1898 Single shot Krag

[whitey]

I recently picked up my first Krag for a winter project.. I have to chamber Cast for cal. But uses a 25020 case necked to 22.
The rifle has been drilled for scope mounts but Wow.! I have tried a bunch with no luck.Any info on what might fit will be apericated. I will try to post a couple pictures. Whitey

[whitey]

One more picture. Whitey

[Dick Hosmer]

That's a beautiful classic!

So far as the mounts are concerned, I'd guess something "exotic" in the target scope realm. Winchester A5, Stith, Fecker, Litschert, Hensoldt, etc. I've seen pictures of the bases that curve over the receiver, but I do not recall whose they are.

Looks like they finally gave up and went to standard Lyman/Unertl, barrel blocks.

I think the commercial .218 Bee was a necked-down 25-20, but in that "golden age of wildcatting", everybody had their own ideas, so you will have to follow the path wherever it leads.

Many Krags were chambered for variations of the .219 Zipper, another commercial cartridge, which has a much larger case head. Now, in looking back, some people consider that the Zipper was capable of being loaded too hot for the Krag, and that some of the early experimenters were "lucky".

[whitey]

Thanks Dick. The rifle looks like it had regular scope mounts then. A new target or varmit barrel installed
with scope blocks. But I would like to go back to the
scope ring mounts. If I can find some. :) Whitey

[madsenshooter]

The angle of the holes in the receiver reminds me of some old Weaver 1 piece rings. Some of them had a tunnel on the underside to allow a guide rib to go under. I can't remember the Weaver letter for those rings now, but they had screws that went in at an angle. I see a lot of old Savage 99s drilled and tapped the same. They were one piece extruded aluminum, single split, so a scope that can be easily disassembled would be needed. The rings are hard to find, I have a bag of them somewhere.

Weaver made two types of mounts to go on a Krag, the earliest, the type "U" mounts were the aluminum rings with feet I mentioned above. The Krag requires a #27 rear ring, a number 11 front ring.

Then theres' the type B mount. They had an alloy base contoured for the receiver, and a removable steel top ring that clamped the scope to the base. These B mounts had a large thumbscrew on each side to attach the base to the receiver. Proper #s for the Krag are #8 rear and #2 front. The holes in your receiver look larger than standard 6x48 mounting screws, so I'm gonna guess you might need to find some of the old B mounts and see if the screws will fit. They only accepted the 3/4" tube scopes, they're not a very high mount, as they were designed to get the scope as low as possible, you'd need a low scope safety too.

[Dick Hosmer]

I believe the most commonly used Weaver mount, on the Krag, was the basic type "N", which was for 3/4" tubes only. It utilized a formed steel base, having four screw holes, and two formed steel clamps with four screws each. It had no knobs. I do not recall that two piece bases were ever widely used on the Krag, in the "modern" (1950s up) era on the Krag.

It did mount very low, requiring a modified safety - Buehler being the best-known. It IS possible to bubba the existing safety, and at one time this was actually recommended as a "kink" - probably because ANY safety was thought to be better than NO safety - but to do so is quite risky, as it is NOT secure.

[whitey]

Fellows if anyone should have a set of scope mounts they think will fit I will be glad to buy them if they fit.
The cal on the Krag has been determined to be R-2 Lovell. Whitey

[madsenshooter]

I forgot about the mounts Dick mentioned, they go on the side, the pretty much accepted way to do it now. The U mounts I mentioned above also had a side option. They were some of Weaver's first efforts, introduced in 47. By the 50's he'd came up with some better ideas. I'm sticking with my idea that it's drill and tapped for B mounts. I'll have to look for that bag, can't say when I'll find it or what's in it, but if I find anything that may be useful to you, I'll send you a PM.

[whitey]

Please do and thank you. Whitey

[madsenshooter]

Well I managed to find a mismatch. I found the rear U mount, and a front N mount. They take different sized scopes, and use different sized screws, so we should at least be able to figure out if the holes on the receiver are anywhere near fitting either of them. First I have the U mount, which takes a couple 6x48 screws, though an individual gunsmith could drill them for larger holes. The holes on the bottom "foot" of the mount are .875" center to center. Then there's the N mount, this one is for the front, takes a 3/4" tube. The mounting screws are .165" in diameter and are .550" center to center.