39024 Question for the Gods

[blackhawk2]

About all I know about krags is get the serial number and look for a hit in my SRS books....So I give a spot report...The good , it currently sits in a saddle ring 1898 carbine stock...Faint cartouche, with a big dent in it....Very faint Circle P.....Good size 1.5 by 1/4 sliver of wood missing aft of the bolt handle....Top handguard is a replacement, rear sight screws are modern replacement, appears to be a rifle rear sight.....Muzzle has the same profile of an 03...The front sight appears to be correct, but it is not the best of installs...The neat thing at the top butt screw has a id #.....K2
19..The production chart says it is a rifle....So the question is, could it be really a carbine???....It is at Cabela's....regards...alex

[m1903rifle]

What's the serial number range?

[blackhawk2]

39024.....

[Dick Hosmer]

Cabela's - strike one (they get the dregs).

If the number is 39024 it is a Model 1896 and would not fit into an 1898 stock. If the number is 39024X, it is way out of 1898 Carbine range. - strike two.

If the front sight is not perfectly done, it has met Bubba - strike three, yer out, at the old ball game!

[blackhawk2]

Hi Dick, the receiver is stamped 1896....It does have a saddle ring....The barrel band is the bottom one on page 55 in the Poyer book...regards....alex

[jon_norstog]

Blackhawk, if the barrel is good, it is worth at least $300. If the stock is really a '98 and the receiver is a '96, someone had to do some serious knife work to make it fit. Maybe thaT's how that piece of wood got knocked out. As a hunting rifle you would want to lose the saddle ring - it is noisy and interferes with the carry. It could be a decent shooter if the price is right.

Good luck!

jn

[5MadFarmers]

Cabela's - strike one (they get the dregs).

That does make me marginally curious on how you manage to hit each and every one of them with frequency. The on-line gun library doesn't count.

About all I know about krags is get the serial number and look for a hit in my SRS books

Strange thing that. Just this morning I saw what'd I'd consider to be a very interesting carbine. Very interesting indeed. In spite of having digitized the SRS entries for easy access I didn't even bother to look. Why not? I just don't consider it to be that significant. Different strokes I guess.

Cabela's and stores like that get guns. The good, the bad, and the ugly. What they do not get is strictly the dregs. They buy entire collections. We have a nice big one across from the grocery store now. Time well spent is time spent talking to the guys working the gun desk. Strange things can come of that.

When they get guns in, used, they have to take a good guess at what the gun is and what it's worth. I'd suspect some maybe contact guys at other stores and maybe some don't. The thing is they get guns of all kinds. Shotguns, hunting rifles, old military rifles, etc., Those that they consider interesting will end up in the gun library. Those will be viewable online. Those they don't consider that interesting end up out on the racks. Those aren't easily found online. That is where the deals will be found.

So you did that part right. Keep looking on the racks.

What that means is they had little idea of what they were looking at. Is Cabela's going to target "Krag experts?" Only if they want to lose their shirts. If I was hiring a guy for that job I'd ensure he was good with nice shotguns. The turn-over is a lot higher and they typically get good money. A good trade in nice shotguns will keep them afloat. Giving away shotguns and sitting on highly priced military guns isn't wise. The other area they need to focus on is handguns as they get tons of those.

So you did that part right. They're likely not to recognize the obscure well.

All of that said, the one thing you need to do is figure out how to take a quick photo with your cell phone. Then email it to yourself. Then use that to get opinions.

A photo paints a thousand words. You see, this morning I saw what I'd consider to be an interesting carbine. It was the picture you see. It just kind of called out to me. "I'm interesting don't you think?" Yes, I do. Indeed I do.

[Dick Hosmer]

Cabela's, like every other large national chain store varies as to the quality of its' merchandise and staff. My only experience has been with the Reno NV store, and it has been uniformly bad. Your point is well-taken as to browsing the racks - but - the price is the (often unrealistic) price, no matter how much of a POS the gun happens to be (and a lot of them at Reno were). Your mileage - in Wisconsin - may well vary.

