Krag Collectors Association Forum

"Granpa's Gun Parts" shows some interesting oddities in their online catalog page.

A couple of 'unidentified' items caught my attention: 1. A jig or fixture found "in a box of gun parts on Bannerman Island", that may have come from Springfield Armory.
2. A partial barrel-band showing odd lobes.

Fun riddles for those who study U.S. gun parts.

The jig suggests sear/trigger parts to me.

'Skilled eyes' and opinions welcomed!

My first guess on the jig was a drilling fixture foe parts of a rear sight. Your mention of trigger seems just as plausible. Held up a trigger to it and it does not seem to fit any better than the sight parts. There is that L-shaped doodad with the hole in it that seems to be backwards in the bottom one. My first guess is someone took it part and put it backwards when reassembling it.

Maybe not a drill jig as there are no marks on it from drilling thousands of holes. Maybe for lining up a pin in an assembly?

The barrel band piece reminds me of a Cone-trol scope mount. Maybe designed for quick removal? With hundreds of employees at SA there had to be a lot of them that were inventive trying out new things to make things better. In the 10 plus years building almost 1/2 million Krags there were probably hundreds of items that showed some promise, but budget and other things got in the way.

How much for the odds and sods? It would be worth a couple of dollars just to fool around with them and scratch our heads even more.

FredC - I just purchased the 'section' of special barrel-band, on the off chance that it might be part of a Krag band.

The Springfield Armory 'jig' is "On Sale" for $350, go for it!

It would be really cool if the altered barrel-band 'bit' were to prove connected with something like the 'Cataract-Scope Mount".

I could see that barrel band "bit" being part of the scope mount. You might be on the road to something good.

On the jigs any clue on how big they are or how much they weigh? $350.00 kind of kills my curiosity.

I found it on the Grand Pa's site. He thought it was a drill jig. Maybe just one part with the drill guide reversed for clarity. Cannot figure out what on a Krag would fit in that recess, maybe not Krag related.

I don't know about the size or dimensions of the 'jig'.
That would be useful to know to help identify its function.

I was envisioning it possibly being a fixture, that clamped and firmly held a sear, as the engagement angles & surfaces were ground.
It would be interesting to see if a Krag sear would 'position' in this jig.

Hey, it's "On Sale", normally $500!

Well, I've concluded "I'm barking up the wrong tree" with the idea the jig had anything to do with Krag or 1903 trigger/sear parts.

Springfield Armory did make a lot of different guns!

If Joe DeChristopher didn't have it figured out, with his vast knowledge of parts,
our chances of solving this puzzle are pretty slim!

With no scale next to it, it may weigh 5 ounces or 50 lbs. I held up a lot of Krag parts to the photo and could not make it fit anything.

The 'partial' barrel-band arrived today from Granpa's Gun Parts.

I don't know what purpose it served, but it is indeed made from a Krag barrel-band and it is very solid and expertly done.

It appears to be one-of-a-kind 'head scratcher'?

The 'hook', that is riveted and maybe brazed or welded to the 'partial' band, must have engaged a custom right barrel-band section to be 'complete'.
Why? is the question. It appears to have seen some use.

Any insights are appreciated!

Br, it still looks like the radius top of the barrel band is supposed to hook into a round surface. If the other side of the band had the same radiused hook it would not surprise me a bit. If you can find photos of a Conetrol scope rings, you will see what I am getting at. The Conetrol rings used a dovetail instead of two radii.

The inside of the half you have, shows to have a rivet. Is that unusual raised spot on the outside a separate piece held in place by riveting? If I am seeing this correctly that doodad on the outside is a big puzzle.

Assuming the matching piece was almost the same, a part resembling a bicycle chain link would tie the pieces together to make a quick takedown barrel band or the third piece tying the 2 band parts would hold or be a platform for a scope mount, your original thought. Pretty certain there had to be a match to your piece, what tied them together is the first mystery if it was not a scope mount, then that flat portion on the outside, did the opposite band have that and what was the flats purpose.

Just looked at the bottom photo and I sure see the form for a rivet on the outside. Looked again and I am going to say the flat and the radius hook are one piece riveted in place. The flat maybe nothing more than part of the radiused hook.

FredC - The 'raised 1/2 circle flat area', on the outside of the 'partial' barrel-band, is simply the shape of the other end of the metal hook piece.

This single added piece of metal is riveted and maybe also brazed to the partial Krag barrel-band. The hook-attachment is quite solid.

It would make sense if there was an identical right barrel-band section.
The 'hooks' of two partial barrel-band sections could lock into a 'bridge', that straddled the barrel like a saddle.
The 'bridge' would complete the barrel-band and might also serve as a sight base or scope-block?