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longhorn
09-05-2005, 04:23 PM
I'd swear on my daughter's red head that I own a book on the Springfield Armory that has lists of serial numbers of Trapdoors, Krags, and '03's, along with info (if available) on what unit said numbers were issued to-but I'm d--d if I can find it. Traded a Ruger 10-22T for a sporterized (!) rifle last week, and I'd like to check the number, if anyone has such a book or another suggestion for finding the info. Stock is cut down, of course, but doesn't look sanded, as the cartouche is clearly visible (JLA 99) under the new varnish. Said varnish still has most of the drips and runs intact-obviously done with a big brush, in a hurry. I intend to strip it chemically and just oil the stock. Has the most horrendous installation of a recoil pad I've ever handled-the pad fits pretty well, but it was put on with some brown glue, which is beaded up all around the butt, and was clearly never wiped off, let alone scraped or sanded. Front sight is an '03 blade (well done), magazine cut-off is missing and replaced with a rather nice Pacific peep sight. Old well done reblue, only extra holes are in the barrel (looks like for target blocks, of all things), plugged, polished, and blued over. The barrel looks really good, but it's the most copper filled barrel I've every cleaned-probably because you have to take the Pacific off, losing your elevation setting, to get the bolt out. My gunshop guy got a rather incredulous look when I said I wanted to trade for it, but it's my project gun for the winter!

Herb in Pa
09-05-2005, 06:16 PM
http://www.armscollectors.com/srs.htm

longhorn
09-05-2005, 10:01 PM
Thanks, Herb-the numbers not listed, but we tried!

Char-Gar
09-06-2005, 09:00 AM
I would trade a Ruger 22 for your Krag any day and twice on Sundays.

The Krag barrels are most often filled with metal fouling. Sweets 7.62 will get it out, but it will prove to be a project for several days. I once plugged the chamber of a Krag with a wooden dowel and filled the barrel with Sweets and caped the muzzlel. I set it muzzle up in my shop for about a month. That did the job. Since then, I have read that Sweets can damage the barrel if left there too long, but it didn't hurt mine.

I have a couple of those old Pacific Krag sights. The newer version has a screw that contacts the base from the armsand servers as a stop when the elevation slide is removed and replaced. The older version did not have it.

There are several ways of marking the slide and base to go back to the correct elevation when the elevation slide is removed, but I just measured the distance from the top of the base to the top of the slide with the depth rod on my calipers. It was easy to reset the elevation with precision that way.

Be sure and slug the barrel. These Krags have barrel specs all over the place. One of mine is .312 and the other is .3095. Townsend Whelen tells of some Krags with groove diamters as large as ..316. Toward the end of production they got the specs right and held them to .308.

These are wonderful old rifles and agreat round for cast bullets. Be very careful, they are addictive.

Oh yes, those plugged holes are most likely for the rear sight which was just screwed on with two screws.

longhorn
09-06-2005, 09:44 PM
Chargar- I will slug it after I get it clean-that may be awhile; I don't care for Sweet's-lost a M1911 barrel, of all things, to it once. The sight screw holes are there, all right-I just don't consider those extra. These 4 are really additional holes.

bravokilo
09-06-2005, 09:50 PM
Longhorn, I have a small booklet that list dates of mfg, but I cain't hep ya without a serial #.

BK