[5MadFarmers]

Cabela's, like every other large national chain store varies as to the quality of its' merchandise and staff. My only experience has been with the Reno NV store, and it has been uniformly bad. Your point is well-taken as to browsing the racks - but - the price is the (often unrealistic) price, no matter how much of a POS the gun happens to be (and a lot of them at Reno were). Your mileage - in Wisconsin - may well vary.

Can't speak to Reno as I've never been there. There are three here that I have been in periodically. One is a very early store and not on the scale of the others. The other two are full size with the one here being pretty new. Last year maybe? They're fishing for Bass. Big Wallet Bass.

Gun which they find interesting comes in? Into the Library. Fishing for Big Wallet Bass. Put a price tag on it that is rather large. See if they get a bite. Likely don't mind hanging on to it and the price could possibly even reflect that. If it's not something they find interesting it'll go out on the racks for the Cheap Carp. Be a Carp. There are no deals in the pool where they fish for Bass.

When Ford introduced the new Shelby with that interesting V-8 each dealership received 1. They could get more depending on a formula but each could get 1. They promptly went into the showroom. MSRP was $57K off the top of my head. They put price stickers on them letting anyone interested know that $57K wasn't going to cut it. Premium of $10K was typical. Willing to pay $57K MSRP + $10K for our showroom car? Ok. The GT350R premium was stunning. "Double MSRP" kind of thing. Why put the $10K premium? It's a showroom car. Get people inside to gawk at it. If one of them had an extra $10K they wanted to part with they could take it. Exactly one year later you could get them for MSRP. In the case of one dealer in Missouri it was actually below MSRP. Why? "The new year model arrived." Guess what they did with those?

I know, I know, only an idiot would pay MSRP +10K. Except that's entirely incorrect. Defies logic. Go to the bank and ask for a loan for MSRP + $10K when they know full well that car will be sold at MSRP at the end of the year. You default and they get it back - and have to eat a serious loss? "No dice." Ergo those that paid that premium wrote a check. Idiots rarely have the ability to write checks for $70K. Every day lots and lots of people go to Starbucks. They pay over $1 for a cup of coffee. "If you made it at home it'd be about $.03." They don't sweat the $1. They are willing to part for it for the cup of coffee. Likewise those with wealth levels high enough decide to not sweat the $10K because they want that car. "Chump change." If you make 8 figures a year it'd be a rounding error.

Cabela's is working that I'd say. That library. Price it so you have something interesting to draw in the people. Like a showroom. At a Ford dealer everyone looked at the Shelby and maybe bought a regular Mustang. It did what it was supposed to do. Similarly at Cabelas the Library is entertainment. Willing to pay that premium? You can have the gun. What you're supposed to do is kick the tires and then buy something reasonable. On the lot, in the racks, same thing. There are deals in there if you know what you're after. In the Library? Only if somebody really mucked up.

I reviewed the guns in the rack in the store here not long ago. Just off the top of my head one gun was a good deal. I mention one strictly as an example. It was a deal as the gun was reasonably priced and it had a very nice M-1907 sling on it. The sling added value greatly. Made that gun quite the buy. Who would notice that sling? Not the person who priced it.

There are deals there. You just have to look often. That an know what you're looking for.

"Retail space costs money every day." Lights. Workers. Carpet cleaning. A store has X amount of space. If everything is sitting on the shelves forever the overhead costs are increased. Most really well run places track the amount of time shelves are full. The higher the turnover the lower the overhead. Walmart perfected it. Cabela's isn't stupid. Racks full of guns that never move do not make money. They do not pay the overhead. Keep those ones moving. So if the gun on the rack is higher than you'd like, make an offer. If they tell you to go pound sand go back monthly with the same offer. Be polite. You'll get it for that in the end.

[Dick Hosmer]

When they were starting in the antique gun business - maybe 10/12 years ago? - they did not do their due diligence, and bargains could be had even in the Library. News of this apparently filtered back to the bigwigs and they put a stop to it via the above noted car dealer M.O.

I'd browse the racks at Reno, except it is an ALL-day trip (not "across from the grocery store") to do so. Even though I really like driving my new Tucson, that's a bit much, for iffy results.