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.
