Hi all, finally found a good condition Krag for my collection. These are beautiful rifles and super pleased with this one. Un-messed with, has the sling and a bayonet. From the serial number it seems to have been produced in December of 1898 (which stinks because I just paid an FFL transfer fee to pick it up because the seller only knew/saw the 1899 cartouche date, lol). Anyway, I think it's a Type 1 sling according to Joe Poyer's "The American Krag Rifle and Carbine" book.

What's most interesting to me are the unit marks on both the butt and possibly on the brass sling claw. MNG - Minnesota Natl Guard? Mass? Mongolia?  ;D 46 could be a rack number, but the E? And G 33 on the brass sling claw could be G company? Not sure what the number could be. If it's a rack number though than that would make the sling not original to the rifle if the rack number is also on the butt. Anyone have any ideas?

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I really like your M.NG reminds me of FANG friendly air national guard ... Very nice collector rifle good job ....

JeremyK - Welcome to the KCA Forum.

You have a nice U.S. model 1898 Krag rifle with interesting markings. IMHO - It is unlikely the sling and the rifle have always gone together.

There are lots of "M" States:

Maine, Mass., Maryland, Michigan U.P., Michigan L.P., Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, and Manitoba.

Take you pick for State/National Guard. They all likely had a "4th" Regiment.

In the early 1900's, State of Michigan forces went from Remington-Lee to U.S. Krag-Jorgensen. Units changed from "Michigan State Troops" to "Michigan National Guard". 

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Congratulations! Nice specimen. While I heartily disagree with the STUPID law where certain IDENTICAL arms (Krags being but one) are either benign sculptures in walnut and steel, or fire-breathing instruments of mass destruction, depending on the whim of a number, you did NOT get "cheated" since your rifle IS over the 152670 cutoff used by the BATF. Hope that eases your pain a little.

butlersrangers wrote on May 6^th, 2018 at 5:56pm:

In the early 1900's, State of Michigan forces went from Remington-Lee to U.S. Krag-Jorgensen. Units changed from "Michigan State Troops" to "Michigan National Guard".

Thanks for that info...I love researching this stuff. So taking a leap that the MNG could then be Michigan Natl Guard, I found a source saying "The [Michigan] regiments organized in the spring of 1898 were designated the 31st, 32nd, 33rd, and 34th Michigan Volunteer Infantry." That would then match the 33 on the sling. "The 33rd and 34th Regiments left Island Lake in May 1898 for Falls Church, Va., and shortly embarked from Tampa, Fla. for Cuba on the transports "Paris" and "Harvard." The regiments were assigned to General Duffield's brigade, a part of General Shafter's army which fought and defeated the Spaniards at Santiago."

A leap, but an interesting one.  :) Also interesting because I live a couple of miles away from Falls Church at the moment.

The Michigan State Troops that went to the Cuba campaign, (33rd & 34th Mich. Vol. Regiments), were issued .45 cal. 'trapdoor' Springfield rifles at Southern Training Camps and took them to war.

Michigan troops that stayed in U.S. or went to Puerto Rico & Cuba, later, were eventually issued Krags.

All U.S. owned arms were turned in, when troops were shipped home to Michigan.

The Michigan regimental numbers changed from 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 to 31, 32, 33, 34 and 35, while in "U.S. Volunteer" service.

The State of Michigan, not content with delays in receiving modern arms, purchased model 1899 Remington-Lee rifles in .30-40 caliber and special web gear with pockets for a couple of spare magazines. I believe these were in use from 1899 to about 1903.

Around 1903, Michigan "Militia" (MST or National Guard) appear to start having Krag-Jorgensen rifles in their photographs.

Your Krag or sling could have been with the Michigan 'N.G.', after approx. 1903, but, there are probably other possibilities, too.

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Hi everyone,

This is my first time on the site. A few weeks ago I picked up a model 1898 that bubba never got to. All original as far as I can tell, but it is missing the stacking and forward band swivles.  My question is, how tight should the bolt be when locked into the receiver. When in batterie, there is a little wiggle in the bolt. Is that normal or does it mean it is not safe to shoot?

"IMAC" - Welcome to the KCA Forum and congratulations on your 'new' Krag. A lot of us enjoy pictures .... hint ... hint! Your missing swivels can be got from vendors in KCA Classifieds.

It is normal for a U.S. Krag bolt to have a bit of back & forth movement, when there is no cartridge in the chamber and the striker-mechanism is 'un-cocked'.

This is not noticeable, when there is a cartridge in the chamber and the striker is cocked.

IMHO - A good indication of U.S. bolt fit is to put the 'bare' bolt (with striker mechanism removed) in the receiver. Then check for a gap between the rear of the rib on the bolt and the receiver wall.

On U.S. Krags there was an intended gap (usually .002 to .004 inches in my experience).

If the rib makes contact, the forward locking lug may be worn or been lapped and 'head-space' might be excessive. (In my opinion, too much has been made about head-space in rifles with rimmed cartridges, like the .30-40).

Note - Norwegian and Danish Krags were fitted at the arsenal so that the rib on the bolt makes contact with the receiver. There was a time when civilian U.S. Krag owners lapped their bolts to achieve contact. This was believed to make the action 'stronger', but, probably just created more 'brass stretch'.

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Thanks for the info, How do i post pictures on here? every time it try, it says message to large or simply error.

You need some photo editing software to size them down.  I usually use paint, and size by pixels with the largest dimension less than 750.  I should say I learned to do it, I have some big pics on here!

Interesting.  The pics showed up good for me.

Kerz: IMAC joined this thread late. He has not posted any pictures.

hey everyone, sorry for not getting back, finals week was horrible. Now that my post buying excitement has worn off, i realize i have no idea how to care for this rifle.  any advice on cleaning and maintaining the wood and metal?

also here are some pics of my rifle, finally figured out how to change the size. its hard to see, right below the trigger guard there is a "X" stamped. is that normal for krags, also what does the 21 mean near the inspectors stamp on the side? the serial number is in the 140,000's.

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