I brought home another Krag sporter from a gun show a couple of weeks ago. It has a sporter stock that looks like it goes back to the late Twenties, but doesn't seem to be a Sedgely or Stoegers. This Model 1899 has a 22 inch barrel that looks to be issue. It sports a Lyman #34 and a Sheard gold bead blade up front in the arsenal block. The stock is very tightly inletted but unmarked. The buttplate is a Winchester that has a trapdoor applied to it. The number 52 is stamped on both the plate and the underside of the trapdoor. Checkering is not fancy but passably well done. The only mark on the metal is a "P" at the chamber just under the woodline. The steel grip cap was placed next to a First Model Newton cap and it is a ringer. I got some pictures if anyone cares to post them.
I got it as another strictly cast bullet gun. I sighted it in this afternoon at a hundred yards, and the first group for record went into 1.25 inches with one a trifle out ( 311291 @1,600 fps).
If anyone thinks they know who did the work, I'd enjoy hearing about it.
Ah,yes. Pictures. I forgot to mention that you can all view pictures if one of you would post them for me. I have taken a few.
Feel free to send them to me at john at whiteoakarmament dot com and I'll get them posted for you.
John
John,
I think we may have all looked at an '03 with a similar butt plate at Tulsa but I'm not sure where it was. Might have been one that Monte had.
Dan
I just notice that trap is upside down. Don't they usually open at the bottom?
John
John,
I noticed the same thing this morning when I looked at it. I was on a site I couldn't log on from so couldn't comment. Looks like a military door added to the Win. butt plate and well done, but upside down IMHO.
Krag '02
Congrats on a nice clean looking rifle, and it sounds like it is still capable of doing the job.
Thaine
The trapdoor on the Krag rifles open from the top. An ancient pull-through,complete with patch and bore brush was the surprise on this one.
here is a link to a previous discussion of a similar trap door butt plate.
trapdoor butt plate
Krag '02 thanks for the enlightenment, now I can say I learned something new today and it was a good day!
Fred, Now I have to say I learned two things today. But what a great bunch to learn from. A real awakening to what we, this forum and the collector community, have lost in the last couple of years. The willingness of members to share still continues to this day and is deeply appreciated.
Thaine
That is a very handsome rifle. Congratulations.
There seems to be a steadily increasing number of people on this site that are acquiring Krag sporters.
Jerry Liles
That is a very handsome rifle. Congratulations.
There seems to be a steadily increasing number of people on this site that are acquiring Krag sporters.
Jerry Liles
I picked up one about 6 mos ago. A Phillipine Constabulary carbine with the original stock very nicely reworked. Gun was alll original. Got another one last week witha great bore but it looks like somebody tried to take the BBL off with a pipe wrench. Ought to shoot though.
Ben,
Glad to see you are still online, I haven't seen posts lately.
Mike
Update on this April discussion: I may have blundered onto the answer to my own question about my recent Krag acquisition.The NRA Service Company was about like the American Rifleman's gift shop, where one could buy NRA magazine binders, NRA radiator emblems, NRA leather wallets, NRA turkey targets,NRA trophy spoons, and NRA Christmas cards. You could get deals on more useful items such as Lyman and Pacific sights, reloading equipment, and a selected assortment of guns.
A Krag sporting stock was offered from the Service Co. for at least four months over the winter of 1929-30. This handsome stock was admittedly made by Sedgley, and seems to conform to the one I have now, pictured earlier in this thread. I would speculate that the trap butt plate on my gun was not part of the NRA SCo. package.
The Service Co. stock was roughly contemporaneous, and probably equivalent in quality to the better known Stoeger stock. I don't recall Mike Petrov mentioning the Service Co. stock.
Some have wondered who put out those collars that blended the abrupt receiver / barrel meeting of the sporterized arsenal Krag.It may have been the man who placed this ad in the October,1930 AR. Not everyone selling something in 1930 could afford a display ad, and it is important to scratch the classifieds for stuff like this.
I got some pictures if someone would be kind enough to post them for us.
