Bought a Krag yesterday from a fellow who described it as having 03 sights. Went and shot it today and was pleased with the results. This is my first Krag, I've wanted one for years. It has a 24" barrel, after investigating on the web I've identified the rear sight as a 1901 model. The front sight is marked Lyman and has a small gold bead. The sights definitely are not 03 sights. The rifle shoots low, had to move the rear sight to the 300 yd. mark to get it to point of aim at 25 yds. It is missing the front swivel, and I'd like to replace it with something that looks military of the same time frame, not necessarly orginal. I do not believe that the gun has collector value, but it is a shooter. The serial number is 433635 and it is marked 1889 on the left side of the receiver. Their is a stamp on the stock that appears to be 1886, but it is hard to make out. Can anybody direct me to a source for the swivel, and or advise some history on this piece.

Thanks
Bougalee

krag parts on ebay

loads for cast bullets sound interesting, I saw some discussion at the cast boolits forum.

there's a company, I think in brooklyn, NY, that sells krag parts, they also have new stocks, one of them is a cut down deal to "sporterize" like many of the original krag stocks were.

I'd like to get my hands on a decent example, one day. I passed up a sportered version about two years ago at a gunshow- it was done in a classic sort of 1920's-30's style, the work was well executed, pricey, but I would have spent the money on something anyway. still kickin' myself. I'd get a fair amount of satisfaction hunting with one.

Thanks for the kick-back. I looked at the e-bay site and it has everthing I don't need, go figure. The first time I passed on a Krag was in 1968, sporterized for $50. Wanted one ever since. Thanks again

check back every few days on that link, there's always about a pagefull of stuff. good luck with your rifle.

here's the outfit in new york-

http://www.ssfirearms.com/download%20catalog.htm

Thanks again, Tin-can, the S&S outfit has exactly what I need. I'll have to save some change though, kind of pricey. But its what I need to support my habit.

Regards,

Larry:

If you have fired it already, I'll bet you were thrown off a bit (and very pleased when you got used to it) that there was no "drag" (my word)of the bolt going home. (Haven't owned a 30-40 Krag-Jorgenson, since I was about 16 -and I'm 77 now, but I remember that smoothness. If I had been smart (and had this forum then) I would have kept the rifle and done something with it. Good luck with your Krag model.

Jerry, I was pleasently suprised for sure, even though I knew that the rifle had a reputation for smoothness and I had handled one in my teens. I might add that at 77 it's not too late for you to get yours. I've spent the last few days checking things out and I'm more happy with the purchase by the minute. My shooting so far was for function, I'm looking foreward in the next few days to shoot for accuracy. The bore is in pretty decent shape so I have high hopes.

Thanks for the wishes
Larry

Larry:

Do you plan to reload or is factory ammo available? (As I remember with mine, right after WW2, factory ammo wasn't available and I had two well worn looking boxes of 10 rounds each (as I remember) that the same generous neighbor who had given me the rifle also supplied. As I recall the sights were similar to the '03 and I, like you, fired more for function than anything else but I did scare the wits out of a woodchuck who lived on the slope of a hill opposite my family place about 300 yards away. I have no doubt that you may very well tune that rifle up to make you very happy. (My father, who was born in 1880, thought the Krag was an enormous leap forward by US Army Ordnance compared to its predecessor. I always have wondered why the rifle and the cartridge didn't attract more interest) Hope you'll PM me about your experience)