So, the Krag search has brought forth another treasure with lots of questions.

I bought this obvious cut down Krag rifle for the beautiful stock it is wearing. It appears to be a nice, complete M1898 carbine stock with the sling ring, early short carbine stock with the long nose as well as a clearly legible 1898 cartouche. I want to switch this onto one of my M1898 carbine receivers and have a correct early M1898 carbine.

This cut down has many interesting features that I discovered when I got it and started to examine it carefully. It has a replacement barrel without a proof mark and some light teeth marks from a vise. It seems to be installed properly otherwise. It is a 22 inch barrel with an added M1903 front sight.

There is no hand guard protecting the rear sight. The rear sight is incorrect in that it has an M1898 carbine base with an M1902 slide with a peep. The slide has the slightly uncommon feature of having the lines crossing the slide but not going through the numbers. Joe Farmer says this is a very late M1902 variation that is uncommon.

The serial number on this receiver is my highest number of 482709.

I noticed a star stamped into the rear of the bolt body. I have never seen this before. I know that some National Match rifles are stamped with a star to indicate NM accuracy for that rifle.

And, most interesting is the presence of an NRA stamping on the stock in front of the trigger guard and on the top of the butt plate.

I know that many people have discussed that DCM altered carbines provided to the NRA are only able to be verified if the original serial numbered receipt is available for provenance and proof.

What do you make of these features? I know anyone can stamp a rifle with anything they want but the NRA often did stamp some of their firearms in the past.

I'm stumped. Still a great stock but I'm not sure if I should change this from "as found" and mess up a neat treasure. I guess Bannerman could have done this.

Thanks for the help.

Your front-sight is not a 1903 Springfield sight. (Looks cheap commercial).

(FWIW - I also have a Krag bolt with the 'star' stamp, shown below).

You have a rare rear-sight base (1898 carbine). Your leaf (made for the early 1903 Springfield) is relatively common in the loose state.

I don't believe the 1898 base and 1903 leaf would have been put together by a U.S. Armory or Depot.

There is no Krag hand-guard that works with your stock and rear-sight combination.

If you have doubts and believe this to be a rare Krag, you might want to have a conversation with Joe Farmer.

But, I suspect, your Krag is a combination of parts put together by a surplus dealer, like Stokes Kirk and others.

Could your barrel be a re-used 1903 Springfield barrel? It appears smaller in diameter than the stock's barrel-channel.

Another possibility is that it is a Krag barrel that has been reduced in diameter. The diameter of the barrel appears greater in the area below the front-sight.

The N.R.A. stamps are interesting. (BTW - The NRA did not buy or sell Krags). The DCM civilian sales once required NRA membership.

It would be interesting to compare your N.R.A. stamps with those that appear on 1903 Springfield rifles (front tang of trigger-guard) that the DCM sold to NRA members in the pre-WW1 era. It appears your butt-plate has been stamped more than once.

The stamps appear on your stock and butt-plate and may not be related to the present barreled/action that resides in your stock.

'Whig' - I took the liberty of cropping and marking (with arrows) some of the anomalies I noticed on your Krag's photos: (evidence of reduced diameter barrel and faint letters from previous stamping).

I also attached a photo of the N.R.A. stamp found on some civilian owned pre-WW1 1903 Springfield rifles.

The breech end of your barrel and the quality of the extractor-cut might be the best clue that it started out as a Krag barrel.

Any thoughts on what the star marking on the bolt body means? I haven't seen it before and yours makes two of them.

Whig - Interesting pictures, you posted, showing the remains of barrel markings.

IMHO - Your barrel did not start out as a Krag barrel.

It likely was a 1903 Springfield, 1917 U.S. Rifle, or machine-gun barrel, that got turned-down, threaded, re-chambered, and 'slotted' for the Krag action.

The machine marks, from being 'turned down' on a lathe, are obvious.

I am sure the NRA stamp is bogus. Likely, the first attempt on the butt-plate looked so fake, that it was polished off and re-stamped.

FWIW - The DCM was established in 1903 and placed under the U.S. Army in 1916.
The N.R.A. stamp, found on some 1903 Springfield rifles, appears to date from March, 1915 to 1917, per author Bruce N. Canfield.

The Benicia DCM/NRA "carbines" appear to date from the 1925 to 1930 fiscal years. Mallory reported 11,245 rifles converted in the Benicia records he found.

I am unaware of any special markings placed on DCM sold rifles and carbines.

I suspect some enterprising individual (aka - FAKER) marked your "carbine", NRA, in an effort to pass it off as a (Benicia) DCM cut-down Krag.

BTW - Your rear-sight screws look good. Are the rear-sight holes the correct Krag thread?

Reviewing Brophy's "The Krag Rifle", it was his belief that the Benicia made "DCM Carbines" were only equipped with actual carbine stocks and 1901 sights.

He regretted the lack of any special marking on the DCM/NRA arms.

IIRC - I have read from some reliable source, (that I cannot find now), that Benicia ran out of carbine stocks and made use of shortened & 'plugged' rifle stocks.

It would be nice to see some documented "DCM/NRA carbines" to better illuminate this Krag Rifle niche.

Some additional thoughts:

In the pre-WW1 era, when the 1903 Springfield was the Service Arm and was also offered for sale to qualified citizens, it made sense to mark civilian owned 1903 rifles, (sold to an NRA member by the DCM).

This made it obvious a current Service Arm was rightfully in the possession of the public.

A gun seller, wanting to get more money for an unofficially altered Krag, might fool a buyer by stamping it "NRA" to pass off a 'Deer Hunter Special as something more collectible.

Another possibility is that a seller or owner just marked 'NRA' on a Krag to assure others it was not stolen government property.

With over 11,000 DCM/NRA carbines shipped from Benicia Arsenal, if the arms were marked, they would be relatively common to see.

Whig - I think you should use this interesting Krag as you see fit.