M98 Carbine help needed

[Ned Butts]

Hello again,
The stock does attach pretty much as you thought, the trigger guard screws secure the action and the barrel band keeps the barrel secure to the forend and is held in place by the band retaining spring. The hand guard is held inplace by steel clips that are riveted in place through the wood (this may appear to be screw holes but no screws are used). They are about half round and hold by pressure around the barrel. The barrel band on Krags, with the exception of the sight protector type on the short forend M'96 carbine stock, are not used to retain the hand guard.
The numbers on the sight are ranges in yards. If you want to shoot at a specific yardage, loosen the knob on the sight and slide the bar to that range (ladder down to 600 yds and then flip it up for up to 1800yds) and re tighten and shoot. I have always thought that the yd. number should be in front of the bar or above it for proper sighting someone correct me if I'm wrong. Without an original front sight the calibration will most likely be off so it will be trial and error at long ranges.
Lindseed oil is the original finnish, just keep putting it on and working it in, it probably won't look original but will look close enough.
I'd like to see pictures if you could email them to me.
Have fun with your project that is the bottom line.
Ned

[Hal_Beatty]

The Model 1892 rifles used a different extractor which did not have the bolt hold-open pin installed, but I believe all the later models used this device. And many 1892's were converted to later specs. and had this item installed.
Regards,
Hal Beatty

[PiedTyper]

todays project, those pesky spring clips! could someone please expand on them, what is ment by rivited, and can anyone make us a picture or drawing with measurements so that we can see what theyre supposed to look like and how they go into the stock when i go to buy or make 4 of them=)
my current mental picture would leads me to believe that once you put the handguard on that its there for the duration? and if so, how do you keep the barrel from rusting underneath?
and did everyone see the positive responce tom gave my posting on relaoding?? lol i wanted to make sure EVERYONE at least looks at it because it took me like an hour to type it!!=)

[Ned Butts]

Hello Pied,
If you go to the KCA home page and click on pictures there is one of three diffrent hand guards. Click on the picture to enlarge. That might give you a start. I wish we had a view of the under side, maybe that can be added later. The clips are only go about half way around the barrel and the hand guard can be removed for cleaning. The safest way to remove the hand guard is to remove the sight and the stock and slide it forward until comes off. This avoids over zelous prying and the risk of cracking the hand guard, and or chipping the stock.
Nice post on reloading data! I think I would have been too lazy to type all that myself, well done!!
Ned
I almost forgot S&S Firearms has repro clips for $6.50 a pair. That's alot less frustrating than making them!!!
www.SSFirearms.com

[Hal_Beatty]

Pied,
Think of the spring clips as looking like the letter "C", turned so the open side is down. This is then riveted to to underside of the handguard, then installed by pushing down until the open end snaps over the outside diameter of the barrel. Like Ned says, the handguards are removable, and the best source is probably S&S. Certainly easier than trying to make your own.
Regards,
Hal Beatty

[PiedTyper]

yeah, i bet, at least by the description im getting here. thanks guys. now, can someone explain how they attach to the handguard that you can see the rivet holes from top of the handguard?
my current idea for it is that the clips have holes drilled in them, then you stick a piece of malliable metal rod in the hole and then hammer both ends on it so it holds the clip into the wood of the handguard, am i right? and is it brass or lead or what?
as for the buttplate situation, does anyone know how much and where to get a real one? i was going to do the 03a3 thing but then i started to think that i dont want to cut up a brand spankin new stock to fit something that i could possiably find... or at least make...
and tonight i put in my request for a stock and handguard, so hopefuly they will respond in the morning with how much mulah they want and we'll get this ball rolling!
does anyone have a quick and clever way to remember if the magazine cutoff lever is supposed to be up or down when you want the magazine engaged? lol it gets frustratingwhen you forget and have to break out the shells to figure it out (because i like to leave it on while stored that way if it sticks or breaks in storage that it wont disable my piece)
finaly a couple metal finish questions, were the following, blued, browned, polished steel brished steel, or some other finish originaly?
1) trigger guard
2) bolt handle
3) bolt
4) buttplate

[Don_B._in_KS.]

The rivets are a mild steel machined with the head that holds the wood already formed. They would originally have had that head bucked up on a mandrel and the other head that retains the spring would then be driven with a small set. The driven head only needs to upset large enough to retain the spring. Mild steel can be very malleable. Bolt and bolt handle were polished bright, trigger guard and butt plate were blued.