Krag Collectors Association Forum

A good shooting bud wants me to rebuild his ‘carbine’ into a constabulary rifle. He’s always liked my 1899 constabulary/school rifle. He has a legit Krag carbine. His cutdown needs a correct lower swivel, a rear sight, handguard and a cutdown stock forend replacement with bbl band. He told me that he didn’t want to mess with the front sight which is an o3a3 but I’m going to have to trim down the sight base to get a Krag upper band over it. The grasping grooves are pretty washed out so i might try to recut them. Here’s a photo of my 1899, his carbine and my 21 inch bbl 1903 rebuild. Milled out the lightening grooves so that a piece of 1/2 inch aluminum bar will fit on the stock and new extension. Also removed the wood under the goofy sling swivel a po installed and cut up some scrap for a plug. Used my mill to cut the notch and then used it to cut the plug so everything is square. I’m going to use the mill to cut the lower swivel mortise after I practice a few more times. A lot easier than using wood carving tools.

Got his old bubba sling swivel removed, spacer built, epoxied in, sanded down and the correct sling swivel mortise milled and swivel installed. Next week I’ll recut the grasping grooves. Still a lot to do.

nice!!!!!!!!!!

Got the lower swivel inlet, used the mill. I have done them by hand but the mill does a great job. Also have the stock extension done. Tomorrow it will warm up so I’ll get back out to my shop...... What a difference a day makes. It warmed up nicely and was a beautiful 70 degree day considering all the misery that the current cold wave is creating out west. I recut the grasping grooves and have started lightly sanding, staining and bronze wooling. While I had the lee trim tools on my mill I finished cutting down the rest of the .44-40 brass that I’ve been experimenting with........ Been staining the stock and forend with the Birchwood Caseys Red Walnut stain but it wasn’t matching too well as where I had cut or sanded I wasn’t getting any of the dark specks and grain so I tried some lt brown leather stain. It was too dark so I cut it with some alcohol which made all the difference. Everything is matching up pretty good now. Pictures when I get some more coats on.

I tried to open up a ‘03 front sight base and couldn’t do it so I removed his 03-a3 base. He said it was on tight but it came right off. If I had tried to trim the top down to get the upper bbl band over it the blade pin hole would have been too close to the edge. I might try again on the ‘03 sight base otherwise the upper band will not be removable from the bbl. Been playing with the stain, turned out the water based BC stain was making the wood red but wasn’t picking up the dark figure in the stock so it didn’t look right. Where I had cut the grooves and heavily sanded the lower swivel fill in the stock didn’t match the rest of the wood. Did some research and decided to try some diluted light brown leather stain which did the trick. A good match now. You can see what I’m talking about in the previous post photo of the swivel inlet. Doesn’t show at all in the new pix. Handguard build will be next. He wants to keep the recvr peep and not mess with a krag rear sight so I bought a M1A handguard to make into a solid Krag guard.

You are doing some nice work there. I know that not everyone has a milling machine, but it would be appreciated by me and at least some of the others to see your set ups and how you did it. It will be "aw nuts" if you did not take any pictures of the process.

On the Practical Machinist web site you can not even mention the imported mill drill machines but I worked at a shop and drilled holes through 8 inches of alloy steel with one. On that job I had to use a shovel and a wheel barrel to clear a path through the chips to get to and from the machine. They can do real work but you just have to think before you make a set up. Or you could have a pristine new knee mill with all the frills if that is what you have I would like to see it also.

Thanks Fred. I recently upgraded to a belt drive after my plastic gear failed. Its a great upgrade. Earlier upgrades were a column stiffener plate, extended x lead screw, a table to make it eye level and gas pistons in the column. The setups to do the stock work are a real head scratcher. I use an oak board t-bolted to the table and some creative jig building and clamping to do the grasping grooves on the 4 rifles that I’ve done, 2-‘03s, a Model 52 preA and this Krag. Milling the lower sling swivel cut is interesting too. Have a Model 12 riot gun buttstock that needs a swivel. I’ll take some pix.

I managed to jbweld the mauser clips to the walnut without welding the bbl and stock all together. Hopefully get it sanded to match the stock profile tonight and stain tomorrow. The rear band shifted a little before it set up but it’s holding ok. I had to add a little jb to the wood under the upper band to fill in where I cut too much. Also going to add a piece of brass to the front of the handguard to lock it against the bbl band and keep it from moving forward under recoil. I don’t think it will move but Mike loads ‘em warm.

Had a little set back as my rear clip came off. I cleaned it up and redid it. Added some jbweld to the front one too. The handguard feels tight. Tomorrow Mike is coming by with some of his ammo so we’ll see what happens then. There’s no movement so I hope it holds. Added the brass to the front too. Gave it the first coat of truoil.

I think I’m done. He wanted to keep the ‘03 sight and peep so the upper handguard is a walnut m1a handguard with a lot of work done to it. [attachment=0]17B9FF77-B5AA-4B68-8C17-69DAE6A80E05.jpeg[

It looks mighty good. I hope your friend appreciates your effort and ingenuity.