The good, the bad, and the ugly

[MPF]

I just got home with my 2nd new Krag this week and I hope this will give a few of you a laugh. I found this at a local gun shop, the shop guys and I were kind of joking about the stock carving, I wish I knew the story, I am sure someones father/uncle proudly carved this and it got passed down to someone who didn't care. Once I got past the rear stock, I noticed the 1896 carbine rear sight, so I bought it for that. It is not my style so if anyone is interested in a "Custom" stock let me know. Anyone have a less gaudy sporterized stock they want to sell?

Can someone please check S/N 388396?

Here it is, the ugly, the bad, and the good, followed by a few more pics.

[butlersrangers]

Good find on the 1896 carbine rear sight. It always pays to look close for gems!

Not to my 'Tastes', but I have seen infinitely uglier Stocks. With the 'Germanic Acorns', 'psteinmayer' will probably lust for it!

No listing for Krag, #388396, in Mallory's "The Krag Rifle Story".

I hope it is a 'tack-driver' in its 'Running Deer' Stock, so you are put in a dilemma about re-stocking it! (I am a mean little man).

[MPF]

Thanks for your kind words. I took a look at the front sight. The pin is missing and it looks like they brazed or welded the sight to the barrel. The good part is that they moved it back slightly so if I replace the current 1903 front sight and put it in the correct position it will cover the damage caused by removing the current one. Any suggestions for removing so as to cause the least damage?

I wish whomever shortened the barrel on my fake carbine had done as nice a job with the crown as they did on this one.

Is 26" a common shortened barrel length? Just trying to get a feel for whether it was probably shortened by Bannerman, Stokes, or Bubba!

[FredC]

Maybe your new gun was modified by several people with different skill levels. I do not care for the carving, but it looks like it was nicely done, if it had been checkered instead the seller would have probably gotten a lot more money. That front sight does look terrible. Try scraping off a piece of the excess solder with a knife and determining the melting point. If it is low, the sight could be removed with no further damage to the barrel by heating it with care not to damage the bore. One could probably cut it off at 24 inches and recrown it as another solution. One more way to fix it would be to turn, mill, and reshape what is on there now. Either fix would be easy for me as I have a fairly well equipped machine shop, but I could do a fairly decent job of fixing what is there with only a couple of files and a bench grinder.
If you do not have the skills yourself, a good gunsmith could clean up that sight in a couple of hours assuming the bore was not damaged in attaching it.

[MPF]

Thanks for the advice on the front sight.
I think I will try to gently remove and replace it, moving it back to its original position. I am going to take the action out of the stock later today and clean it. I will tell you this, the stock is heavy, and a little long for me to shoulder comfortabley. The fossilized butt pad doesn't help with that.

I agree on the carving, since I bought it for the rear sight my thoughts are to:
-fix the front sight.
- put on a '-01 or '02 rear rifle sight
-find a more plain sporterized stock.
-shoot it.
-sell/trade it.

[Dick Hosmer]

Does the barrel have a proper crown, or was it cut off "square". Picture isn't very clear, but it looks like the latter. The front sight is not original, so it strongly suggests that the barrel was whacked by Bubba, since, if the gun already had a 26" barrel with correct crown and proper front sight, it would have been left alone.

Reason for my asking is that, in 1902, 100 rifles were made up by SA, for trial, under the auspices of the Board of Ordnance and Fortifications, with 26" barrels. They are quite rare, as you might expect, and your serial number is very close to one of the small clusters of known numbers, totaling 21 at present. I own 388786.

[MPF]

Dick,
Thanks for the input. w What sight configuration does your 26" rifle have? As I mentioned this has a '03 front and a '96 carbine rear, which I thought was a strange sight to find its way onto a Bubba rifle. Why not just use the '01 or '02 that was probably on it?

Here are some better pictures of the barrel crown.

[Dick Hosmer]

Wow, I hate to say it, but that looks like it could possibly be an original SA crown - certainly isn't a hacksaw job, and the surface shows age. If so, it was a very unfortunate and/or unlucky choice by the party who modified it. Check out the home page to see the current list of known 26" barreled rifle numbers.

I actually have found two of the BoOF rifles.

My first (388786) came with a 1902C sight, in an un-marked M1899-length carbine stock. This is not the classic/original "book" configuration, but does match the one in the SA Museum. I do not find it completely unreasonable to speculate that - while under test to see if one arm would be acceptable to all branches - some may have been fitted with carbine stocks.

My second (389182) came in a properly dated (JSA/1902) rifle stock - which I'm sure is the original - but sadly was chopped just ahead of the band. BUT, it did still have the special sights (an M1901 hand-graduated to 2100 yds, and front blade with a VERY slightly different height/curvature). The original stocks were made new for the test guns and lacked the final lightening slot.

[gnoahhh]

Golly, wouldn't that be something if it were a BoOF rifle...

[butlersrangers]

'MPF' - It appears there is lead solder holding the 1903 Springfield front-sight on your 26" barrel. If it were my rifle, I would remove the band-pin, screw and front blade unit, heat the solder with a propane torch and knock the banded front-sight base forward off the barrel . Then, I would look for any evidence on the exposed barrel area for the remains of a brazed Krag front-sight dovetail.

BTW - Here is a photo of the special BoO&F rear sight Dick mentions.