Wolf,

Welcome to KCA!

You appear to have quite a beautiful Krag rifle. Your rifle, serial number 99403, was made in March 1898, near the end of the run for Model 1896 rifles. It is not listed in the Springfield Research Service records.

The stock with the really nice cartouche is marked 1897 which means that it certainly could be original to your rifle made in the next calendar year. Often, though, Krags were assembled with parts taken from different parts bins and were not always assembled in chronological order for the serial numbers. Parts for Krags were changed quite frequently based on available materials, cost considerations and strategic design considerations from testing and in-field use by soldiers.

Krags were also sent back to the armory to be fixed or updated with new parts as well as sometimes field repairs. After official use by the military, Krags were sold cheap and altered or repaired by gun smiths and basement Dremel queens (Bubba!).

Your Krag is outfitted with a Model 1896 rifle rear sight, which is appropriate for its Model number and date of manufacture. It carries an early Model 1892 bolt sleeve with the grasping grooves. This is not original to your rifle.

There may be other interesting details to your Krag if you can get some other pictures posted. It would be nice to see the entire bolt removed from the action since it is partly an older one. I like the M1892 bolts..

How is the bore? Are there any cleaning rods or oiler in the butt trap?

The metal and stock look really nice for a Model 1896 rifle. It does look to be in correct military configuration. Nice Krag overall!

Thanks for posting and welcome again! (I have posted two of your pictures below. Keep size small under about 700 kb. Click the attachments down arrow repeatedly to post up to 5 pictures per post.)

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