Interesting to say the least.

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Interesting...

This is way beyond "Bubba".  It is an abomination!  The guy who did this to a perfectly good Krag should be summarily executed at sunup.

Whoever built this was not 'Bubba'.  I do not like the 'Look or Styling', but it was executed by someone with talent and ability.

As 'craigster' indicates, it was done long ago when it was innovative and as issued Krag rifles were considered no longer useful and cheap 'raw material'.

I'm with Craigster on this one, but then I often am.  A Krag is not terribly easy to shoot if you are left-handed & have a left master eye.  Bolt action rifles have been with us and used for hunting since the days of the "New Springfield", but factory-built bolt actions specifically intended for left hand users did not exist until relatively recently (1970s?).

Since the 20s, for a period of more than 50 years, there have been individuals and small firms who converted right-hand bolt actions to left hand use.  Of necessity, they were all somewhat unusual or gimmicky. And they were never cheap, the conversion costing as much or more than the basic rifle.

Krags were available from DCM for $7 plus S&H (or less) and could be found in the used gun racks of gunshops, sporting goods stores, gas stations & feed stores for $10 to $20. Putting things into perspective, gas was less than 10 cents a gallon and bread was less than 10 cents a loaf.  Ordinary wages were less than $1 per hour.

Krags made economical raw material for the left-hand conversion designer-mechanic. The grooved-sleeve pump action conversion concept showed up in one or more experimental military rifles during the 1915-1918 period, as an interim step in developing a self-loading military rifle.  If you look in Hatcher's Notebook or The Book of the Garand, you will see a photo or 2 of actions that operate much like this one.

My thoughts on this one are that the maker saw those 1917-era photos and built one just to see if he could do it.  The smooth operating Krag action would be far easier to work with than any Mauser or Springfield.  And the Krag design eliminated the need to make the sleeve work with a Mauser-type "load from the top" box magazine. 

The comb on the stock tells us the intended operator was right-handed and the sharp comb hints at it being a relatively recent design.