I visited Cabelas this morning, and I always check to see what rifles are for sale...  This morning, in addition to three 1873 Trapdoor rifles, I discovered a Beautiful 1898 Krag rifle.  Very clean with little pitting.  Bore looked great.  The stock was immaculate with both proof mark and cartouche intact.  1898 rear sight (I think...  I'm sure you all would know better than me).  Serial number was 410XXX.  Price was $1100.00 which was WAYYY more than I can handle right now without winding up divorced!  I would say that it was a very nice buy though...  This was at the Cabelas in Dundee Michigan.

That is about the price of a really nice one.

Cabela's is often very high. They used to also be awfully low on occasion, but they seem to have tightened that loophole.

They are - IMHO - only in the antique firearms business because they feel they have to be. Expertise, and attitude varies wildly from store to store. My experience - at the Reno NV store - was SO *negative, that I've never been back, though I do browse the nation-wide listings once in a great while.

*they had some really crappy stuff from Bubba's garage, for which they were asking top collector dollar, and did not want to hear about it! Basically they said, if you don't like it, get out of line because the turnip truck is coming, loaded with rubes who will pay the price.

I know what you mean...  sometimes, they really want to pull the wool over your eyes so they can get you to buy something that they have convinced you is worth it... until you get home and realize you were taken!  This Krag truly did look very good.  Incidentallly, of the three trapdoors, the worse looking one, which could have been cleaned up, re-blued and been very nice, has been sold for $500.  The other two, which both looked much better and priced over $1000 each, were still sitting there tonight (went back with my brother in law after dinner).

Incase anyone is interested, I went to Cabelas again on Saturday, and that 1898 Krag is still there.  It took all I could muster (and thoughts of my wife yelling at me) to leave without the gun!  If you can get to Dundee, MI and can swing the 1,199 bucks...  it looks like a great rifle to me!

I bought a really decent 1896 Krag carbine at the Cabela's in Hoffman estates for around $700 which was quite a bargain. I also bought a real nice Colt 1894 all original US marked pistol for less than 300 in Wheeling and it retained about 85% original blue. I agree, depending on the store,  employee knowledge ranges from excellent to why aren't they working in the shoe department and as such, prices seem to be all over the board as a result, some real sleeper deals but most of the time, way over priced considering condition.  Either way, if I am going by their store, I always stop if I have time.

Me too.  I love just walking around window shopping!  I've been stocking up on reloading supplies lately.  I've got around 200 rounds of 30-40 brass and almost 200 rounds of 30-06 brass to load.  I'm also going to start loading 45 ACP and 38 special.  I always stop in the rifle section to look, and I'm always on the hunt for a Krag or Trapdoor!