Krag Christmas Present w/pictures

[kraigwy]

I managed to get a few pictures of my Krag Christmas Present before wife raps it.

Barrels great, action smoother then a prom queen's thighs and based on what I can find out from Joe Poyer's "The American Krag Rifle and Carbine" its all orginal.

Gonna pop a few rounds too before she gets it rapped.

 

[armsmaster270]

I envy you.

 

[chiefr]

Nice Krag, I see you have Poyer's book. His book is absolutely the best source out there on the Krag that I know of.

 

[madcratebuilder]

Poyer's book does contain a wealth of information and a few errors, but the Krag bible is from Lt Col William S Brophy "The Krag Rifle". A Krag collector needs both on hand.

kraigwy, is that a 1898 rifle? I see it has the 1901 rear sight. Finish is very nice on that one. Getting hard to find unmolested Krags. I picked this 1898 up yesterday, not near as nice of metal as yours.

I sure wish I had been around for this ad.

 

[McShooty]

Looks like a very nice Krag. Wood looks to be above average. With a good bore it should shoot really good. And you'll get in much less trouble messing around with that than with a prom queen's thighs.

 

[Scorch]

Hey! No fair peeking! You really scored.

 

[SPEMack618]

Gah! Such a good looking rifle. I have never seen a non-sporterized one outside of the Infantry Museum at Ft. Benning.

The only reason I could possibly fathom to own a sporterized one would be to emulate Atticus Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird."

Does the Krag- accept M-1903 style bayonets?

 

[kraigwy]

Does the Krag- accept M-1903 style bayonets?

No Sir, it has it's own bayonet.

I found a pretty good one, a 1901 version which goes with my '98 made in 1901 w/its 1902 sights.

Just got it yesterday. I'll take and post pictures later today. It's almost in as good as shape as my Krag.

 

[SPEMack618]

I found a pretty good one, a 1901 version which goes with my '98 made in 1901 w/its 1902 sights.

Just got it yesterday. I'll take and post pictures later today. It's almost in as good as shape as my Krag.

Cool! Now you need the old cloth cartridge belt, too.

 

[tahunua001]

I've never seen a Krag before but I must say that I'm surprised with the number of similarities between it and the springfield 1903 and yet everybody claims that the 1903 is nothing but a mauser copycat.... nothing ever comes up about the krag being a mauser copycat....


beautiful rifle man, let us know how the old war horse shoots.

 

[madcratebuilder]

I found a pretty good one, a 1901 version which goes with my '98 made in 1901 w/its 1902 sights.

Looking at the photo I see a rear sight that is windage adjustable, is that correct? There are 5 versions of the 1902 rear sight and none are windage adjustable, as I recall that is the key identifying feature. I could remember that wrong, but don't think so.

Krag rear sights is a very large can of worms, 17 possibilities, and that's before you mix and match parts.

The Krag bayonet has a interesting history, based on the 1889 Swiss magazine rifle bayonet, Springfield produced 7 or 8 variations in less than 10 years.

 

[kraigwy]

The 1901 rear sight does have adjustments for windage. It has a double base, the upper part swivels horizontally on the lower.

Windage marks are scribed on the back of the upper base. The windage points are .040 inch apart.

The windage corrections are quite course, 5.86 MOA. (Thats .04 X sight radius divided by range equals windage corrections).

I have the type 4, 1901 sight which was used after serial number 330,000.

 

[kraigwy]

As to bayonets. There are way too many variations for me to afford to collect. But I did try to get an example for each of my rifles from the Krag to the M16A2.

So from left to right:

Krag 1901 Bayonet
M1918
Springfield (and used through WWII on the Garand)
M1 M5a1 Post war Garand bayonet, used in Korea
M1 m4 Carbine
M14 m6
M16a1 m7
M16a2 m8

As mention there are dozens of variations and models. The original '03 Springfield was a rod bayonet, but (I believe it was) Teddy Roosevelt vetoed that and went with the knife bayonet.

Odd they went from the rod bayonet of the Single shot Springfield's to the Knife blade on the Krag then back to the rod for the Springfield.

The most "useful" bayonet is the latter M8 (M16a2). It has a wire cutter, knife side and shredded edge for cutting through aircraft frame. Though I think this knife is a bit heavy (I use mine all the time for repairing fences).

Bayonet charges are history, but the bayonet is still quite useful for the soldier. Though I never poked anyone with mine, in Vietnam I used the heck out of my M7, from digging fox holes to toasting pieces of sliced C-rat white bread.

I've also seen the M7 bayonet used on the end of a rifle to aggravate a water buffalo. Not a good idea, the buffalo whipped his butt, and he had to be medivaced.

I like bayonets.

 

[Ambishot]

I've also seen the M7 bayonet used on the end of a rifle to aggravate a water buffalo. Not a good idea, the buffalo whipped his butt, and he had to be medivaced.

I like bayonets.

That is hilarious, Kraig!

I'm surprised at the amount of change in the AR-type bayonet models.

 

[SPEMack618]

Pops gave me his old M-7 that he was issued by the USAF for my Mini-14.

I was issued the M-8 but never carried it because I had an M-203 under by M-4.

I carried my cousin's Ka-Bar that we carried into Iraq back in '03 instead.

Bayonets are awesome yet practical.

Nice collection, Captain.

 

[warningshot]

Are you going to cast your own 30 cal. bullets now?

 

[kraigwy]

I've been casting 30 cal bullets since the '70s.

When I was heavy into High Power in Alaska, I'd cast and shoot 30 cal bullets in my M1 at 50 ft NRA targets for winter offhand practice.

Got to keep in shape some how with its too cold to go outside and shoot.

 

[SIGSHR]

The Rod Bayonet used on the M1888 Springfield had been in development for some time, Uncle Sam did not manufacture new socket bayonets for the Trapdoors but used Civil War surplus, as that supply ran down the rod bayonet was developed with the idea of it doing double duty as the cleaning rod.
It's been a while since I looked at mine but I am pretty sure the Krag bayonet will fit on an M1903 and M-1 and the later ones on the Krag, Uncle Sam kept the specs the same for the barrel opening and catch.
I enlisted in the Army in June, 1967, we had bayonet practice in BCT, I think these younger troops are missing something.

 

[warningshot]

How did those cast 30 cal. bullets effect the gas system in a M1? I thought the lube would plug things up. But there I go thinking again.

 

[kraigwy]

I just checked, the bayonets (Krag & Springfield) look simular but they have different locks, they aren't interchangable. You can get them on but you can't latch one to the other.