigger-guard there is likely a 'Circled' script "P", function 'proof', stamped into the wood.

[FredC]

Noticed that Jefe's side plate mounting holes are way forward of Br'S example. It may take a little finagling to get the eye relief correct for a scope. Most scopes can handle moving the scope forward or backward so that the adjusting turret clears the rings. If Jefe does not already have a proper scope he may want to pay attention to the lens size and layout to get things to fit.

[butlersrangers]

'Jefe' - This photo from the KCA 'main pages' shows a model 1898 carbine in its original configuration.

This is the U.S. Krag model that your stock was 'removed' from.
(BTW - Your current barrel-band is from a U.S. model 1899 carbine).

It is likely that the party, who shortened your Krag's barrel, refinished the metal, installed the front & rear sights, installed the Buehler safety-lever and D&T the receiver, had a surplus carbine stock to put the metal into.

I am not trashing your Krag. It is interesting to me, how things came to be.

In the 1920's and 1930's, Krags could be bought for as little as $1.50. This led to widespread conversion of military Krags into practical hunting rifles.

[FredC]

'Jefe' - This photo from the KCA 'main pages' shows a model 1898 carbine in its original configuration.

This is the U.S. Krag model that your stock was 'removed' from.

It is likely that the party, who shortened your Krag's barrel, refinished the metal, installed the front & rear sights, installed the Buehler safety-lever and D&T the receiver, had a surplus carbine stock to put the metal into.

I am not trashing your Krag. It is interesting to me, how things came to be.

In the 1920's and 1930's, Krags could be bought for as little as $1.50. This led to widespread conversion of military Krags into practical hunting rifles.

Butlersrangers, we know you would never trash talk a Krag sporter. We sort of wonder if you are drooling over that nice 1898 carbine stock.

[butlersrangers]

In all honesty, I am a model 1899 carbine 'junky'.

In terms of U.S. Military History, though, the model 1896 and model 1898 carbines are the ones "that were there".

I do not have a strong 'lust' for the model 1898 carbine. I would enjoy possessing a model 1896 carbine, for a while!

I just feel duty bound to let a 'new guy' know, when there is a desirable part on his 'sportered' Krag.

[Jefe]

Oh no, the most "finish" I might do on the stock is to steam up some dents, possibly apply a tiny bit of matching stain to some of the nicks to color match them, and then give it several coats of tung oil. I'm not planning to strip, sand and refinish.

However, the sad news is as I was cleaning up the horrible layer of crud, dust and oil coating everything, I made this discovery of what I had discounted as a scratches on the buttstock, are actually cracks that have formed around a knothole. Fortunately, only smaller one to the left seems to go through to the inside, the other, while bad looking, is not horribly deep, and both should be repairable without too much fuss, in a way that will look good, by using some color matched epoxy and appropriate clamping according to a good friend of mine who has done a lot of woodwork and gunstock repair.

It looks worse in the top photo as we've applied the tiniest bit of clamping to open it up and clean out the inside of the crack as prep work while we wait on epoxy dye to arrive.