Disappointing Rock Island Auction Krag Listing

[Whig]

I have lost so much faith and respect for major auction houses over the past few years for many reasons. Rock Island Auction has this Krag Model 1896 carbine listed and they actually do admit that the rear sight is a faked carbine sight (ladder rear sight with a modern applied "C" stamp) and that the 1896 cartouche is a recent fake stamping (a modern restamped boxed script "JSA/1896" cartouche). Ok. They admit it, although in a casual way that makes it seem somewhat acceptable and unimportant. What bothers me more is that they are giving an expected price range reflecting an authentic carbine all around. I wouldn't pay anywhere near the $1600-2500 price they are expecting. You can change out the faked rear sight with an authentic Model 1896 carbine sight, if you ever find one, but you can't unstamp the fake cartouche. Oh, well, someone will buy it and probably be proud to own what they will think is a real military carbine Krag. Buyer beware. Moral here: Don't believe what you read in auction house item descriptions. (What makes this sadder, I just checked, is that this carbine is an SRS listed carbine for the 5th US Volunteer infantry.)

Maybe someone here wants to bid on this.

https://www.proxibid.com/Art-Antiques-C ... 6#topoflot

[P0H0]

Wow! I’d love to have a carbine — especially with the history. How much would a correct sight run? Is there anything else wrong with it?

[Whig]

I imagine this will go for a high price because of the attention Rock Island gets. Deep pockets. If you can ever find one, a correct Model 1896 carbine sight will cost $1,000 or more by itself. That adds quite the premium to what this might cost. It would be a nice historic piece, it's just hard, for me, to have the faked cartouche. Maybe for another $1,000, you could replace the stock, if you could, again, find the right one!

Bid on it! We'll support you. I don't remember anything else questionable. The stock might have varnish on it. There aren't a lot of pictures to see some details. A military collectible with history doesn't need a great bore. I usually try to buy ones with a good bore unless it has historic significance. Think about it. It's over a month away.

I just reread the item description and missed this last night. The grasping grooves are listed as being faked also! I look at these to help determine amount of wear on the stock and these look quite sharp. But the item description says that the sanded and refinished stock has "defined recut grasping grooves"! I'm not sure I've ever seen that before. And they always talk about these carbines' relation to the Rough Riders and the Spanish American War use. This one didn't go there. But, the connection is made to increase the value. Sales tactics. Looks very nice, though. Enough rambling.

[King carp]

A company named "bardalls" (amongst others) makes those stock stamps. Some are quite convincing. One of the main reasons i joined the KCA was to learn more about avoiding modified Krags like this one. Maybe the original intent was to own a representative 1896 Krag carbine close to an original hard to get example. Or maybe it was made up to decieve. Either way it ended up at a high end auction house where it will probably sell. That stock does look like it has varnish on it. Thanks for posting.

[Blueheeler]

I saw that listing. For a suppposed "high end" auction house RI really jumped the shark with that one. Gun has at least 3 major features faked and no RR provinence. Who ever wrote the description should hire themselves out to write gunbroker ads.