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This old Krag Rifle is new to me (Read 20852 times)

boomer KCA Official Member Offline Krag Enthusiast! Posts: 73 Location: PA Joined: Jun 18^th, 2018 Gender:	Re: This old Krag Rifle is new to me Reply #15 - Sep 27^th, 2018 at 2:17am	Print Post
	Knute1 wrote on Sep 26^th, 2018 at 11:59pm: I've looked myself and really haven't come up with one I'd recommend. I guess sometimes I only think I know what I'm talking about. If I come across something I'll let you know, unless somebody else comes up with it first. Thanks for checking - I thought I might have missed it. I've gotten great tips from this and other forums for handling specific problems, but have never seen anything (like a book) that has all the great info consolidated.


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Local Boy KCA Forum Member KCA Official Member Offline Krag Enthusiast! Posts: 462 Location: Mat-Su Valley, Alaska Joined: Sep 24^th, 2015 Gender:	Re: This old Krag Rifle is new to me Reply #16 - Sep 27^th, 2018 at 7:53am	Print Post
	Google the internet and you can find books about refinishing firearms, Yada yada... My recommendation would be, if you already haven't done so, is to do a KCA topic search concerning refinishing, staining, rifle care, etc. IMHO: I would... 1. Disassemble as far down as you feel comfortable. 2. Separate the metal from wood - separating the metal from the wood is a fairly simple task. Just remember to remove the rear sight and slide the hand guard toward the front of the barrel to prevent the hand guard from cracking by trying to pop it off. 2a. On second thought, maybe you might want to treat the hand guard before removing. If the hand guard wood is super dry, than, it might be more prone to cracking due to the attached hand guard clips. You can place a quarter in the larger metal hand guard clip and a nickel in the smaller one to help alleviate the tension that the clips place on the wood after removing. 3. Clean the wood - I use denatured alcohol and a rag or very lightly use #0000 steel wool. 4. As recommended earlier, I would treat the wood with raw linseed oil or boiled linseed oil (BLO). Raw linseed takes longer to dry than boiled. Just follow the manufactures instructions. I've also used a 50/50 BLO and turpentine mixture with good results. It seems to soak into the wood and dry faster. 5. Clean any rusty metal parts by gently rubbing the part with #0000 steel wool and gun oil. 6. After the wood drys and the metal cleaned I would use a firearm wax product like Renaissance Wax/Polish on both the wood and metal. 7. For leather I would recommend Pecard Antique Leather Dressing. Great stuff that is easily absorbed by the leather with hardly, if any, change in the leather's color Reassemble your Model 1892 and enjoy!!! *p.s. Or to keep things simple... you could just use the wax and leather dressing and call it good!*


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Whig KCA Official Member Offline Krag Enthusiast! Posts: 1324 Location: Balt MD Joined: Sep 24^th, 2016 Gender:	Re: This old Krag Rifle is new to me Reply #17 - Sep 27^th, 2018 at 12:09pm	Print Post
	A few observations in examining your nice original Krag shows the flat muzzle seen on the original 1894 rifles as well as the nice checkered cocking piece on the rear of the bolt. The flat metal butt plate was talked about also. The cleaning rod (ramrod) looks like it has some aging patina to it so it may be original to this rifle also. Many of these are reproductions. The rear sight is an 1896 rifle sight but, if you want, many original 1894 sights are available on places like ebay for a reasonable price. It is relatively easy to disassemble a Krag if you have any mechanical abilities. Just go slow and use sharp edged screw drivers that fit fully in the slot and turn carefully. It is a used rifle with lots of honest wear but take care and don't mess it up more. Nice honest wear shows years of use which adds to the personality of these treasures. Light cleaning as discussed is fine but avoid heavy abrasives and the typical habits of refinishers because that quickly devalues a great collectible. It would be nice to examine and report back to us as to the condition of the bore. It probably has some pitting but hopefully will show some rifling. Don't worry about the bore too much because these are so rare that one in any reasonable condition is great. You probably don't want to risk firing it. Get another later Krag to shoot and enjoy on the range. I wouldn't dare risk shooting my 1894. Some of the older bolts have almost invisible cracks in the rear of the bolt that can worsen with even lightly loaded ammo. Low risk but why take the chance? I would also get one of the references mentioned on this sight and look up each small detail about this rifle and take notes. Almost every part has its own history about development and change as the Krag evolved. If you take off the side plated below the left side of the receiver, look to see if it has a serial number. The early ones were serialized on the inside. Good luck and keep us in the loop!


