Re-barreling an old Krag

[curioushooter]

I have an old sporterized Krag which I favor.

It has a rusty sewer pipe barrel and I would like to have a forward mounted optic base mounted, like the one from KragHaus (https://kraghaus.com/)

Is there anyone that can do this work? It would be great to have it done in Indiana. I have a 30 caliber Green Mountain barrel ready to go.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

That's kinda nice. It gets around the normally used side mount, and really doesn't look bad at all. I wonder about the balance, though. I think any good rifle smith could do your job. Is the barrel you have already equipped with the scope mount base? If not, it might become kind of a pricy job if it has to be made. Anyway, I admire your taste in rifles! :D

[yovinny]

Kraigs have a square thread,, that might throw some not used to barreling military arms.
If you have a green mountain 'strait blank',, which Im pretty sure is all they sell,,lots of smiths are not set up for and will not do barrel profiling from a blank.
Thats two questions to ask and probably eliminates most smiths right off the bat...I know the profiling part eliminates any I know of.

[444ttd]

http://scopemounts.com/index.html?instapics.html

i like this one.

[charlie b]

A gunsmith drilled and tapped the barrel of my Garand for a scope mount. He used Leupold bases and fit them to the radius of the barrel. They work really well. I did have to 'inlet' the top handguard to fit around the mount. What I liked about it was that it was very low line of sight so I didn't need a huge cheekpiece to get my eyes to line up with it.

[Rich/WIS]

New replacement Krag barrels are available, believe Criterion makes them May be less expensive than reworking a barrel blank.

[curioushooter]

Instamounts are a joke IMO. I've had them for several rifles and every one cost way too much and had a wandering zero among other problems.

Drill and TAP scope mounts with quality bases and quality rings and a quality scope is the price you pay for decent optics and I am fine with that.

I was sort of hoping someone had a gunsmith they could recommend. I have yellow pages in a drawer. Literally every local "gunsmith" I've ever dealt with has been a waste of time. This is the reason why years ago I bought a lathe and did it myself.

But since I moved I haven't had a place to set up my lathe and probably never will since I will have to build a garage first. I thought about sending it to Jesse Ocoupah and having him rebore it to 35 Krag but I've never found dies for that.

[444ttd]

Instamounts are a joke IMO. I've had them for several rifles and every one cost way too much and had a wandering zero among other problems.

Drill and TAP scope mounts with quality bases and quality rings and a quality scope is the price you pay for decent optics and I am fine with that.

I was sort of hoping someone had a gunsmith they could recommend. I have yellow pages in a drawer. Literally every local "gunsmith" I've ever dealt with has been a waste of time. This is the reason why years ago I bought a lathe and did it myself.

But since I moved I haven't had a place to set up my lathe and probably never will since I will have to build a garage first. I thought about sending it to Jesse Ocoupah and having him rebore it to 35 Krag but I've never found dies for that.

ch-4d can make them or go to 35-303 british dies.

i know of several people that just luv s&k mounts. when i build 22 hornet on a 1898 spr armory action, then i'll try the s&k mount.

[charlie b]

If you are very careful you can do your own drill and tap for mounts. I did it myself a long time ago. Even had to contour the bottom of the bases to match the barrel. A good jig can be used even with a portable drill but a drill press makes it easier to not 'slip'.

[curioushooter]

I love S&K mounts. Just not their Instamounts. They make some strong, slick looking mounts. It's shoehorning that goes on trying to turn a sight base into a scope mount never really works out. I've had one for M39 Mosin, K31 Swiss, and a Swedish M96 Mauser. None of them held zero in a safe/bench, let alone held zero in the field. I've never tried with a Krag.

I have S&L SmoothKontor mounts on some of my Marlins. Love those.

[444ttd]

i have two 1898 spr armory actions that will be built(i'm doing a custom 93 spanish mauser and i'm finishing a 98 mauser sporter stock) starting next year. the s&k mount is my first choice. the second choice is a d&t of the action. i don't like the way kraghaus looks (mounting on the barrel), but i could be wrong. doesn't the barrel heat affect the zero? i don't know, i'm just asking a question.

[Baltimoreed]

268084
This is how my Krag scout turned out with the long Kraghaus mount. I had my smith put in a third screw. Used a nikon IER scope. Added the buttpack to get a higher cheekweld. Works great. Good luck on your build.

[curioushooter]

Sharp looking krag there Baltimoreed!

I would have made those carriers and riser out of leather, tough.

Do you use the high magnification on that krag?

What smith did you send it to?

[Baltimoreed]

Thanks for the compliment. I’ve not hunted with it yet but it’s a 2x20 Nikon XR scope. Hope to hunt with it soon though. Just had a local smith do the third hole. The Kraghaus long mount uses the 2 existing original krag rear sight screw holes [they are all the same ctr to ctr] plus a third. They also have a short 2 hole mount that would work with a lightweight small red dot. Theres a long slightly argumentative thread of mine on this build over at the Pscout subforum on the Scoutrifleforum. They were concerned that my scope was not far enough forward to allow me to eject a loaded round. My comment was that the krag has it’s unique loading gate on the side to load/unload it with and only mty cases needed to eject. Actually the Krag was designed as a single shot with a 5 rd ammo reserve. Krags sure are a neat milsurp rifle. I’ve got the scout, an 1899 Philippine Constabulary [school] 22 inch bbl rifle and a nice 30 inch 1896 infantry rifle.

[skeet1]

In the last few years I rebarreled my 1898 Krag with an original very good barrel that was advertised as having a shinny bore. Other than being dirty the barrel was as advertised. I made an action wrench to fit the front of the action removed the sewer pipe and screwed in the replacement barrel lining up the index marks. Head space is perfect.

The barrel I purchased came from Ebay and if I were to rebarrel another Krag I would try to find an original.

Ken

[Baltimoreed]

I’ve recently read that Krag bbls are so meticulously made as to the thread indexing and machining that they always mate up perfectly to the action and in fact the sights were installed on the bbl before assembling the bbl to the rifle. Pretty precise work for the 1890s imo.

[444ttd]

the more i learn about "old" rifles, the more i like them.