1916 Norwegian Krag

[Aladinbama]

Well, as stated in a previous post I was lucky enough to happen upon one of my holy grails - a 1916 Norwegian Krag in 6.5x55. I heard about them some time ago and have let a coupke slip through my hands - this one got caught. It's in pretty good shape, but dirty. The bore looks in barely used condition, but again VERY dirty. I might even say there could be soe cosmo in there. Anyway, here's a pic from the auction company I bought it from - and yes, it is already in hand. I just haven't been able to get time to do anything with it yet :(

[butlersrangers]

Aladinbama: Welcome to the KCA Forum and congratulations on your nice looking Model 1912 Carbine. I hope all your numbers match and the bore is excellent. It is great to have a correct sling and cleaning rod. The Norwegian brass muzzle cover/front-sight protectors show up sometimes on ebay.

[Aladinbama]

I managed a disassembly this morning. All the numbers I found matched; most were just the last three digits (I'm assuming that was how they did it). I laughed when I pulled the cleaning rod out - I think this Krag has the shortest one I've found on a pre-WWI era rifle.
I'll take some WD40 and a toothbrush to it and get rid of all the dirt. I'll follow that up with regular gun oil. I did manage to run a patch (or 5 or so) down the bore last night - NASTY, but it looks much better now. I think a dozen bullets or so and another cleaning will take care of it :)

[butlersrangers]

'Matching parts' is very good. I hope she's a fine shooter for you. You have a very desirable Norwegian Krag.

[Dick Hosmer]

Using bullets as part of the cleaning process reminds me of a man I knew years ago who swore by the process of shooting pure lead bullets through a bore that was sloppy wet with a paste of powdered cleanser such as Bon Ami, Bartenders Friend, Ajax, etc. Of course we are speaking large calibers and very mild loads - I wouldn't try it with a small caliber - in fact, I never did try it at all - but, he never ringed a barrel, and came up with some of the shiniest, best-looking bores you ever saw.

[Pentz]

Soaking the bore with Kroil, Hoppes, Butches' or other solvents and periodic scrubs with a bronze brush will get alot of the crud out. Firing and cleaning, firing and cleaning will often yield amazing results. Best of luck and give us a report!

[Aladinbama]

Using bullets as part of the cleaning process reminds me of a man I knew years ago who swore by the process of shooting pure lead bullets through a bore that was sloppy wet with a paste of powdered cleanser such as Bon Ami, Bartenders Friend, Ajax, etc. Of course we are speaking large calibers and very mild loads - I wouldn't try it with a small caliber - in fact, I never did try it at all - but, he never ringed a barrel, and came up with some of the shiniest, best-looking bores you ever saw.

I think I'll pass on that one too!
The bore looks pretty good. I took a well worn brush to it this morning and it cleaned up a tish more (and I do use Hoppe's). With my experience with Mosins, sometimes a bullet is the only thing that will polish out what has been ignored for years.
I will add that it is clean enough to comfortably shoot without any issues :)

[Aladinbama]

Question - what was the stock originally finished with? I want to clean it up a bit and it would be good to know what I'm working with before I try anything. It appears to be oil (mostly), maybe RLO or an early BLO, but there are some really shiny areas that ressemble some type of varnish.
Any ideas?

[Pentz]

You will likely get a variety of opinions. Mine is that a little of Murphy's oil soap diluted in warm water and aparingly applied with a sponge will remove most of the surface grime without compromising the finish. I then apply a little warm flax seed oil and rub into the stock with the palm of my hand. It's food-grade linseed oil and can be found in health food stores. The old formula was "once a day for a week, once a week for a month, once a month for a year, once a year for a lifetime". It's all a matter of taste. And it does not taste too bad.. ;)

[Aladinbama]

Thanks for the info.
After a bit of testing, I determined that someone has put shellac on it at some point in time. If you look at the picture you can see that in the butt area - it's flaked off/removed in some areas.
Anyway, A little DNA followed by an oil scrub and it should be as good as used :)