gonna get it, if it takes....

[tdoyka]

my 1898 springfield armory in 30-40 krag(made in 1903) took about 3 or 4 days to clean up the barrel. today is the last day of cleaning. i used in this order: gunslick(foaming agent), sweets, gunslick, shooters choice mc#7, and finally gunslick.(with a light coat of oil between) sweets seems to be the agent for taking copper and lead out(going to shoot cast boolits). everything, rifle grooves, seem to be almost new. it doesn't even seem to be any kind of corrosive? patching on the grooves.
did i do this cleaning right? i'm a newbie when it comes to taking an old rifle and trying to shoot cast boolits out of her.

[Hickok]

Purdy is as purdy does!!!

If she shines like a mirror in the bore, I would say you did it right!

I really like those old Krags, kind of a 30/30 magnum!

[tdoyka]

thanks!!!

today everything cleaned up real nice. it took about 4 hours and alot of patches!!!! now i have to get a lyman neck expander .311" and i'll be good to go. i can't wait for the 165gr ranch dogs(175gr) to go down the barrel.

[Hickok]

Tdoyka, I would have to replace the sights on a Krag so I could see them. Like the Springfield 03-A1, they seem to me to be razor thin, my 60 year old eyes can't pick'em up anymore!.....

[tdoyka]

i was thinking of a williams 5d receiver peep sight. the one one the front, well i don't know.



i'm going to try orange paint on it, white doesn't work. i think its a 1903 sight. i have 20/15 left eye(cross shooter here) and if orange don't work, i'm stuck. then i'll have to ask this 41 year old stroke-abled(yep, i is) what can i do for my front sight?

[elk hunter]

I've tried two different approaches to seeing the front sight better. First I had a set of glass made that allowed me to focus farther away. Works good but was costly and it's hard to get used to walking with them. Second I have a "Merit" disc that is a peep with a suction cup that sticks to my glasses. It too is a help. If you wear glasses take a piece of tape, or better yet a wettable target paster they're easier to adjust, and poke a small hole in the tape and stick it on the lens of your shooting eye side and adjust it so you look through it at your sights. This should cause your eye to focus better on the front sight. This will tell you if a sight disc will help.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Hey, tdoyka---what configuration is your Krag in? If it's a full length "as-issued" then you'll want to think twice about the 5D sight as it will require you to drill holes in the receiver for mounting. If you look around (e-bay?) you may be able to come up with one of the old "no gunsmithing" adjustable peep sights that mounted on the left side of the receiver using the sideplate screw hole and the hole for the magazine cut-off lever. None are made like that today, but back "in the day" Lyman, Redfield, and several smaller manufacturers made them in many different models from very simple to very complex. On my collector Krags that I shoot I use this type of sight and can usually leave the original sight on there also.

[Faret]

If you do not get all the copper out try 10% janitorial Ammonia. Stinks and will burn the eyes and lungs but it is the best thing for copper for the price.

[MtGun44]

Be sure to clean with Hoppes #9 after the ammonia! And do not get it on the stock!

Bill

[gnoahhh]

My 62 year old eyes are very near sighted, and I wear contacts for correction. When my sights started to "disappear" I popped a 1x magnification pair of $10 drug store reading glasses on and Presto- back in the game. The home made aperture on the shooting glasses works too.

[tdoyka]

Hey, tdoyka---what configuration is your Krag in? If it's a full length "as-issued" then you'll want to think twice about the 5D sight as it will require you to drill holes in the receiver for mounting. If you look around (e-bay?) you may be able to come up with one of the old "no gunsmithing" adjustable peep sights that mounted on the left side of the receiver using the sideplate screw hole and the hole for the magazine cut-off lever. None are made like that today, but back "in the day" Lyman, Redfield, and several smaller manufacturers made them in many different models from very simple to very complex. On my collector Krags that I shoot I use this type of sight and can usually leave the original sight on there also.

mine has a 22" barrel, i think it was sporterized by the nra. the stock is a bishop, it was put on sometime in the late '50's or early '60's. i am looking for a williams, but i could be looking for a lyman or redfield.

