doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Sporterizing the Krag

Member THOP would like to talk about some of the older methods of sporterizing the Krag rifle. Here is an example of what was done in years past. Notice that the whole rear of the stock has been grafted to the military stock. I don't normally post links to an auction but this one has no bids and it's been there for about a year.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=122989045

Mark, Did you buy the 54-Krag I found? If not I'll post info on that one.

No Mike in the end I did not bid on it. A very unusual adaptation.

Thank you Michael for starting the topic. I wasn't sure if it was acceptable to post links to auction sites.

I have been following your thread titled “A Classic Bolt Gun” with interest. Your fabulous pictures and discussion related to Krag sporters has perked my interest and I have been wandering the net looking at various approaches to converting these rifles to sporting use. I came across a Krag on Gunbroker.com that I found interesting. At first glance it appeared to be a nice clean conversion, possibly done in the ‘30s or ‘40s, basically replacing the stock and sights and leaving the rest of the rifle original. Closer examination of the description and pictures shows that the stock was originally two peaces and it was expertly joined at the wrist. The inletting appeared to be perfect and there doesn’t appear to be any sign of amateur debauchery that I have seen on other home brew sporters. Comparisons to pictures of original Krag stocks lead me to believe that the original stock was cut off at the wrist and a very nice pistol grip butt stock attached. The forend was also shortened and an ebony tip attached. I think if the grip area had been checkered with an over-the-grip pattern the grafting would not be visible at all.

The discussion I would like to pose to the forum is, is this a common economical conversion that may have been performed on a large scale by surplus dealers like Bannerman back in the ‘30s and ‘40s, or was it a unique conversion performed by an individual professional or talented amateur. Its the first coversion like it I have seen. Thanks again Michael. Terry H.

Michael, you really know how to hurt a guy. That Krag looks just like mine, even the sight is the same. I will have to examine mine closely for a joint behind the grip.

This is a new one on me and Mark, I kind of like it.

http://www.auctionarms.com/search/displayitem.cfm?itemnum=8995624

PS: I never post a link to an auction that has people bidding on something or if it's new, this one has been there for a while. The sum total of the parts would be more than the asking price and if the bore was good it might be a great deal, depending on how well the work was done.

Mike is right, the grafted butt Krag has been on offer for months. I had not previously seen that stunt of fitting a new back half to a Krag military stock. It took considerable skill but suggests that the maker had no confidence in his ability to inlet the front half. Curious, you would think that anyone who could do such a neat job could have managed the inletting. The second rifle is even more interesting, the stock is from an early Winchester 54. Even the stamped guard and floorplate look like 54 parts. Has a nice early Lyman on it. Since the original 54 is much like a M70pre64, this suggests the intriguing possibility that one could put a Krag into an M70 stock ... the hinged floorplate would be superfluous. Between the World Wars the country was not flush with cash and all sorts of tricks, some of them like these very clever, were used to improve Krags economically.

In the late '40s or early '50s there was a series of articles showing how to "sporterize" the Springfield in the "American Rifleman". The series ran for three issures if memory serves and showed a cut down military stock as the first option, the second option was to turn the stock from the pistol grip back into a dowel, bore a hole in a matching piece of walnut for the butstock, glue over the dowel remnant of the original stock and then shape as desired. The final option was to restock the action.

It appears that this stock was done in a similair manner.

Bill

Many Sedgelys have checkering patterns like a 54 Winchester and a pretty thin in places. Are these Model 54 stocks we see on Sedgelys?

mhbenenson said: "...you would think that anyone who could do such a neat job could have managed the inletting..." Mark, I agree and that is what made me think maybe it was done on a production scale, as an economy sporter. I'm visualizing some company in the '30s and '40s, such as Bannermans, acquiring a boatload of '96s and '98s, and seeing a market for an economy sporter for the masses, came up with this conversion as an economical approach. I suspect a company could crank out several rifles, using this approach in the amount of time it would take to restock one rifle. I guess if that was the case though we would see a lot of them floating around on GUNBROKER.COM today. It would be great to read the "American Rifleman" article referred to in his post. Terry H.

Terry H. said "...It would be great to read the "American Rifleman" article referred to in his post..." Sorry, I meant to attribute the "Americam Rifle" comment to WJW's post. Thanks Bill. Terry H.