doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Interesting Krag sporter and sight.

Yesterday I picked up an interesting Krag at a small gun show. At first glance all I noticed was a nicely figured Cherry wood stock. The next thing I noticed was very unusual bolt sleeve peep sight. The only one I could remember like it was a Hoffman sight, but further study with my trusty magnifying glass revealed a logo which looks like Goss. I assume that Goss must have been a stand alone company before merging with Marbles. The next thing that caught my eye was the magazine alteration. I once had a Sedgley in 25 Remington with a similar, but not the same arrangement. In any case, this one seems to feed 3 30/40 cartridges reliably.



You can see the safety built into the sight in the following photo:

Trapdoor Krag, eh?
Nice sight...

The Hart conversion is fairly common. I have have not seen the sight, what does it say on the side, Gross?

Michael,
Look at the 3rd picture. Your guess is probably better than mine.

It is Goss. I have a Goss receiver sight, no idea what it fits, but it is a beautifully made sight in excellent condition. They don't seem to be common.

1878, Can you post a picture of your sight?

Michael,

Here you go:







I don't know what it fits. It mounts on the left side of a round receiver of about 1 inch diameter. The elevation scale is numbered at zero and ninty six. It is very crisply machined, you can see that even after all these years.

Maybe we should have a separate sight thread, that would be interesting. I don't know enough about Goss, Vaver, Watson and the like.

Nick Strobel covers Marble-Goss in Old Gunsights and Rifle Scopes on pages 52-54.

"Marble-Goss Sleeve Sight
This sight was mounted by replacing the entire bolt sleeve assembly with the Marble-Goss sight. The sight then served the dual purpose of aperture sight and bolt sleeve. The sight featured a quick removable elevation staff,'hand-lapped thread', 1/4 minute click adjustments, and reversible disk carriage for choice of an iron or telescope height sight picture. Made for the Springfield Model 1903, Krag model 1898, Winchester Model 54 and 70."

Other types and models of Marble-Goss sights are also covered in Strobles book.

1878, any numbers or letters on yours?

Now it is easy to read the scratches on Joel's sight.
"Hand Lapped" VERY nice...
Tried to fit it on anything 1878?
Maybe you just collect sights and don't need the guns? I've got a sh!tload around here myself, some for guns I will never own.

garyg,

No marks other than the name and range scale markings.

Thanks, A nice sight. I've seen a few Marble-Goss but not many Goos sights. I don't even know who Goss was.

Good idea we could start a sight thread, there are hundreds that never made it to production.

Those Goss sights arelisted in pr4war Stoegers for 1903, Win 54 and 70, andKrag. have one on an 03, one for a 54 in the sight box, and have been looking for a Kreg sight forever. I had a 70 sight and sold it because the safety was rottn. They are otherwisean excellentsight and can be marked Goss or Marble Goss ' at least the 03 sights canbecause I hafveseen themboth way.
Many years ago I cut my nose on an 03 Goss sight, the Ace trigger shoe fell off during a string of rapid fire in a match, I was all scrunched up shooting prone stuffing in clips and the change in the trigger totally discombobulated me

Thinkingof itits gottabe morethan 50 yearsago. Stillhave the sifght no bloodstains onit tho there was a good gash at tht time.

Having one of those sights in the sight box for a M54 would be impetus enough for me to go out looking for a M54 to put it on!

I have a 54 with a less-than-marvelous Marble rear receiver sight. Would the Goss be an upgrade?

Great story Mark!

Waterman, the Marble Goss is surely the best sight you can put on a 54, but I can't gat to it, whold apardtment is being rebujilt and I am in Mexico. Steev, I looked in the midrror, no scar on my nose any more- was probably sixty yeaars ago. Just for info, Joe Goss wasa a amllbore guy and the sightsd, for 52s, show up frequently on ebay.

Mark,
Have a margarita for me! or a Modelo, Pacifico, Corona...
Steve

My impressiono is that Joe Goss sold his business to Marble's. HavW had two of the 03 bolt sleeve sioghts one marked Goss the pther mARBLE-gOSS EXCEpt for markings they were identical cut my nose on the MG and still have it. Tho the NM rifle is long gone i REMEMBERit was on it second startgage barrel those were the days.

joelblack88

Your Goss bolt sleeve sight seems to be ready for production. Mr. Goss was not quite sure how he wanted the windage and the safety to work. I have two Goss bolt sleeve sights that do NOT have safeties. These two also have the windage knobs on the right end of the windage bars. Your bolt sleeve sight is the first Goss that I have seen that is in the configuration that was marketed as "Marble's Goss".

Gary Bush

PS For those of you who have drawers full of sights, please, please post pictures of them or pm (private message) me.

Gary,

You could start a new thread on sights, it could last for years ;-).

Gary,
Do you have any idea when Goss was in business by himself? I went through my old Stoegers catalogs and #24 didn't have any Marbles-Goss or Goss sights, while #27 had Marble-Goss sights.

Joelblack88

It seems that Mr. Goss fell a little behind on sight deliveries. An annoucement was made in THE AMERICAN RIFLEMAN, July 1936, page 47,Dope Bag, of Mr. Goss joining Marbles' Sight Company.

Gary Bush

Thanks Gary.

I have used a Marbles-Goss receiver sight on a .45 cal. heavy m/l "buffalo rifle" for years. Have another, .54 cal., with a Redfield 75 mounted on it. Both were used for buffalo matches in m/l competition from heah' to Friendship.

Interesting thing about the Goss as compared to the Redfield. The threads are opposite on them. One turns clockwise to move right, for example, and the other turns counter-clockwise. I had to keep a notebook with all my sight notes in it to make sure I didn't move one the wrong way during a match.

The Goss is an extremely high quality sight, IMO, although I used an adjustable iris Merit disc on both it and the Redfield.

Stan

Anyone know where to find Jeff Phelps?

Check your email Mark.

phelps found thanks mike

phelps found thanks mike

say, this is a great thread, I used this to answer some questions for a friend about Goss sights. I am curious if anyone has a catalog of Goss sights.