Krag Collectors Association Forum

Another gunbroker purchase (https://www.gunbroker.com/item/902853830) hit my door today, and upon opening the bolt I felt a little like Doc Holliday looking at his toes in Tombstone..."I'll be d***ed, this is funny." (Well, only funny if you've seen my recent 1899 thread.)



Yup, '98 bolt handle. But! At least the extractor looks correct...



...for a gun of this vintage:









I think the safety is the later embiggened version too.



Everyone's waiting to see it, right?









The stock has been updated and has the oiler cut.



I have not scrubbed out, nor even looked in the bore yet, but the muzzle gauges right at 2...!







There is a ghost of a cartouche. The bright flashlight I use died while I was trying to decipher it, so that'll have to wait for the batteries to recharge.







Looks like there's an older proof...I imagine overstamped when a re-arsenal occurred, and the later bits got added, and was somehow never touched again until sold to me. Hey, it's *my* imagination.



Anyhow, I spied it on GB and saw all sorts of carbine hits around it in the SRS. I was a little surprised to win it, I'll admit...I was prepared for a bit of a bidding war right up at the end, with all those interminable additional quarter-hours whilst trading bids.

Flashlight back up and working. About the only thing I can say for certain is...not 1897.

Maaaaaaaaaybe 1896? Maybe 1898?

Nice model 1896 carbine and one of the early '1895' marked variants, to boot!

The Bolt in your photo looks like a correct model 1896 bolt-handle to me. (Not model 1898)

It might be, I'm still calibrating my eyes...but I think the flat is longer than the one in the 99:



Either way this one must have had an interesting story to tell - I think the stock is the updated thicker-wrist one and the markings + oiler cut suggest a trip or two back through the arsenal, albeit ones that did not result in loss of all the early bits.

Lead Snowstorm - Your first photos fooled me. The last posted photo looks like your '1895' marked carbine came with a model 1898 bolt.
(BTW - The flat area of a model-1898 bolt-handle measures around one inch).

You now have the option of just switching your carbine bolts, (especially, if you have a Field gauge to check 'head-space').
Although, during a rebuild, it is real possible that your model 1896 carbine was given a model 1898 bolt.

butlersrangers wrote: ↑Thu Jun 17, 2021 3:47 am Although, during a rebuild, it is real possible that your model 1896 carbine was given a model 1898 bolt.

That’s kind of what I’m wondering given the updated stock. I may just keep it as is and imagine it is the way it came out of its period of service. Seems a shame in a way to break up what might be a more than century old configuration.

Oh bother ..... another thing to loose sleep over ....

butlersrangers wrote: ↑Thu Jun 17, 2021 12:21 pm Oh bother ..... another thing to loose sleep over ....

True enough

VERY nice find! FWIW, I read cartouche as 1896. I'm not sure the stock has been replaced - just had the oiler cut added.

Dick Hosmer wrote: ↑Sat Jun 19, 2021 3:07 pm VERY nice find! FWIW, I read cartouche as 1896. I'm not sure the stock has been replaced - just had the oiler cut added.

I was also thinking 1896…but I also have an interest in it *being* 1896, of course!!!

But the faint circle of the last digit does look a little bigger than the lower portion of the 8. It’s a shame that the rest of the cartouche doesn’t help - thinking in particular about the cross-stroke of the “A.”