I have a very nice US 98 Krag action that I have been wanting to do something with. I would like to make a nice sporter out of it but I am not sure of which direction to take with it. To be honest I havent seen that many Krag sporters that have cought my eye. Most of the ones I have seen all seem to have roll over stocks and such. And that is not the look I am going for.

I would love to hear any ideas you may have and any pics you can share would be even better.

I've had thoughts of doing a Krag in .405 Winchester. The mag length is fine but the front width needs opened up because it's too narrow.

I've never seen one in .405, but have had them in 30-40 (duh), 30-30 (with a rethreaded Savage barrel), and .308 Win (a factory sporter from Canada on a Norwegian action).

Sam B.
info@fireflyarms.com

25 Krag used to be a popular wildcat back in the day.

Rojelio

There are some wonderful Krag sporters out there by such men as Tom Shelhamer, Jerry Fisher and others. I have been encouraging the “Krag Man†to do an article on these so when he shows up you can join in.

I have a .405, unknown maker, 27" barrel, California stock, has been to Alaska and
Africa. Also a .35WCF, mag is too short, 250 gr factory ammo has to be nose trimmed l/60". Both altered so bolt rib acts as second locking lug. And a .450 Alaskan Danish by Johnson's Kenai Rifles, US .25-35s by G&H and Sedgely. Plus a very old .30-30, 30" barrel. Sold my Canadian Austrian proved .308 Norwegian, skeptical about action strength, buyer Tom Butts of the KCA isn't worried. Two Norwegian arsenal sporters in 8x57 (.318") Mauser. An American in .38-55 using a Ruger No. 3 .375 WCF barrel. Had a Sedgely in .25 Remington, bore rotten, sold it off. Planning a 7x57 Norwegian. Also various in original calibres .30-40, 6.5x55, and 8x58R. And so on and on. Might have to go to Iceland to find a
Danish 11mm polar bear rifle !!

How about this (provided I typed the address correctly):

http://gallery.sixshootercommunity.com/displayimage.php...tup&cat=10063&pos=11

http://gallery.sixshootercommunity.com/displayimage.php...tup&cat=10063&pos=12

Stock 30-40 caliber. Redfield no-drill peepsight. Have since added a sling.

Pull out your old copy of DeHaas' Bolt Action Rifles and read. He has some good coments on conversions, however the .405 Win in not among them. Someone else had the idea to build the .405 Win on a Siamese mauser. I have several Siamese mauser actions and have that thought saved for a rainy day. Cool old round especially now that it is available again.
Jeff P

If you are tralking about an American Krag, rather than a Danish or Norwegian one, back in the 1930's, 40's, and 50's, one of the neatest parts of many Krag customs was changing the magazine box so it only held 3 rounds, but did not stick out on the right side. I used to have a G&H sporter that was done that way, but I can't remember exactly how it was done. A couple of gunsmithing books from the 50's had the conversion in them, but darned if I can remember which ones. Somone here can probably tell us, though.

Another nice little trick, I think, is the extremely simple, extremely cheap, old Rice rear peep sight that attached to the top of the bolt. It was made in San Francisco and sold for $1 in the 40's and even the very early 50's. Perhaps you can find a pic of it on line somewhere...it is dead simple to make once you have seen one and is screw adjustable for both windage and elevation.

My G&H also had a cartridge-trap butt plate, which I liked, and the barrel mounted rear sight had been neatly removed and the barrel slighly recontoured to give an even flow of line from breech to muzzle. If you then use a barrel-band front sight base and a hooded front sight, you have a really nice looking rifle. A bit of simple "point-pattern" checkering [not an ornate fleur-de-lis (SP)] pattern tops it all off nicely.

Leave it as a 30 US [30-40 Krag] and contact Griffin & Howe on what style they used to do for thier rifles. This would be the best to make and old G&H out of it!

IMO, one of the best looking, handling and shooting of the Krags was the NRA carbine. I have one and wouldn't part with it for the world.

It's a '98, with an arsenal shortened 22" barrel and stock and a 1903 front sight and barrel band. It looks a lot like the '96 carbine, except for the barrel band front sight and stock fore end. Very nice.

This is a picture of sight on my Krag. Don't know anything about it. The cocking piece on this sight has been milled for this sight. The cocking piece has a concave cut and the bottom on the sight is convex and fits into the cut on the cocking piece. My recollection of the sight on my father's US Krag was that it was just a spring steel piece that fitted on the cocking piece. Cocking piece may not be the right description of the part but looking at the picture you'll get the idea.

