"Old" Krag sights

[bary]

The CMP has Krag rifle/carbine barrels for sale. It says they're D&T'd for the "old" front and rear sights. Does anyone know specifically what that means? Old as in not the 1901 rifle or carbine sight?

[Rodfac]

Call CMP....Rodfac

[KCSO]

The front sight wasn't drilled and tapped the rear would be metric thread for the military sights. I do have a spare set from a 1896 Krag if you need them.

[madsenshooter]

Unless they have changed, the barrels are drilled and tapped for a 6x32 screw. Hex socket screws work great. I had some conversations with the head of the company that makes the barrels. He said they were going to change the threading. The original Krag thread is a very close copy of a French design. The French had a strong influence in the early days of our armories. The screws were so closely copied that they work out to be an M4x1.0mm pitch. Now a days the standard pitch is .7mm. All Krag rear sights have the same hole spacing. The flat for the front sight is also milled, you can either remove your old one and have it brazed on the new barrel, or get a reproduction front sight from S&S Firearms.

[bary]

I'll get to look at one soon. A friend of mine bought a '98 Krag rifle that needs a new barrel as bad as my '99 carbine. He has a barrel on order from CMP so I'm gonna check it out before I order mine. He said he has the 1902 sight on the rifle as he bought it.

I'm pretty much rebuilding this bugger. The rear sight on it, as well as I can make out, is a Rice, I think. Anyway, it's a sheet metal contraption with wee tiny screws that make me wanna scream when making adjustments. Plus they come loose during rapid fire in the CMP matches. The barrel's gone, I can fit a .308 jacketed bullet nearly all the way in the muzzle at this point.

In addition to all this fun, the magazine spring/follower gave out on me during rapid fire in a match last year. It's sat since then, and will until late summer/early fall. By the time I get it all together (a LOONG time away given the time and money I can throw at it right now) I'll have almost enough into it to buy another Krag. Oh well.

[madsenshooter]

Yup, that's a Rice sight, technically not legal for CMP matches anyway, but local clubs give you a lot of leeway. I have one on a 92 sporter I bought. Some of the CMPs barrels are turning out to be on the large side, groove diameter-wise, so don't just assume you get a .308 groove diameter barrel for your money, slug it to get a proper fitting cast boolit.

A friend of mine put one of the CMP's Criterion barrels on a 96 carbine and is getting some good results with it. His slugged .309.

[bary]

Yeah, the leeway on sights depends on the scores you shoot. The Krag with that shot out barrel is an 80% shooter at best on the SR target from prone, so the match director took pity on me and let me have my "crutch."

Is there any value on the Rice sight? I have the only one I've ever seen in person, aside from a few internet photos.

[madsenshooter]

It may be a good ebay item, whatever you get for it could go toward the purchase of a 1901 or 1902 sight. Incidentally, I was reading the CMP rules last night, and you're allowed to open up the apertures of the 1901 and 1902 sights to a max of .100". In the case of the 1902 that's a big help as they're .046". The 1901s started with an .046" aperture, later enlarged to .070". I'm going to be using a 1902 sight, windage changes are a lot easier with it vs the 1901.