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boomer KCA Official Member Offline Krag Enthusiast! Posts: 73 Location: PA Joined: Jun 18^th, 2018 Gender:	Re: This old Krag Rifle is new to me Reply #18 - Sep 27^th, 2018 at 1:04pm	Print Post
	Quick update, starting with my thanks to everybody that has provided input so far. As noted in my initial post, everything about this rifle is extremely dry -the stock is by far the driest stock I've ever come across. The wood is fairly clean. Also, there isn't any dark discoloration around the action that you see on heavily used guns. Based on the faintness of the cartouche and inspection marks, I suspect somebody sanded and refinished the stock in the distant past and it's pretty much sat since then. I haven't seen any signs of 'dirt' in the stock - just age/oxidation, so at this point my plans are to 'revitalize' it, but not clean it. I started applying raw linseed oil to the wood yesterday morning and have had to reapply several times. The butt area is still pulling it in, but most of the rest has slowed down drinking it up. Once the wood is finished drinking oil, I'll begin separating the wood from the metal. In answer to a question from Whig - the bore looks good with strong rifling. There is a lot of 'dirt' in it (I hope that's what I'm seeing) so I won't know about pitting until I clean it. I'll be looking for help in identifying whether the cleaning rod is original or a repop. You may also have noted it's missing the stacking swivel. I know those are also readily available, but the early ones are slightly different and may be more difficult to find.


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98src KCA Forum Member Offline Krag Enthusiast! Posts: 160 Location: sevierville,tn Joined: Jul 3^rd, 2010 Gender:	Re: This old Krag Rifle is new to me Reply #19 - Sep 27^th, 2018 at 1:28pm	Print Post
	I have a very similar M92. I don't think your fine rifle needs "restoration". All it requires is removal of any rust by scraping with a flattened brass cartridge case and applying a good gun oil afterwards. The stock and hand guard needs a good lemon oil furniture polish applied vigorously with a soft cloth to remove accumulated dirt /grime. These procedures will not change the original condition. If you start adding finish to the wood, you have changed it.


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boomer KCA Official Member Offline Krag Enthusiast! Posts: 73 Location: PA Joined: Jun 18^th, 2018 Gender:	Re: This old Krag Rifle is new to me Reply #20 - Sep 27^th, 2018 at 1:59pm	Print Post
	98src wrote on Sep 27^th, 2018 at 1:28pm: I have a very similar M92. I don't think your fine rifle needs "restoration". All it requires is removal of any rust by scraping with a flattened brass cartridge case and applying a good gun oil afterwards. The stock and hand guard needs a good lemon oil furniture polish applied vigorously with a soft cloth to remove accumulated dirt /grime. These procedures will not change the original condition. If you start adding finish to the wood, you have changed it. Restoration means different things to different people. To me, restoration is not the same thing as 'refinishing'. If done properly refinishing can be part of a restoration, done improperly it can make a decent restoration impossible. As far as cleaning rust, I've been using 'Frontier Big 45' for years, and am a big fan. It does a great job of removing rust (and other 'hard to remove grime' from metal) and have never had it affect any metal finish. If the wood of needs cleaning, I first see if I can get the dirt off with elbow grease and the oil I plan on using on the wood. You might be surprised how good oil (animal or vegetable based) is at lifting dirt. If that doesn't do a sufficient job, I use dilute Murphy's Oil Soap to clean it. Then the oil goes on. The oil I use on the stock is what was used (to the best of my knowledge) when the firearm was originally made - in this case raw linseed oil.
	« Last Edit: Sep 27^th, 2018 at 4:42pm by boomer »

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Local Boy KCA Forum Member KCA Official Member Offline Krag Enthusiast! Posts: 462 Location: Mat-Su Valley, Alaska Joined: Sep 24^th, 2015 Gender:	Re: This old Krag Rifle is new to me Reply #21 - Sep 27^th, 2018 at 3:58pm	Print Post
	Boomer, Thanks for the education and tip about Frontier Big 45. Most of the Krags I end up with are of the "Rusty POS" variety. I agree, refinish, restore, refurbish, etc means different things to different people. Just "Do no harm to the Krag" is what some members would say. Good job!!!


