Barn find carbine. Repair, conserve, restore or replace?

[butlersrangers]

If the carbine barrel-band, 1896 magazine-gate, and bolt are the areas of worst pitting, you can acquire 'used' replacement parts that are a good match for the general patina of the other metal parts. (Keep the rough original parts in a bag with the Krag).

Rust scale can often be broken down and turned into a nice appearance by soaking with kerosene or solvent and burnishing & working the scale with the edge of a copper penny. Wipe off the slurry with paper toweling and monitor your progress.

Kerosene and a bronze brush can work wonders in removing active rust. A bit of Rust inhibiting grease (RIG) will arrest corrosion in pits.

FWIW - You seem to have ignored several information requests from contributors, regarding aspects of your Krag.
This kills interest, fast.
You are asking for suggestions, but poo-poo or discard carefully thought out answers and remedies.

I feel done with this project.

[Five.five-six]

FWIW - You seem to have ignored several information requests from contributors, regarding aspects of your Krag.
This kills interest, fast.
You are asking for suggestions, but poo-poo or discard carefully thought out answers and remedies.

I feel done with this project.

I’ve been at work. Perhaps it’s a site navigation issue but I thought I had addressed every question I was asked. I snapped these photos and am lying in bed posting them. It’s a bit of a pain because my photos are too large and I have to host them myself.

[Five.five-six]

I’d like to point out that I put full effort into most every C&R gun I’ve owned dating back to my first Chinese type 53, I paid $35 for it including shipping. I still have several to get to mostly because they came to me in pretty good shape. The worse they start, the more interested I am. This krag is my worst to date, that 56 was pretty bad also as was my first enfield and garand. My other krag started out a little rough and it’s the first gun that the further I got into it the more disappointed I was. The barrel was probably off a 1903, the sight screws were from a kitchen junk drawer and didn’t even fit or match and someone spent hours with a marks a lot “bluing” it Also, the bolt closes and opens hard, I suspect the chamber needs to be kissed with a reamer.


All my guns are fairly pedestrian. I’m putting extra effort into this one because it may turn out to be something special. As I opened it up, I only saw 2 screws that had any evidence of being touched before. That’s not to say it hadn’t been opened by a qualified armor or gunsmith with a proper set of hollow ground screwdrivers but they were not all jacked up by a hack with regular screwdrivers.

[butlersrangers]

Your 'carbine', serial number 84929 is right next-door to SRS Documented Krag, #84930, which was a model 1896 rifle.
The closest SRS documented model 1896 carbines are #82061 and #82472 and those are from Raritan Arsenal sales records.

Most of the 12,022 model 1896 carbines, made late in the calendar year 1897, fall between 67010 and 79764.

However, in spite of the above data and your "A.I. findings", everything else about your new Krag is 'correct' model 1896 carbine,
(stock, barrel, and front & rear sights).
IMO - It is possible that you have a real model 1896 carbine, that lies outside the usually accepted serial number range.

Welcome to 'Krag World'

[Five.five-six]

However, in spite of the above data and your "A.I. findings", everything else about your new Krag is 'correct' model 1896 carbine,
(stock, barrel, and front & rear sights).
IMO - It is possible that you have a real model 1896 carbine, that lies outside the usually accepted serial number range.

Welcome to 'Krag World'

Well, I don’t find that surprising. Not my first gun to take apart and this thing seemed pretty unmollested when I opened it up. It may not have been taken apart for 100 years when I got to it. I took several photos before I put a screwdriver to it. It’s nice to know that it may be worth some something but that will be my children’s problem after I leave this world. I’m probably going to hire a professional to repair the stock. I don’t think this is the one I want to learn on.

[Dick Hosmer]

Interesting thread, and the appearance has certainly been improved!!! Nice work. Not encouraging news on the number, but that looks to have been together eons before Bubba. SA did not have an assembly line, and receivers were pulled on a first-in, last out basis, with no regard for sequential order. This has been broadly confirmed by the spreads of a number of inventoried crates.

Don't mean to be rude, but there is one question you do not appear to have answered and that is your AI source. Please let us know so we can avoid it... Thanks.

[butlersrangers]

That Krag has been together since before the Flood! Don't try to make it look "New".

[Five.five-six]

Interesting thread, and the appearance has certainly been improved!!! Nice work. Not encouraging news on the number, but that looks to have been together eons before Bubba. SA did not have an assembly line, and receivers were pulled on a first-in, last out basis, with no regard for sequential order. This has been broadly confirmed by the spreads of a number of inventoried crates.

Don't mean to be rude, but there is one question you do not appear to have answered and that is your AI source. Please let us know so we can avoid it... Thanks.

Oh, that question. No idea. I was searching on google and that was the AI option.

Here’s the thing I do find encouraging. What motivates forgeries is money. The money for the forgery needs to exceed the effort. I do understand that, for the most part, the krag rifles were just too long for most civilian (and military) needs. The rifles being surplussed to the public were very high quality but not ergonomic. There were a lot of them cut down to make them better suited for civilian purposes. It was a cottage industry. It’s not like getting the correct rear sight, handguard, saddle ring inletting, somehow deleting the sling swivel inletting, and correct front sight would net more profit than just hammering out 10 carbine clones from rifle in the same time and effort as the one forgery.

While I am no firearms expert and by no means a Krag expert, I have had a few guns apart and I can tell you that if this is a forgery, it was performed by a very skilled craftsman.

Back story on the rifle, and I don’t look a gift horse in the mouth (cash price on this gun was $200) but I do enjoy a good conversation. Seller has a friend whose dad lived in AZ. Dad was a gun horder, dad passed and some years back seller helped his friend clear out the property for sale. The property had hundreds of guns all (except dad’s EDC) were in horrific condition. This krag was one of the best preserved. The rest were trashed or disposed of and no longer available. All had been stored wrapped in blankets or towels. This krag had been stored in a trailer or mobile home with a leaky roof for decades. I don’t know if you can see it in any of the photos but upon close observation, you could actually see the impression of fabric in the rust on the barrel. There was actually a pice of fabric bonded to the front of the barrel. I actually tried scraping it off after the first boil but gave up for fear of damaging the base metal. It eventually came off in subsequent boilings.

I was really interested in the other guns (I love rusty gun projects) but that seems a dead end in the conversation. Seller was de-cluttering and gave me several other items, some very nice items. He had intended to restore the gun but I think abandoned the idea. I wanted the gun the moment I saw the add. He was asking $300OBO and I was willing to pay much more as I had an idea of the potential. He told me to make an offer and I said $200 + 60 for gas to my FFL. He accepted $200


My last rusty gun project ended once I identified it as a fire victim https://caguns.net/threads/browning-aut ... ase.27225/


Fabric impression and fragment in rust

[Five.five-six]

That Krag has been together since before the Flood! Don't try to make it look "New".

Making it look new would be far easier than conserving it. Of vanity, I may replace the barrel band and I have ordered a replacement magazine cover and pin. All original parts will be stored in grease in a bag with the gun’s description and serial number.

I think I may replace the barrel band retainer because I don’t want to deal with it breaking off in the stock




Making a gun look new, so easy a 5-year-old can do it (he’s 15 now). https://www.calguns.net/forum/interests ... on-project

[butlersrangers]

A quick question: Does the word 'model' appear in front of the '1896' on your receiver, or, is it just '1896'?

There is a reason for my asking.