On the subject of Krags, can anyone tell me which models or serial numbers are pre-1898 and thus are NOT regulated as "firearms" under Federal law and therefore can be shipped directly to non-FFL holders? Thanks.

Stonecreek, the last US Krag made in 1898 was ser. no. 161999.

Cool project. Think I would opt for a .25 Krag
LLS

Thanks for all of the replies and reccomendations. I thought long and hard about which caliber to go with and finally decided to use the good old 30/40. I just really like it. But the 6.5 Krag was also very tempting.

I am thinking of putting a 22" barrel with a similar contour to the Winchester Featherweight on it. I would add a NECG Island rear express sight and a NECG banded front sight. Put it all in a true classic pattern stock with a pancake cheekpiece and it would be a pretty sharp outfit.

Tank,

If your Krag is in original condition, consider not using it to make a sporter. Prices for original condition Krags are 6-8 hundred dollars, particularly if the bore is in good condition. And if it's a real, original carbine...double or triple that!

Already sporterized Krags that are bubba'd up are not hard to find at gun shows and on the various gun auction places pretty cheap. You can fix them up as good as your checkbook will allow, and save your original Krag in the process.

If it had of been all origional I would be leaving it alone. Mine was a "NRA Cutdown" that the stock had been cut and a recoil pad added.

quote:

Originally posted by vigillinus:
Stonecreek, the last US Krag made in 1898 was ser. no. 161999.

Thanks for the help!

Hey dian1,

Any chance of getting a few more close-up shots of that apeture sight?

I believe that either Willams or Redfield made a clamp on peep sight for the Krag’s...Garry Feller’s used to have some for sale... (817) 346-9633

Doble Troble,
Here are some close-ups.

I sent those pics to Col. Karl Hanevik, who is the principal guru on Norse Krags, has written a couple of books (darnit in NOrwegian), told me he has not seen that sight in Norway.

Looked in my book on old sights and that peep sight looks almost exactly like one made and sold by Leroy Rice of Elyria, Ohio in the 1930’s.

I think this one may be a Rice.Rice

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Petrov:
I think this one may be a Rice.Rice

Looks like a dead ringer for the one in the book.

Thanks for the extra pix - very helpful. I'm trying to make something similar to mount on a Redfield base.

Michael is correct, that is a Rice. I have 4-5 that I picked up in a box of trade stuff. They are as simple and light as it can get.

Sight pics that Dian posted are NOT of a Rice, Rice is much simpler made of a single stamping.

quote:

Originally posted by Pfeifer:
Pull out your old copy of DeHaas' Bolt Action Rifles and read. He has some good coments on conversions, however the .405 Win in not among them. Someone else had the idea to build the .405 Win on a Siamese mauser. I have several Siamese mauser actions and have that thought saved for a rainy day. Cool old round especially now that it is available again.
Jeff P

So now that I came into a Krag project... been searching the forum for ideas! and came across this again. Well I got to reading DeHaas again and Idaho Sharpshooter sold me a partial box of 444 Marlin to play with. It seems it will work in the magazine but leaves alot of "room" fore and aft. So got out some of my 405 Win Hornady brass and cast up a 412263 RNPB bullet and seated it. Also made up a "Thuper" 444 we could call the 4444 or the 44 WinKrag! on the 405 Win case with one of my favorite 44 Mag cast boolets 429640 280 grn WFN GC. This latter leaves about .007" total body taper. Snapped some picts yesterday of these and what they look like in the 1898 Krag magazine.

BTW my Krag is a real project. Has been cold blued in spots, barrel is cut to 21.5", project stock narrowly salvageable, no sights, needs a firing pin spring. Bore however is real nice but crown was Bubba's with a ball end mill badly so needing to be recrowned. I do love the .30-40 cartridge as well and have another DCM(?) carbine in a Bishop stock with a minty barrel with Lyman 34 sight on it. Going to post pictures here shortly.

Jeff P

Here are some picts of the 444 Marlin, Thuper 4444 and the 405 Win. Also picts of the 444 Marlin and .405 Win in the unmodified 1898 Krag magazine.
(Click to view larger image)




Also looked up reloading data on the 405 Win today and found some 45 kpsi Max load data on the Hodgdon website:
Hodgdon 405 Win load data
So is that too hot for the old 1898 Krag with a 212xxx SN? IIRC around 23x,xxx was where they further refined the receiver heat treatment. Also thinking I've seen a 40 kpsi limit recommended.
I guess I'd have to say my current fav is the 44-405 WinKrag but that is the most $$ option to build. If going with the .405 Win, then the question of groove diameter is big as there are alot more .410 moulds than .412 moulds as I've found out...
Comments?