I was reading an old 1958 issue of American Rifleman the other day and ran across a short discussion of some early National Match Springfield 1903 rifles and the "Star Gauge" process for marking barrels that were made to a higher quality standard for accuracy desired for NM barrels and matched receivers that were equally accurized for NM rifles. This was done prior to better ways of checking accuracy of barrels after around 1939.

The star gauge, as I have heard before for 1903 NM rifles, is marked at the 6 o'clock position at the end of the muzzle. These marked rifles are usually highly sought after by collectors although, as we know from Krag collecting, some have been faked.

But, the article also mentioned that you could send your 1903 OR KRAG rifle back to Springfield Armory to have it accurized with possibly a new barrel installed that would then be star gauged and marked as such.

Has anyone heard of this before or ever seen a starred muzzle on a Krag barrel? I think that would be a great find, if authentic, for a Krag collector. It would be nice to find one and see if it did shoot better than some of the ones we are enjoying on the range.

AFAIK - "Star" mark on 1903 barrels is more like an Asterisk.

I was under impression "star gauge" barrels were more a precision measuring & selection process, rather than, special finish procedures.

I am unaware of Krag 'star gauged' barrels.

BTW - In the early 1900's, there was the scandal of a U.S. Wimbledon Team winning with 'Winchester or Pope made' barrels on their Krags.

They were later disqualified, since it broke the rules of not being an issued arm. The trophy was returned and awarded to the 2nd place team.

It has been 40+ years since my discussion with my Dad, but I seem to remember mention of a star shaped gauge to measure the rifling ID. Rounded points to contact the rifling may have been involved, hence the shape? Gauging to confirm all measurements are in spec would not necessarily give you the most accurate barrel.

On the other hand selecting the straightest barrel in a batch and giving it special treatment might could give you something special as to accuracy.

On a recent thread Chuck found a bolt with a star on it, anyone else find a receiver with such a mark? With the mixing of parts on rebuilds if one rifle had all its parts marked with a star it would be very unlikely they stayed together.

FWIW - I do not believe the 'Star' mark on one of my model 1898 Krag bolts has anything to do with special selection or 'Star' gauging.

I think it is just one of the many goofy 'Inspection or Production hieroglyphics', we find on certain Krag components.

IMHO - Probably, buried deep in the bowels of Springfield Armory, are stacks & stacks of paper documents. The archives and documents are unorganized and not recently explored because of red-tape, lack of funding, and lack of interest.

There are probably bound pages, showing "The Marks of the Month" on U.S. Rifle components.
There, (at least at one time), had to be a key or guide-list to help decipher these marks and track the who, when, and why, indicated by these symbols.

(Hopefully, documents still exist and did not go to a Landfill, during a house-cleaning effort).   

I wonder if the star in the first picture is a faked one. The asterisk star above looks more realistic for what might have been stamped 100 years ago.

Quote from local boy "A statistical sampling was made service-rifle barrels during production runs to ensure that they did not exceed maximum and minimum standards."    Fore runner of today's statistical process control? If so one with a star gauge mark would be no better or worse than the ones that proceeded or followed.

  Quote "Beginning in 1921, barrels so gauged had a tiny eight pointed star stamped on the crown at the six o'clock position.  Additionally, beginning in 1921, all barrels for competition were star-gauged and so marked on the crown." The ones that had additional inspections for competition or sniper use should have been marked differently than the ones just star gauged to have any meaning as to absolute quality.

When you have a stabile process in making things you check only one in so many parts to assure part tolerance. Deming taking statistical process control to Japanese auto makers, was just helping them understand things that were done by Ford on his first assembly line and apparently pioneered by SA. US automakers forgot some of the early lessons and suffered for it trying to push production and not shutting lines down when problems arose.

If Local Boy's quotes are accurate, star gauging with indicators started in 1905 (whoops not 1921), before that they probably used "star" shaped hardened go and no/go plug gauges. Both style gauges would need to be twisted to follow the grooves.
Paying a big premium for a marked barrel seems a waste to me.