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

I like it regardless where it came from. I assume (always a mistake) that you have had it apart and the wood and metal are not marked in any way?

What kind of buttplate does it have? If you could post other pictures of the rifle I would enjoy looking them over.

Of particular interest to me is if the forward sling swivel has an German silver escutcheon?

Update: I have found a place out west called JES that re-bores rifle barrels. Only prob I see there is his .35 Krag re-bores are .359 and I intend this to be a large game rifle and that means jacketed bullets. Newest decision: Rebore the extant barrel or get a new one with taper/weight identical to an 1895 Winchester in .405?

Another possible rebore is to the .375 BSA ctg. made by necking up the .303 British (I can't remember the exact Brit designation). Somebody over here must have a reamer for that, and it is a very mild but effective load for hunting in CONUS. I had a friend who had an original BSA sporter made on a No. 3 Enfield action; nice plain gun. Ought to work just fine in a Krag.

The Brit name for the ctg. cited above is the .375 Flanged Express 2 1/2". A good choice if you want to use heavy bullets. Only caveat is to make sure the .375 reamer would clean up the back of the .30-40 chamber; it is a very tapered cartridge and I'm not sure if it is as wide as or wider than the Krag ctg. just in front of the base.

An advantage of the .405 which I'm sure you are aware of is that there is brass and ammo available. Not sure if a rebore to .405 would leave sufficient "meat" in a Krag barrel; might need a rebarrel with a slightly heavier profile blank.

Well, if someone is building a Krag Sporter and needs a Lyman 48 for it, I think this one is correct. I am not the seller nor do I know the seller, just trying to be helpful.
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=214558769

Looks like rebore's the way to go. JES has 3, 4 and 5 groove boring; I know a 2-groove barrel in .30 makes less chamber pressure than a 4-groove does. Wonder if there would be enough difference to go with 3 over more?

Late to the discussion here, but I have a '96 Krag in a Bubba'd military stock that evidently was reamed to an improved 30-40 and then later rebored to .338. Unfortunately, whoever did it opened the neck a bit on the long side, so it's not as accurate as it should be...but it's still fun with cast bullets. One of my future projects, should I ever find the time, is to re-stock it.

David

Another possibility would be the little-known-but-long-remembered 35-50 Maynard, a very late development in Maynard's history just prior to their bankruptcy. Parent case is generally conceded to be the 30-40 but little reliable original data is extant. James Grant treats of this subject in 4 of his 5 books and still didn't arrive at any firm conclusions.

However the NRA has legitimized at least one version of this cartridge for use in the BPCRS game and therefore reamers, dies and loading data already exist for it. For details you can contact Dangerous Dan the Torpedo Man (Dan Theodore), he was the driving force behind the NRA's decision and he'll know where to find the gear for it.
Regards, Joe

Update: Read the Handloader .35 Krag article last night. That is definitely one way to go; only thing I am lukewarm on is the minimal neck on the brass. Best way to describe it is very similar to fired brass from a Ross .303. Something else that article has is they cut away about half of the stock covering the sideplate on the left side. That's one of the more distinctive features of the Krag; that stock to my mind splits the difference between hiding the left sideplate and excessively weakening the stock admirably. Leaves enough wood to keep the stock strong enough, yet shows off the distinctive Krag magazine. Something else I might do with Thumper is color case harden the sideplate and/or steel buttplate.

I am happy to reappear. have over thirty US Krag sporters, all in "big game" calibres, .25-35 to .405 WCF, allrepeaters. They range from simple cut sown militaries to custom jobs from several of the famous interwar makers and a few known contemporaries. I have never been able to corral a G&H .30-40 although I do have a .25-35, Michael found it in a G&H used gun list from the 1930s. There are quite a few G&H SS Krag varmint rifles, I hear of one or two a year, but have never run into another repeater. If you had a few hundred bucks to spend on a hunting rifle at G&H in those days you either joined the NRA and bought a 1903 or used an Oberndorf 98, notan obsolete old Krag.
At any rate, there are a few Krag fanatics left and I seem to be one of the leaders. At the moment I am away from home without acess to my lihrary or the guns themselves so I am speaking from memory. First, both .405 and .35 WCF in factory loads are too hot for the Krag. The issue is academic for the .35 since there has been no factory ammo for more than fifty years. It is also too long for the magazine box, on
my rebored rifle notwithstanding grinding out both ends of the magzine to the max the factory loads need bullet noses trimmed what I remembher by .06". I think the box on my .405 needed a little work but it wasn't much. The gent who had the rifle built took it to Africa. The pressure problem is readily solved for a .35, you would have to handload anyway so make a .35 Krag wildcat. On a .405, one should take advantage of factory ammo and strengthen the action by setting up a rear locking lug like a Norwegian or Deanish Krag. The rear of the front locking lug can be ground off to let the bolt set to the rear if you are rebarreling. Or the front of the receiver "bridge" or the rear face of the bolt rib can be built up by welding. This last method has been used on several of my rifles including the 405, no other work was needed when I had this done the previous custom work could be left alone.
Krag bolts are in good supply and if yuu spoil one it's not the end of the world. One caveat about this double lug conversion, it's asymetrical. The Norwegians found in their rifle matches that in rainy weather the zero changed and a lot of their ranges were made with covered firing points to keep the rifles dry.