This story starts on a fall morning sometime in 1958 in the kitchen of a farm house a few miles Northwest of Fennelton, PA.

I was 8 years old & I can still picture that slim "sprorterized" 1898 Krag in my Dad's hands. It sported a whittled down GI stock that had a slender forend with a schnable shaped tip. The GI buttplate with the trap was still there. It was adorned with ivory colored plastic wedge shapes with squared off tips inlayed into the walnut stock that was nearly black from the build up of aged linseed oil. The barrel had been cut back to 22". It was a handsome rifle that I found to be nimble in the hands when I took up deer hunting in the same neck of the woods 9 years later.

My Dad had just bought the rifle from his best friend "Fat" Miller. He paid $12 for it, more than he made in an 8 hour day at the "Fertilizer Works" in Butler. That year he shot a buck with that rifle, the 1st time he even got a crack at a deer after many years of tramping the woods in his Woolrich jacket & pants.

In my late teens I decided to "refinish" the stock, sanding away the wood to eliminate the plastic inlays some of which had cracked, fallen out & gotten lost. I butchered it! The metal was no longer flush with the wood surface & I had sanded into one of the voids in the butt stock.

In 1998 I moved to my present location in Northern NY State, just 13 mile from the Canadian border. Last year my son wanted to hunt with Poppy's (my Dad) rifle so I cooked up a few 30/40 hand loads with 165 grain bullets & took the old warhorse to the range. Wow, the GI rear sight leaves a LOT to be desired. Especially for 60 + year old eyes. I could hold about 3" groups @ 100 yds, but flyers were common. Forget about trying to hit something in the woods in low light. My 24 year old son couldn't do much better.

I decided to get a Williams FP receiver sight installed by Dennis Olsen since I didnt want to risk breaking a tap off in the case hardened receiver. (to be continued)