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

Gents, I've found what I think might be a Krag National Match gun. National Match style stock, checkered with a tight pistol grip. Gun has been rebarreled with a Winchester 94 25-35 barrel. Whoever did the rebarrel did a good job, as they had to make a bushing for the undersize 94 barrel to fit. I can see on the stock where wood strips were inlayed to make up for the smaller barrel. Gun also has a grooved aluminum target butt plate with 14 large grooves. Any body have a picture of what the forend profile is supposed to look like? And what might it be worth. I've got pictures, but they are on my phone and at the moment don't know how to get em to photobucket to post here. Any help appreciated. JW

I thought the National Matches were shot with issue Krags back in the day.

I have looked through Springfield Armory Shoulder Weapons, 1795-1968, by Robert W. D. Ball. Although there are numerous pictures and written material about Krag rifles there is no mention of a National Match Krag. The term "National Match" has been adopted by various firearm manufacturers to describe their products, I believe it was originally only used to describe match versions of the 1903 Rifle, M1 Rifle, M14 Rifle and Model 1911A1 Pistol that were products of the US owned and operated Springfield Armory and later by Rock Island Arsenal.

That is 100% correct-- Just like Trap and Trap Grade have been used over past 100 plus years in the shotgun realm--Best example I can think of-- a hunting pal has a 1938 mfg. Model 21- a 20 gauge Trap Grade Skeet Gun- 28" WS-1 and Ws-2 choked barrels-- This is a dandy bird gun, and also useful at skeet and SC, but it is no more a Trap Gun than is a Louisville Slugger. Another example- this past Sat Son-in-law and I went to a small local gun show at an area Gun Club- nice small group, mostly rural- One gentleman had what he claimed was a NM M-1 Garand, for sale at the bargain price of $750--he allowed me to look it over thoroughly, and here's what I found- the Armory and serial number stampings from the rear receiver had been ground completely off, both front and rear top hand-guards had been replaced, as was the stacking swivel, the bore was fairly well shot out (BFA and tracer ammo will do that) plus you could see the scraping of the parkerized finish at the muzzle from the use of either a BFA adaptor or a grenade launch mounting device, there was a Import marking stamp on the muzzle area behind the front sight at at same aligment with the operating rod- some dealer in St. Albans VT- However, it did have a NM stamped operating rod- hence this gent thought he was buying a NM Garand. Not wanting to either (1) burst his bubble or (2) buy another Garand I really don't need or wish to overhaul-- I thanked him and said nothing--

I would be very wary of a 'National Match" Krag. The Matches were fired with issue rifles. The matches have always been fired with service ammunition too, making that .25/35 doubly suspect. It sounds like a nicely built custom gun. Would love to see some pictures.

According to Brophy "The Krag Rifle" page 186, "No special Krag match rifles were made by Springfield Armory. The Armory did, during testing, select those rifles that gave the best results, and issued them for competition. Some of these rifles were used by Palma team members and service teams in competition."

Norwegen Krags were issued in both a Sharpshooter's Rifle and a Sporting Rifle, both with pistol grip stocks. The Sporting Rifle stock greatly resembles the NRA Springfield Sporter, with an aperture rear sight adjustable from 100 to 1000 meters. (Page 145)

Lets see if the picture works. I do not believe that the gun originally had the 25-35 barrel. I think it originally had the 30-40 Krag barrel and that is why there is the extra wood inletted along the 25-35 barrel to fill in the gap.

Good fotos indeed. Most Krag's I have handled and shot with issue ammo were never in the same class as either the 98Mauser or the 1903 (not the 1903-A! or A-3 later versions) Springfields, and all but the Mausers are not really conducive to great trigger pulls and absence of over travel. Have you actually shot that puppy yet?