[ipopum]

The solution to the thin sights on a springfield was a thin piece of sheet metal wrapped on three sides of the blade. this was a o3a3 so I had the peep on the rear.

[adrians]

This is the Pacific aperture sight Der Gebirgsjager was referring to, It, as mentioned goes into the cut-off lever hole with no D/T needed.


My sportered Krag also wears a Bishop stock,

[gnoahhh]

, i think it was sporterized by the nra.

The NRA didn't sporterize anything. They did facilitate a lot of U.S. surplus arms sales years ago. Krags known as "NRA Sporters" were Armory-shortened rifles sold through the NRA back when our grandfathers wore short pants (or great grandfathers for some of you youngsters!). No one knows just how many they did, and it's impossible to identify one as such today unless by some bizarre circumstance the original paperwork still accompanies the rifle. The alterations were simple and followed the protocols for "sporterizing" Krags followed by thousands of gunsmiths back in the day, making it easy to mis-identify one.

[tdoyka]

you could be right. my ancestors came around 1900's(forget which '03 or was it '01). my great grandpa died in the '30's, my pappy died last year and then theres my dad. we think it was pappy, there is a chance it was great grandpa's. my dad can't remember when the bishop stock was put on('50s or '60s) but it always had a 22" barrel. one day it will be my oldest boys, but until then......

[Pb2au]

Be careful, Krags get lonely and require friends......
My Krag has turned into my favorite cast shooter and my favorite rifle to shoot in general.

[tdoyka]

Be careful, Krags get lonely and require friends......
My Krag has turned into my favorite cast shooter and my favorite rifle to shoot in general.

i have a tc encore with an 23" MGM Barrel in 444 marlin and a 45-70 handi-rifle that are about to shoot cast. i really wish the krag doesn't get jealous!!!

[Pb2au]

The thing I had to get used to with my Krag was how smooth the bolt is. I couldn't feel it pick up the round from the magazine and kept checking.....

[Frank46]

I bought a sportered 1898 made in 1901 according to the cartouche stamped on the stock. Bore looked god when I got it but after the first few passes of a brass bore brush knew this wasn't going to be a 123 kind of deal. I swore that as a scrubbed, patched,scrubbed that the grooves were actually getting deeper. Took a considerable amount of time, bore brushes and patches before I figured it was as clean as it would get. Accuracy suprised me as it was fairly easy to get 3" groups with the irons. May not sound great but it is what it is. Now my 1895 SRC in 30-40 krag that was even worse. Great lumps of copper on top of the lands. That one took about 6 months brushing,patching and letting the barrel soaking. Frank

[tdoyka]

I bought a sportered 1898 made in 1901 according to the cartouche stamped on the stock. Bore looked god when I got it but after the first few passes of a brass bore brush knew this wasn't going to be a 123 kind of deal. I swore that as a scrubbed, patched,scrubbed that the grooves were actually getting deeper. Took a considerable amount of time, bore brushes and patches before I figured it was as clean as it would get. Accuracy suprised me as it was fairly easy to get 3" groups with the irons. May not sound great but it is what it is. Now my 1895 SRC in 30-40 krag that was even worse. Great lumps of copper on top of the lands. That one took about 6 months brushing,patching and letting the barrel soaking. Frank

mine took about four or five days. i still have to take apart the bolt, theres alot of dried oil? and other gunk. i thought it was clean after about two days, and i gave to to my(i'm stroke-abled) dad and he slugged out the bore. apparently i was wrong!!! he pulled out a handful of black stuff i don't even want to know about. the bullet was .309", i got to clean the 30-40 again. it took about 2 days and it was slugged again, .3085". nothing came out but the lead slug. i cleaned it up again now i'm waiting for nice weahter to start shooting the 165gr ranch dogs.