Picked up a 1896 Krag saddle ring carbine at the Baltimore military show Saturday. Was built in ‘97. Looks good except for the lightly sanded stock and a rifle rear sight. That’s what made it affordable. But as I say, I’m a shooter /collector, not a museum. Sold my shaved Mk1 and some moulds there for 650.00 so I’ve only got about a thousand in it. The bore is dark but I see lands. I’ll clean it up later. A couple of chips, screws look great, stock is solid. Love the blue extractor, not as bright as my rifle but nice. Not bad for a 125 year old. Now I’ve got a complete set of Krags, a ‘96 rifle, this ‘96 src and a ‘99 school rifle. The show was pretty good, not as many vendors as past shows or as many attendees imo. Not as many modern military long guns either. A nice weekend as I stayed with good friends. Cost 114.00 in gas and about a 9 hour drive each way. Found a decent Winchester 1912 20 ga [made in 1914] in the Richmond cabelas on the way up but it looks like I will need to shorten my hulls a little to get them to safely fire and eject. Another project.
5-5 Update- I’ve finally gotten around to building some 193 and 220 gr loads after prepping 60 pcs of brass. Raised the rear sight and I’m ringing steel. I need to move a little bigger target into my 65 yard .22 berm area. Clipped 3 more coils off of the already trimmed spring. Why the po would cut on both ends I’ll never know. I want to ho over the stock lightly with some blo. Photos soon.