I went to this little gun show today. A friend had the coolest 22 rifle I have ever seen.

Springfield Armory Krag M1896 in 22 long rifle. Absolutely the coolest thing!

$2750 asking price, but I had never even heard of one outside of Brophy's(?) book

I just noticed this post. There is serious interest in the Krag Gallery Practice Rifles (GPR) and in their predecessors. Some 850 GPRs were made by Springfield Armory on modified Model 1898 Krag actions. The serial numbers are in the 475,000 and higher range. Those are marked ".22 cal" on the left rear side of the action. There is also a small hole drilled on the left side of the action. The GPRs were made 1907-1908. The first rifles (50 to 100) were made with .226" grooves and were chambered for the Extra Long cartridge. These are not accurate. I spent a lot of time trying to get one to shoot accurately. Later rifles were chambered for ordinary .22 rimfires. All have 18" twists. Except for the slightly slow twist, they are ordinary .22s and shoot pretty well, once you master the sights and wretched trigger pulls.

The rifle you saw with a Model 1896 action is one of the predecessors. At present, there is a serious search going on for these "predecessor" rifles and their barrels. The barrels have separate serial numbers, marked on the bottom of the barrel. A researcher is assembling a data base for the early barrels, made 1901 to 1905. Only 10 or 12 are known. If you can contact the seller, please have him contact me (on this forum). I want to add data on the rifle to the data base.

I'll call him this week.