Nickel plated carbine - what do I have?

[guncrank]

New here. First post after welcome
I bought this nickel plated carbine from the Harold's casino auction a few decades ago late in the last century. It was when I was first buying trapdoors, didn't know much(may still not) and bought it on a whim . It came with a few advertiser items and I have no recollection of what I paid for it but I think not much. It arrived and I checked the bore and did not go much farther. It is one of the worst bores I had and have ever seen. Cleaned it a little and put some museum wax on it and put it away in a safe. I never cataloged it or gave it much thought. Going thru the safe I got it out a while ago.
So here is what it is. All nickel plated including the rear sight, band and butt plate. Nickel flaking off in numerous places. All the screws appear to be niter blue except the hammer screw. The stock has been sanded and the cartouche is a swp but date not readable. Last number could be a 9. Has the P fairly visible. I believe the stock was finished with shellac giving it the orange color. It appears to be all 79-80 correct with lipped hammer, 2nd form sight screwed on and correct butt plate. The serial number is, I think, but a little hard to read due to plating and condition - 341832. Index mark on barrel to receiver lines up. No other markings or stamps. Is it a military parade gun and if so who would have made it? Or just some gunsmiths idea of cool.
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opps - tried to turn pics but something went wrong

[Dick Hosmer]

In my opinion, it COULD have been either of your last two guesses - and definitely NOT original issue. What to do? Not sure. It MIGHT be more "valuable" as a "Harold's Club gun", seen by thousands and thousands of people before the much lamented breakup, or, you could probably have it stripped and still be ahead because it was not expensive. Your call.

[kj47]

I would clean up the bore up the best you can and shoot it. Might suprise you.

[70ish]

For what it's worth, I will agree with Dick's thought about "probably" being able to it. I would strongly disagree with stripping it (which is possible, but with a big caveat). I seem to recall a discussion about stripping parade rifles on the Krag Forum. The subject came up on a couple of occasions, but both, that I recall, ended up with a similar thought. Apparently, and I was a history major not a science guy, there is an underlying danger with chemistry of both the plating and the stripping processes. There are several chemicals with chemical names that are involved and also a discussion of the molecular level which, of course, left me far behind. But the point made was that these processes and chemicals and temperatures can affect the hardness of steel with the ultimate result that it will leave the metal unsafe to shoot.

The end result would be a carbine that MIGHT look better, but hide the weakness that has been created. The end result could be that you probably won't shoot it, but the next owner might if your heirs didn't know or understand the history. Thus, I think Dick's comment was best. It might have more value as "from the Harold's Club collection" than as a mid condition piece that has been refinished.

[guncrank]

Yes, I plan to keep it as a Harold's gun. It has a Harold's brass tag and number on the trigger bow. It is a interesting looking piece. I have other carbines that shoot fine so this will be a wall hanger. I was hoping someone knew of the history of parade or drill guns from that time period. I searched the internet quite a bit but found nothing.

[Dick Hosmer]

In all honesty I never looked specifically, but I've never run across anything on "parade guns" either. Only owned one, a rifle in the 70,000 range, MANY years ago, which I didn't keep very long because I really didn't like it. Have seen more plated Krags than anything else. Don't like them either as I'm sort of an "as issued" (configuration first, condition second) guy with a very low tolerance for such modifications. It'll make a great wall hanger for you, having the tag and all.