Restoring Dad's "Old Lucky" (PIX Added)

[Dads Krag]

This story starts on a fall morning sometime in 1958 in the kitchen of a farm house a few miles Northwest of Fennelton, PA.

I was 8 years old & I can still picture that slim "sprorterized" 1898 Krag in my Dad's hands. It sported a whittled down GI stock that had a slender forend with a schnable shaped tip. The GI buttplate with the trap was still there. It was adorned with ivory colored plastic wedge shapes with squared off tips inlayed into the walnut stock that was nearly black from the build up of aged linseed oil. The barrel had been cut back to 22". It was a handsome rifle that I found to be nimble in the hands when I took up deer hunting in the same neck of the woods 9 years later.

My Dad had just bought the rifle from his best friend "Fat" Miller. He paid $12 for it, more than he made in an 8 hour day at the "Fertilizer Works" in Butler. That year he shot a buck with that rifle, the 1st time he even got a crack at a deer after many years of tramping the woods in his Woolrich jacket & pants.

In my late teens I decided to "refinish" the stock, sanding away the wood to eliminate the plastic inlays some of which had cracked, fallen out & gotten lost. I butchered it! The metal was no longer flush with the wood surface & I had sanded into one of the voids in the butt stock.

In 1998 I moved to my present location in Northern NY State, just 13 mile from the Canadian border. Last year my son wanted to hunt with Poppy's (my Dad) rifle so I cooked up a few 30/40 hand loads with 165 grain bullets & took the old warhorse to the range. Wow, the GI rear sight leaves a LOT to be desired. Especially for 60 + year old eyes. I could hold about 3" groups @ 100 yds, but flyers were common. Forget about trying to hit something in the woods in low light. My 24 year old son couldn't do much better.

I decided to get a Williams FP receiver sight installed by Dennis Olsen since I didnt want to risk breaking a tap off in the case hardened receiver. (to be continued)

[Dads Krag]

(Continued)

I had picked up a semi-inletted '70s style "Bishop" Monte Carlo stock complete with "white line spacers" a few years back. I found it rummaging around in the dimly lit back room of a local gunshop & nobody could mistake that in-letting for anything else but a Krag Jorgensen. It had a few minor checks in the butt & the gunshop owner let me have it for $15. After that stock sat around for several years I got it out when my son expressed interest in using "Old Lucky. By laying the butchered stock on top of the Monte Carlo monstrosity, I found there was enough wood in that stock to make a straight grip replica of the original "sporterized" stock. I took a bench mounted belt & disc sander to it to remove the comb, cheek piece & pistol grip to get the straight grip shape & roughed in the schnabel forend.

I spent most of the day Sunday with in-letting black, chisels & a barrel channel scraper getting the action bedded. Yesterday I took an angle grinder & flap disc to it roughing it down closer to the final shape. Today I removed the plastic buttplate & took 3/8" off the butt in the table saw. After in letting the GI buttplate & drilling a trap for extra aperture discs, I'll be ready to finish sand the shape.

The shape is almost identical to the old stock. I'm not going to go for the black oil look or the fake ivory inlays, but I've had great results with Birchwood Casey "Rusty Walnut" water based stain & Minwax "Antique Oil Finish". Last year I learned how to rust blue & do niter blued accents in the kitchen oven. With a new stock, rust blue & the Williams FP receiver sight, I think my Dad would be tickled to go deer hunting with the resurrected "Old Lucky" if he was still with us.

Maybe my son can use it to kill that big bruiser buck that always seemed to elude my Dad.

As soon as I can get my laptop fixed I will post some PIX. I'm working with an iPad right now & can't upload pictures.

[butlersrangers]

"Dads Krag", welcome to the KCA Forum. Looking forward to seeing pictures of 'Old Lucky'.

[MilSurp]

Great posting to read - enjoyed it thanks.
Looking forward to the photos

[Dads Krag]

I got the buttplate inletted a few days ago.

Yesterday I made a small .055" thick pad from a short section of a screw slot file. I soldered it to the bottom of the reciever so that the sear & the forward edge of the trigger rests on it. I had previously polished all of the bearing surfaces. I now have a single stage trigger that breaks cleanly at a consistent 3#

Sear engagement is still ample. I tried slamming the bolt closed several times & also bumped the butt down smartly on a wood block to test for accidental striker release. No failures.

If you have an already "sporterized" Krag that is not a candidate for restoration this is an easy modification that can quickly be reversed if desired.

[Dads Krag]

Here are some PIX of the progress so far.















The throat seems to be in pretty good shape. I did a chamber/throat cast & even though the lands are worn a little in the throat, they are not eroded.

Loading 160gr Hornady FTX bullets @ 3.075" OAL over 49.5gr of RL 17 gave excellent results.

[butlersrangers]

Looking ready for Bambii!

[Dads Krag]

Here are a few bucks shot from the tri-pod stand in my woods.

2004, Dressed 219#



2005, Dressed 168#


2009, Dressed 142#, was very run down from the rut.



This young man killed his 1st buck from the tri-pod.


They just opened up my WMU for Black Bear this year. One was hit on the road about 4 miles from my place recently & the neighbor got a picture of one on a trail camera.

[butlersrangers]

Good looking whitetails. Krag 'em and bag 'em! (In little white freezer paper packages).

[madsenshooter]

I have been thinking about trying the 30/30 FTX for some time, but never got around to it. With its less tapered forepart I thought it might get a bit closer to the rifling than 168gr match bullets. But they're nearly as expensive, which is probably the biggest reason I never got round to it. I need to cast some bullets that shoot like match bullets.