My Hermit's Pass Krag

[charlie cleveland]

would like to add one of them kraks to my collection but they are to high now i ve waited to late....do have a mauser 8 mm rifle like new still in military specks also have a sporterized jap rifle carbine in 6.5 jap but somebody chambered it to 257 roberts then i had it chambered to 25-06.... then a 1903 remington in 30-06...charlie

[Bill Murphy]

I have researched my 1903 Springfields and Colt pocket .32s, but never thought about researching my Krags. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Cold Spring]

Thanks everyone for your comments. I forgot to mention the barrel is trimmed to 24" and nicely crowned, front sight ramp is sweated on, Redfield type but unmarked. Front sight is a Marbles.

[edgarspencer]

Frank, Mine is also 24", and I keep reminding myself, I need a 30 caliber crowning tool. what crown there is on mine was file formed on the lathe.
I Like your stock a lot, and think it's perhaps the nicest conversion of an original stock. Checkering and color are great

[davidboyles]

Frank my first deer rifle was an 189? Argentine Mauser bought for me by my dad when I was 12. 7.65 Argentine and we bought at Woolworths in downtown Houston. the place had racks of military surplus rifles. I later got a dandy 6.5x55 SWedish Mauser Carbine probably $18 and those long nickel plated bullets. Springfields o3A3 ,British 303 Jungle carbines with flash hider, 1898 Mausers, M1 Carbines, Garands 30/06 you name it a kid could get lost. I sporterized the Argentne myself and shot a few deer with it til I got a Swede Carbine. Great memories. Thx for sharing

[Cold Spring]

David, just from your description I'd say your first rifle is in the second pic, lower rack, second from right = Argentine M1891 Mauser. I remember seeing cardboard barrels full of them, all excellent, while as a young pup with Mom and my grandmother while they shopped at a dry goods store in Scranton. Yep, those were the days …..

click twice to expand

[Bill Murphy]

I spent many hours in my youth at the Hunter's Lodge, later known as Ye Olde Hunter, then Potomac Arms. Several great guns in my collection came from that store on the Potomac River. Sadly, not too long ago, it disappeared. I remember massive field pieces displayed in the fenced parking lot with prices comparable to a new set of tires for your car.

[Bill Murphy]

Notice in the ad that The Hunter's Lodge admitted to being affiliated with Interarms. This connection seems to have been swept under the rug in later years, maybe because of some of the shady activities of the owner of Interarms. You could throw a rock from the Hunter's Lodge facility to the Interarms building. Again, in later years, the Interarms building was completely devoid of signage and the doors were locked.

[Researcher]

Frank's Ye Olde Hunter ads made me nostalgic. I opened Google Earth and found I don't see anything familiar along the Alexandria waterfront. The address of Potomac Arms was Zero Prince Street. I no longer own any of the guns I bought there. Best gun I ever saw there I put Kevin onto, and he wrote his article "Grandma's Gun" for The Double Gun Journal about it.

[Kevin McCormack]

Originally Posted by Dave Noreen

Frank's Ye Olde Hunter ads made me nostalgic. I opened Google Earth and found I don't see anything familiar along the Alexandria waterfront. The address of Potomac Arms was Zero Prince Street. I no longer own any of the guns I bought there. Best gun I ever saw there I put Kevin onto, and he wrote his article "Grandma's Gun" for The Double Gun Journal about it.

Yes, my eternal thanks to Dave for alerting me to "Grandma's 28", a Parker GH 28 gauge Damascus Steel jewel in completely original condition, purchased by a local Alexandria businessman from William Wagner's shop across the river in DC on Pennsylvania Ave. SE, a veritable Mesopotamia of Parker smallbores from the c. 1895 - 1915 era. Regular patrons included Gen. Billy Mitchell and Judge Louis Wright, both Parkerphiles in the little gauges. A very significant number of early Parker 28 bores can be traced directly to Wagner's shop.

It never ceases to amaze me the number of exotic and now-considered uber rare guns that came to within 25 miles of our nation's capitol; Henry Bartholomew's River Valley Farm on Broad Creek feeding the Potomac River became home to some of the finest A.H. Fox heavy waterfowl (and not a few bird) guns, handled by luminaries such as Nash Buckingham, 'Doc" Reuter, and Col. Jack Hession. Canvasback shooting within sight of the Washington Monument and Railbird hunting across the river in VA at Huntley Meadows - who could envision it today!?