In my youth, I learned there was a lot of Fakery and Misrepresentation in Krags that were "For Sale". Cut-down Rifles were routinely 'Hawked' as "Cavalry Carbines" and "Philippine Constabulary Carbines".
It is the collector/buyer's responsibility to be cautious and educate himself before rushing into dangerous ground.
It is over 111 years since Springfield Armory built any new Krags - 100 years since any Krags were altered into 'School Rifles - Almost 100 years since Krags saw WW1 Service - and about 85 years since the DCM sold Krags to the Public. (The sudden appearance and sale of CMP Krags is about 5 years in the past).
The age and condition of our Krag 'population' has created a demand for parts and accessories that are quite expensive and not always available. There are reproduction Stocks, Hand-guards, small screws, Barrels, cleaning rods, brass muzzle cover/sight protectors, and front-sight blades available from some vendors. These items serve a purpose, but, when used and not honestly represented, can easily fool the unwary.
Carbine rear-sights are particularly valuable and loose ones fetch a lot of money. Yesterday, I was looking at the S&S Firearms on-line catalog.
In the past, I knew they had altered some model 1896 Rifle sights into "replica carbine sights. To the experienced eye, these machined and re-marked sights are pretty obvious. Yesterday, I noticed, S&S Firearms is using original parts to make some replica model 1898 and 1902 Carbine sights.
IMHO, it is regrettable they are doing this and marking them with little "C"s. S&S Firearms is certainly not trying to defraud anyone, but, there will be confusion to some collectors. Educate yourself on fine details and Buyer Beware. (Attached photos of bogus replicas).
It's A Jungle Out There!
- butlersrangers
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- Posts: 1179
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Re: It's A Jungle Out There!
All appear to be done with 98 carbine bases. To my knowledge, none of the 98 carbine eyepieces got upgraded (ground) to make 1902 sights. But I suppose they could have ground the C off too. The placement of the C on the eyepiece is higher than that of an original 98C sight that I have. Approx .136 from the top bevel to the top of the C on one I have. It's almost down where the curve starts up toward the eyepiece. I can't see their C good enough, but the Cs on this sight have a single serif.
- butlersrangers
- Posts: 9909
- Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2009 11:35 pm
- Location: Below the Bridge, Michigan
Re: It's A Jungle Out There!
It appears to me S&S Firearms has used Rifle rear-sight bases and machined or ground the elevation ramps to Carbine sight base height. The top of the ramps are shiny, suggesting metal has been removed. I can not tell if they used 1898 or 1902 sight bases without seeing leaf-spring and attachment method.