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

Bought my first custom Krag on my honeymoon in London in 1960, a cased H&H 6.5 Norwegian. Picked up two or three more rifles through 1989, when the disease broke out in full force. I now have perhaps forty Krags, haven't counted lately, some of the highest quality and others rather mediocre but representative of the genus. But some varieties have been elusive. Have never come across a really good G&H 30-40 or .25-35 Sedgely repeater. G&H single shot varmint rifles are not rare, but repeaters seem to be. There was lots of publicity in the American Rifleman in the 30s for the Sedgely .25-35, but the only one I've ever found is well beaten up with lots of extra scope and sight holes drilled in it.

As revealed in this forum last week, Alvin Linden made Krags but I have yet to see one. Many of the top smiths of the interwar period did Krags but they are few and far between. If you had serious money to spend on a custom rifle in those days you put it into a 1903 or Oberndorf 1898, not an obsolete old Krag. So I am always on the lookout for "name" Krags.

Some years ago I missed a Dan Fraser Norwegian at a London auction, I was an innocent and thought bidding a third over the estimate would secure it. Later I learned that the estimates are set low to draw in the suckers. Live and learn.

Another hard one is the Danish sporter. The Danes did polar bear and seal hunting in Greenland and Iceland and there was a big bore 11mm Danish and I have seen pics of a nicely stocked sporter. I do have a sort of ersatz Danish bear rifle, believe it or not by Johnson's Kenai Rifles in .450 Alaskan. I am not brave enough to shoot it. The stock is bright yellow maple with purple inlays and I am sure no bear would venture to attack anyone carrying it .... and if you got lost in the woods, you can wave it at the search planes and be spotted quickly.

Myself and my buddy were at the big Baltimore show in March and he found a Krag sporter for $475 went off to think (he is a gun shop owner in Germany ) came back to the stand and and it was gone it looked like a nice piece.
Martin

And I just missed a sporter at the Bozeman show last weekend, eh Bill?

Mark

I checked again about a month or so ago and there still is a nice one residing in Plains, MT. Mandarino has even given his stamp of approval on it.

Plains is only about 200 miles...

Many years ago I bought a great Krag sporter from Ed Wheat at Heritage Firearms in Ct. It was made for Anthony Fiala. My absolute favorite was a deluxe Sedgley Krag in 25 Remington that could feed those little shells through the magazine. It was owned by well known custom reloader Glenn Anderson's dad. The stock work on that one was as good as that on any of my G&Hs.

Joel, ours is a tiny world, I own that Fiala Krag, has a gold oval "To my friend Anthony Fiala from S.A. Leonard". Leonard was head stocker for Purdey's, came to U.S. after WWI, for a while was partner with George Hyde, "Leonard and Hyde", in the 20s and/or 30s. I saw the rifle at Squier and Wheat maybe thirty years ago, by the time I asked about it it had gone, no doubt to you. In 1999 it reappeared upon the passing of an Albany NY antique dealer, Dave Squier told Ron Peterson to buy the modern guns, Peterson mentioned the Krag, Dave told Ron I had been interested, and I ended up with it. It's a very nice rifle and Mike Petrov has a 1903 by Leonard with the same well shaped cheekpiece. As to the .25 Sedgely, I wonder where it is. Years back I had a Sedgely Krag in .25 Remington, standard grade, bore very rough, so it went. Today I would probably have it relined and keep it.

I've developed a lot more, and better, information on Leonard. I'll need to rewrite his history someday.

Here is what I published on him.

Leonard & Hyde:
Tracking Samuel A. Leonard has been like looking for an arctic fox in a snowstorm. I know he existed but I just cannot get a complete picture of him. Sometime before 1928 Leonard left his job as head stocker for Purdey’s of London and emigrated to New York City.

Before 1935 George J. Hyde, who was the shop foreman and metal man at Griffin & Howe quit G&H and went into business for himself. Leonard teamed up with Hyde and their rifles are marked “No. XXX Leonard & Hyde New York” on the barrel. In May of 1935 Ned Roberts and his father-in-law W.G.C. Kimball went into business together as “Roberts and Kimball” in Woburn, Massachusetts. Their idea was to make high-quality sporting and varmint rifles on Mauser actions in the then popular cartridge that bears Roberts’ name, the .257 Roberts. Metal work on these Roberts & Kimball guns was done by Hyde and the stocking was done by Leonard. Some information suggests that Leonard and Hyde did not relocate to Massachusetts but that the work was sent to them in New York City. Roberts & Kimball company lasted less than a year and their rifles are not found very often. As far as I know the barrels are marked “Roberts & Kimball”. Before or after this business failed Leonard made “Best” quality sidelock double barrel shotguns and sporting rifles under his own name. The illustrated Leonard-Springfield sporter is marked “No. 219 S. A. Leonard New York". In outward appearance this rifle looks like a G&H as far as all the refinements on the metal. It has the matted receiver top, thumb print on the floorplate, finely checkered trigger, ramp front and barrel band sling swivel. I have no doubt that the metal work was done by Hyde. One known Leonard shotgun is marked No. 1945. What these numbers stand for I have no idea, but I do know that Leonard did not make 219 guns, much less 1,945 of them. The quality of workmanship on all of Leonard’s is as good as Griffin & Howe’s. After the Roberts & Kimball business failure I have found nothing more about Mr. Leonard. Did he return to England, as so many others did at the outbreak of trouble with Germany? Whenever I think that the search is hopeless, I think of the length of time I spent trying to locate a relative of the late master engraver R.J. Kornbrath. After getting nowhere, my good friend John said “Why don’t you have a talk with his grandson. He lives over by you in South Anchorage." We may never know where Leonard went, but we do know what he left behind; Some beautifully made guns.

Samuel A. Leonard:

Thanks to Douglas Tate’s book Birmingham Gunmakers published by safari Press 1997 (ISBN 1-57157-005-1), the early years of Samuel Arthur Leonard are now known. The Leonard Family, with father Daniel and sons Harry, Daniel and Samuel, operated under the name of “D. Leonard & Sons”. It appears that their specialty was the manufacture of double rifles for the trade, notably for W.J. Jeffery. During WWI, Harry, Daniel and Samuel served as Armourers in England, all with the rank of sergeant. Tate also tells about how Samuel Leonard traveled to the United Sates and would advertise when he would be in various cities to carry out repairs. These tours may have been organized by W.J. Jeffrey & Company.
Since my 1998 article one Krag and one 1903 Springfield sporter surfaced; all marked with the same small “S.A. Leonard” stamp.

Roberts & Kimball:

Roberts & Kimball rifles, in both the sporting and varmint configuration, were in the hands of PS subscribers just waiting for me to write the article so they could tell me about them. The heavy barrel varmint rifle is marked on top of the barrel “Roberts Target Model Roberts & Kimball Woburn, Mass”. On the left side near the receiver is “257 Roberts” , on the right side is “No. 109”. The sporting rifle is marked “Kimball Mauser Roberts & Kimball Woburn, Mass.” On the top of the barrel. On the right side of the barrel near the receiver is “No. 116”, on the left side is “.257 Win. Roberts”.
It would appear that Roberts & Kimball started numbering at 100 so number 109 would have been the 9th and 116 the 16th rifle made. I would be surprised in any more than a couple dozen rifles were made before Roberts and Kimball went out of business.

S.A. Leonard Rifle.