1902 Krag rifle

So I picked up a Krag on a trade, my first and only one. From researching, I believe it has a 1901 rifle sight. There is a lever on the front of the sight for wind age that is frozen in place. I soaked this sight in mineral spirit for a couple weeks but it didn?t free up. I don?t want to damage it. Should I leave well enough alone and shoot it as is or is there a way to free it up. Also, looks like to me that every sight takes a different set of screws. Anyone have some experience with these sights?

You could tap it gently with a hammer and a small block of wood. There should be nothing holding it except crud/rust/friction - nothing "mechanical" to break, but they DO get tight. Just for grins, what is the barrel length? 30" or 26"?

Apply Kroil to the stuck part. Give it time to work. Then ... if it is still tough to move, get a hammer and give it a tap. Sincerely. bruce.

It has a 30? barrel. It?s a 1902 rifle. Just an average service rifle but in fairly decent shape. Muzzles under two and the bore is clean. I used Kroil on it also and nothing moved. Guess I?ll need to persuade it somewhat. I did misplace the sight screws and thought I accidentally threw them away. Was a little panic stricken because the screws appear to be unique to the different sights and almost unattainable. Luckily I found them.

Figured it did, but had to ask, since there were 100 rifles made that year with the shorter barrel for trial. Glad you found the screws!

Interesting. Will keep that in mind when I?m hitting the gun shows!. A lot I don?t know about these rifles.

Since you have your model 1901 sight off of your rifle and soaking in kroil, it should be very easy to free the windage 'locking-lever'.

Simply hold the sight on a smooth hard surface on its Left-Side. Give a downward tap to the right-side of the lever with a small plastic mallet.

The lever loosens to the left and binds to the right.

Attachment 54081

Thanks for the tip! It loosened without much tapping at all. I was expecting something like serrations underneath, not realizing it was a tension lock.

S&S used to sell reasonably good Krag sight screw reproductions if you don?t find your screws. Grand Pa?s parts may still have some original screws.

Thanks. I see Grandpas has the long screw for the front of the 1901 sight. May order a spare. Thought I would try to pick up a spare firing pin but don?t find any available. Loaded up a few 170 grain round nose at about 2000 fps. Gonna be a great shooter.

EBay for small parts

Welcome to mondo de Krag! Yeah shoot that thing. They are quite accurate, beyond the abilities of most iron-sight shooters.

Good luck!

jn