The good, the bad and the ugly

[King carp]

No not the movie (one of the best westerns ever), the 1899 krag carbine I picked up in trade. It looks pretty nice. It has a nice handguard, headless bolt,carbine sight and cleaning rod (the good). But the stock is cracked , missing a piece and repaired with a nail. It was poorly cared for with lots of pitting on the action. (the bad). Then there is the barrel. It was plugged up when I got it. After a lot of work it was found to be rotted out (the ugly). Any ideas what caused that really bad spot? It is about an inch long and 4 inches from the front of the barrel. I do not think this is a good candidate for restoration. It should be a good source for repair parts. Kc

[King carp]

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[Whig]

Hope you didn't pay a lot for the parts gun. Nice to build up a parts bin.

Hard to say about the bore. Something got stuck in there for years and rusted. Is the front sight original? I have seen a replacement sight on another rifle that someone brazed or welded on and damaged the inside of the bore with the heating underneath the front sight that was repaired.

Can the stock be repaired?

Parts might be worth $300-500 with the carbine sight that looks sort of worn.

[King carp]

The damage in the bore is about 4 inches from the front sight. The sight is original to the carbine. I traded some WW2 German stuff for the carbine and another rifle. The German stuff does not really interest me so I was happy with the deal. I think the stock could be brought back to look pretty good.

[pickax]

You are right, the overall look is good. And I'm sure the stock crack could be repaired and strengthened.
But the barrel, oh my! I'm learning here, but assume carbine barrels are scarce as hens teeth?

[FredC]

We have something here called a leaf cutter bee. It will fill up holes with leaf bits and lay an egg in the leaf litter. Whether the larva lives or dies it makes a mess of metal parts. Could see one of these really doing a number on a rifle bore. If the bee can come through holes in window screens or whatever, I think they could nest in a rifle store inside or in a barn. On tractors all the tapped holes with no screws will all get filled up. We keep a compressed air nozzle by the front and back doors of the shop. Sometimes they get filled over a week end.

[King carp]

There is an outfit called criterion that has brand new replacement carbine barrels. They are $285.00. That plus installation did not seem worth doing on this carbine. Original carbine barrels show up on online auction sites sometimes.

[King carp]

That's a new one on me. I never heard of that. Must have some pretty caustic pollen! Thanks, kc

[butlersrangers]

Spiders, Wasps, and other insects are known to have nested in rifle and gun bores causing serious bore damage.

I remember reading one African Hunter's account of inserting cartridges, bullet-end first, in the muzzles of the hunting rifles, stacked around the Safari Camp. This was to prevent insects from building mud nests in the bores. Such an obstruction could be catastrophic.

IMHO - Your Krag's stock is likely repairable. Possibly, the barrel could be salvaged by counter-boring.

[Mark_Daiute]

simply have Bobby Hoyt re-line the barrel.