Someone has to be that guy

So being bored last night, I got around to installing a new magazine spring in my Benicia Arsenal rework 1898 Krag. Working on a 120+ year old gun is always a challenge but I got it apart, put the new spring in and managed to get it back together correctly in about an hour and without breaking anything, so I was pretty pleased with myself. The magazine hinge pin in particular is prone to breaking and those aren’t cheap or plentiful any more, probably because so many people break them.
But I reassembled it without a problem, giving it all a good cleaning and oiling while I was inside. Then I cycled some rounds through it for a function test and that smooth old Krag action ran them through perfectly. I loaded a couple more mags up and ran those through too. Did I mention how slick and smooth a properly-functioning Krag is?
I picked the loose rounds up off the floor and was just about to put the rifle away when a neighbor called from outside to ask me something. I went out to talk to him and as we talked, a gunshot went off just down the block. While this doesn’t happen as frequently as it used to, my response hasn’t changed. I ducked back inside And grabbed the Krag because it was right there. I scooped up a handful of .30-40 cartridges, moved back outside and took up a good position behind my car where I could see down the block. I opened the Krag magazine, dumped the shells in, closed the magazine and cycled the action, chambering a round. From where I was I could see two blocks down and a block to the left. My view of the street to the right is blocked by houses. Pretty sure whoever fired that was around the corner and not too far down but as long as they stayed there I was ok with that. My neighbors called the police and probably because they had nothing else to do, they were there in a few minutes. As is typical of NOPD, they didn’t look around to try to find the shooter (or victim), they just switched on all their lights to let everyone know that they were there and then they left. Hell, they didn’t even seem to see me standing in front of my house or the old Krag tucked discretely behind the gutter downspout. They soon left and I picked up the rifle and walked back inside. And then I thought about it. If someone with a gun had come running around the corner onto my street towards me, my house, my neighbors, etc. ... Hell I guess somebody has to have the honor of being the last person in history shot by a Krag.

Range time

Finally the range wasn't flooded so I got to try out the newish Remington Model 11. And for a 76-year old shotgun, it performed flawlessly. And it was busting ALL the clays until I started getting sloppy on the second box of shells and let a string of "Away" clays get by me. Just bad cheek weld and head position on my part from trying to rush the shots because they clays were going into a shaded spot and I couldn't follow them for more than a few seconds. But once I started focusing on those exclusively and slowing down, the gun did it's part and the clays all dies valiantly.

Then the cut-down Krag came out to play, fresh back from a visit to the CMP custom shot to have a new front sight base installed. It looked great but once there was a base and blade, it was obvious that the barrel wasn't timed all the way to center as it had a noticeable cant and it was hitting about 5" right at 25M. And that's 20" at 100M and exponentially worse farther out. Pity. because the groups were tight as hell. This rifle probably wasn't shot much after it was re-built and cut down so it's worth seeing if CMP can fix that too.

Also tested out an old Sears and Roebuck Ted Williams .30-30 lever gun that's been on my rack forever. I bought it a couple years ago because Sears and Ted Wiliams but never shot it. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it had a pretty good 100M zero already but it wasn't extracting well so I suspect it's overdue for a teardown and good cleaning.

Back in the day, baseball star and Marine Corps pilot Williams had a deal with Sears where his name only went on premium gear that he himself evaluated first. These rifles were made for Sears by Winchester and he gave them his personal ok before his name went on them. My only bitch with this one is that someone cut the stock for a rubber buttpad. Very nice job but I'm looking to restore it with an original butt one of these days when I find one.
I put 50 rounds of .45 on steel with my old 1911 next.

I haven't shot it in quite some time so this seemed like a good time to take it back out. I remember when I had the trigger down and had it reduced from 13lbs to 5lbs back in the 80's. I thought it was an awesome trigger then. It's horrible by today's standards and may need to be reworked again.

New (to me) gun!

Snapped up another 1898 Krag yesterday, but when I got it home, I realized that it didn't look like my other 1898 Krag--it's short.

I got it cheap because it was missing the front sight base, but I already located a replacement and the CMP custom shop can install it and fix the finish as best as possible.

But as I research Krags I'm kinda puzzled. What is this little guy, exactly? 24" barrel. Serial number dated to 1901. If it was cut down, work looks to be arsenal/factory job, not "bubba's basement". Didn't cost much so it'll likely stick around as a shooter if it's at all accurate. Any thoughts, bright folks?