Big OOPS on a Krag

Picked up a very nice Krag sporter cheap the other day. Way back when the owner restocked it with a Bishop stock blank and then put it away. Sent it out , had it checkered, absolutely beautiful. Redfield sights reblued.

His son brought it in and said that after they had the gun finished they couldn't shoot it anymore.

Seems like they did the basic stock themselves and just sanded and finished the gun without fitting the comb of the stock. It was so high you could not get your face low enough to even see through the sights. Sent it out for checkering that way and then when they tried to shoot it they couldn't see the sights so they stuck it in the closet for 50 years.

I am cutting and sanding and will try and match in the finish without stripping the whole stock or boogering the checkering.

Pictures coming. I Hope!

Glad you are getting the old War Horse back into service again.

I have refinished a couple of stock without harming the checkering. Put a piece of the blue painting tape over the checkering. With a piece of sharp angled(with a knife) ice cream stick, gently press the tape to the outside border of the checkering then with a razor blade. Cut the tape off even with the top of the checkering border. Now you can strip and finish the rest of the stock without harming the checkering. It is tedious and time consuming but worth the effort. My experience anyway, james

I bought a nicely sporterized Krag a couple of months ago. So many are just hack jobs, nice to have one someone knew what they were doing with and it has a good, Pacific hunting receiver sight. Shot a lot of Lyman 311284s and various loads of 5744, IMR 41298 and such through it, accurate rifle. I like old guns like that. Icing on the cake that I traded off a problem child rifle I couldn't get to shoot with cast for it.

I would place a Krag like yall are talking about very high on the list of guns I would love to have. I had a bubba version with a Lyman rear and original 30" barrel and it shot great.

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I for one am relieved that the big oops wasn't from someone trying to turn a .30-40 into a .300 WinMag.

Krags are sweet (and addicting) rifles when they're not *****ed.

Robert

You do know we would like to see a pic of what you describe. While I believe no one does this to a US military rifle anymore, the nicest sporters I have seen are Krags.

Years ago on another board someone posted of having found a Krag Carbine abandoned at a shooting spot, the gun was wrecked. When he got the action opened he found it had the remains of a 7.92 Mauser cartridge in what was left of the chamber.

Of course the Germans had a few 7.92 chambered Norwegian Krags made but the Krag in question was a US Krag . He never found out what the deal was on this rifle.

I wonder if Norwegian Krag barrels would fit the US Krag action?

Fitting a Norwegian barrel on a U.S. action might be done, but it would require some very fancy lathe work and chambering. In general, the measurements of the Norwegian are larger than the U.S. version as follows:
Norwegian
Shank: 7.75 in
Thread diameter: 1.050 in.
Threads: 12.5 TPI Square Left Hand

U.S.
Shank: 7.50 in.
Thread diameter: .940 in.
Threads: 10 TPI right hand

So you'd have to turn down the Norwegian's shank diameter, rethread from LHT to RHT 12.5 to 10, shorten the shank to U.S. specs.
Then you'd have to re-chamber the Norwegian barrel, and I'd certainly advise against doing it in 8x57mm as these are generally about the equivalent of a .30-06 and some have been loaded even hotter--not good for the old Krag's action! Not worth it, I'd think.

Hmm, never seen a 7,92x57 Krag. I had a Norwegian Krag a few years ago. It was 6,5mm Swede. I sold it cause it was about as accurate as a sling shot. Very cool rifle though.