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Hello All-
I recently came into possession of an 1898 Springfield Krag rifle. I was wondering if y'all could help me out with regards to what I should do with the thing. First off, I'm sorry for the crappy pics, but I snapped them quickly.
Apparently, the previous owner chopped down the stock, and sanded the grooved handguard-areas down. He also completely removed the upper handguard. He did not cut down the barrel at all, and all the internals of the rifle appear to be in really good shape. The bore has some really strong rifling that extends to the muzzle, and I will know exactly what kind of condition it's in once I've had a chance to clean her up. I did a quick and dirty 'bullet test' on it by sticking a .308-cal bullet into the muzzle, and surprisingly the muzzle did not swallow up the bullet completely. There is a layer of light surface rust on the exterior metal, but I'm sure that will clean up pretty easily with some scrubbing. So I guess my questions are the following:
1) What is this rifle worth in this condition?
2) What the heck should I do with it? I'm inclined to keep it and shoot it, but I am thinking I should probably clean it up and have the headspace checked first.
3) If I wanted to restore it, where could I find a stock and handguard for it that won't cost me an arm and a leg?
Thanks for any info you guys can give me.
-Nic
I recently came into possession of an 1898 Springfield Krag rifle. I was wondering if y'all could help me out with regards to what I should do with the thing. First off, I'm sorry for the crappy pics, but I snapped them quickly.
Apparently, the previous owner chopped down the stock, and sanded the grooved handguard-areas down. He also completely removed the upper handguard. He did not cut down the barrel at all, and all the internals of the rifle appear to be in really good shape. The bore has some really strong rifling that extends to the muzzle, and I will know exactly what kind of condition it's in once I've had a chance to clean her up. I did a quick and dirty 'bullet test' on it by sticking a .308-cal bullet into the muzzle, and surprisingly the muzzle did not swallow up the bullet completely. There is a layer of light surface rust on the exterior metal, but I'm sure that will clean up pretty easily with some scrubbing. So I guess my questions are the following:
1) What is this rifle worth in this condition?
2) What the heck should I do with it? I'm inclined to keep it and shoot it, but I am thinking I should probably clean it up and have the headspace checked first.
3) If I wanted to restore it, where could I find a stock and handguard for it that won't cost me an arm and a leg?
Thanks for any info you guys can give me.
-Nic
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