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

Time for another Krag buildup, this time based on a Herter's stock from Gunbroker,

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=181477632

This appears to be a "factory finished" job and turned out to be nice. Neat QD swivels. I have a brand new in the white 30" .30-40 barrel from DCM, issue contour - they sold a handful a year or so back. I have several Krag actions to choose from. Also, and this is the piece de resistance, I have for many years treasured a Hensoldt Dialytan prewar 4x in a custom Stith Streamline mount for a Krag. There are three screws going into the left receiver wall and two up front holding the typical Stith objective shield to the barrel. It is slightly offset to the left. Stith made these mounts for about any rifle and scope combination for $25 or $30. I have no idea what happened to the original rifle - the gent who sold me the scope and mount wouldn't say. For a trigger, I have a Canjar SST which, one of two that I ordered, took five years to deliver. On custom Krags, I like a third action screw at the front of the receiver that lets the barrel float. Norwegian and Danish Krags have this third screw. In their wisdom, our Ordnance skipped it. This will end up as rather too heavy for a nunting rifle, not really super accurate I suppose, but it will be a terrific offhand high power plinker.

Good project, I envy you that scope setup! Will you alter the stock? Reason I ask is that last year I completed a Mauser Banner for a friend using a Herter's semi-inlet, and found that there was a fairly good-looking classic style stock lurking beneath all that extra wood. Good luck.
Regards, Joe

This is a finished stock, nicely checkered, not a semi inlet. The high thick comb should be OK with the relatively big Hensoldt and its slight left offset. We will see.

From time to time I will report on this project and hope to add photos as I go along ... if I learn how to post them. I am probably going to use receiver no. 425088, from 1903, the penultimate year of Krag production. It is the cleanest receiver I have, unfortunately it is attached to a very undistinguished sporter which I will cannibalize. I have unattached receivers but this one needs no refinishing. The bolt assembly is OK but I think I will replace it with new parts from Joe DeChristopher, joede@tradenet.net. I saw Joe last Saturday at a small PA show near Allentown. My understanding is that Joe married the daughter of W. Stokes Kirk, who in the 20s and 30s of the last century bought tons of surplus parts from the US government. I have some old Stokes Kirk catalogs and the stuff is fascinating. Crates of the parts - from Krags, trapdoors and 1903s - are said to be in Joe's garage. The guard screws on this action are badly buggered and so are all the other guard screws in my parts box - they are the same as 1903 guard screws and my 1903s are similarly battered. So I bought two new screws from Joe - brand new - for fifteen bucks. Easier than cleaning up the ones I have. Joe also has brilliantly heat blued extractors, $25 and polished bolt bodies, $35. I have fairly good extractors and a couple of shiny bolts but they do not compare with the finish Springfield did as routine work over a century ago. Joe will sell a complete brand new bolt for $125. Considering how much will be spent on this sporter before it is finished, it is probably worth buying those parts.

Continuing the Krag story, call this part the screw saga. The Stith mount is held on by five screws, three on the left receiver wall and two on the barrel. I was resigned to having these made. But last week printed up my 2002 inventory preparatory to updating it and lo, there was 'brown envelope 2x3" with screws for Stith Krag mount'. After fifteen years or so, I had forgotten the screws came with the Hensoldt and the mount. Grand, but where was it? The ceiling in my gunroom had collapsed two years ago in a terrific rainstorm, everything had been moved out willy nilly, cleaned up and moved back helter skelter. The precious envelope was not in the Krag or scope mount boxes. After a very long tense search it was found with the High Wall parts. What a relief. These are Allen head screws, like all old Stith stuff they are elegantly made and finished, and would have been a minor headache to make. The front foot of the mount seems to be contoured underneath to fit a service barrel so it should be OK on the 30" tube I bought from DCM.