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boomer KCA Official Member Offline Krag Enthusiast! Posts: 73 Location: PA Joined: Jun 18^th, 2018 Gender:	Re: This old Krag Rifle is new to me Reply #22 - Sep 27^th, 2018 at 6:43pm	Print Post
	Watching the last of the oil dry on the stock is right up there with watching paint dry.... so, I thought I post some pictures of the bolt assembly. When I got the rifle, the action was very hard to operate. The problem turned out to be quite a bit of dried and very 'hard' oil/grease. It seemed like a good place to start on the disassembly and cleanup. Some of you referenced the book by Brophy. Maybe I should have gotten that one, but instead I have Poyer's book on Krags. The parts of this 'bolt' appear to match up with what he calls Type 1, Type 1A or 1B. These appear to fall in the expected category based on serial #. The only item he didn't have a photo or drawing of is the Type 1 Striker which he describes as having a squarish point. Some day when I have more energy, I'll pull the bolt out of my 98 sporter and compare strikers.


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boomer KCA Official Member Offline Krag Enthusiast! Posts: 73 Location: PA Joined: Jun 18^th, 2018 Gender:	Re: This old Krag Rifle is new to me Reply #23 - Sep 27^th, 2018 at 6:44pm	Print Post
	More photo's


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boomer KCA Official Member Offline Krag Enthusiast! Posts: 73 Location: PA Joined: Jun 18^th, 2018 Gender:	Re: This old Krag Rifle is new to me Reply #24 - Sep 28^th, 2018 at 2:37pm	Print Post
	This morning I finally separated the stock from the barrel/receiver. The interior wood on this stock is, by far, the cleanest I've ever owned on any military surplus rifle.


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boomer KCA Official Member Offline Krag Enthusiast! Posts: 73 Location: PA Joined: Jun 18^th, 2018 Gender:	Re: This old Krag Rifle is new to me Reply #25 - Sep 28^th, 2018 at 2:42pm	Print Post
	After removing a layer of dried oil from the cover plate, the rifle serial number was revealed on its back edge.


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boomer KCA Official Member Offline Krag Enthusiast! Posts: 73 Location: PA Joined: Jun 18^th, 2018 Gender:	Re: This old Krag Rifle is new to me Reply #26 - Sep 28^th, 2018 at 4:10pm	Print Post
	I finally got the 'gunk' cleaned out of the barrel. I couldn't get a good photo, but just on the edge of the ability of these old eyes, there appears to be some minor pitting. The rifling appears to be very strong throughout and has a pretty good muzzle reading.


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boomer KCA Official Member Offline Krag Enthusiast! Posts: 73 Location: PA Joined: Jun 18^th, 2018 Gender:	Re: This old Krag Rifle is new to me Reply #27 - Sep 28^th, 2018 at 6:51pm	Print Post
	Question - Are the mounting screws on this sight correct? The head of the screw at the rear of the sight sits flush with the sight. The head of the screw at the front sight sits proud of the sight base. You can see from the attached photos that in addition to being a longer screw (necessary) the head of the front screw is also 'taller/thicker'. Both screws engage the barrel by about the same amount. The front screw is either the wrong screw, or there is an interesting reason it is used.


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FredC KCA Official Member Offline Krag Enthusiast! Posts: 759 Location: Dewees, Texas Joined: May 31^st, 2013 Gender:	Re: This old Krag Rifle is new to me Reply #28 - Sep 28^th, 2018 at 9:00pm	Print Post
	I think the head of the front screw is a bearing surface that the sight pivots on for windage. I am fairly certain it is the same on my later Krag. Would have to go look at it to be 100%. Not sure if it is the same on all the iterations of Krag sights. If I am correct, the screw driver slot should be higher that the base so that a buggered slot does not affect the bearing surface.


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Parashooter KCA Forum Member Offline Kragmudgeon Posts: 514 Location: Connecticut Joined: Feb 4^th, 2010	Re: This old Krag Rifle is new to me Reply #29 - Sep 28^th, 2018 at 9:42pm	Print Post
	FredC wrote on Sep 28^th, 2018 at 9:00pm: I think the head of the front screw is a bearing surface that the sight pivots on for windage. What prompts you to believe that the 1896 sight is windage-adjustable?


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