I became very interested in bench rest shooting of cast bullets in the mid 60's.  I learned that the Lyman 311291 with 14 grains of 2400 could shoot very well in an 03 Springfield barrel with the badly pitted muzzle end cut off to 18" length.  I also learned that the firing pin blow would set back the 30-06 case shoulders leaving the spent primers sticking out.  The obvious solution for me was to use this barrel rechambered to 30-40 in a surplus Krag action in a Herter's mannlicher stock as shown in the attached photo.  The bolt head was originally soft until I had it quenched and tempered to 40-45 HRC and checked for cracks by Magnaglo.  I built a Krag single shot in .219 Zipper in the late 60's.  The original soft bolt head was hardened as noted previously.  This rifle has a full floating Douglas premium barrel.  The glass beaded reciever has an added sleeve at the front of the reciever as well as an additional bolt through the stock into this ring.  This rifle is capable of consistant under minute of angle accuracy using the Redfield 3200 12X scope.  This rifle is now mainly used with a 4X scope and cast bullets with 1.7 grains of Bullseye.
My latest Krag target rifle is capable of under minute of angle accuracy with the 311291 and 14 grains of 2400.  It has a fancy Herter's stock.

Ted

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I have to say, those are some nice looking rifles!  I can't remember which old tyme gunwriter said it, although I think it was Townsend Whelen (sp?), "only accurate rifle are interesting".  Making them pretty doesn't hurt any either.  As I live in old George Leonard Herter's Waseca, Minn. I still remember the trips to the store on weekends to look around.  The volume of gunstocks that they had on hand was amazing, and most of them were fancy figured pieces such as to make a presentation grade rifle.  The Mannlicher style stock really trips my trigger.

I am quite new to the krag and have acquired a 311299 bullet mould and I hope to cast a few this weekend, and will be using 2400 powder for my first try at reloading for my 1899.

I am curious about the soft bolt, is this a common occurance or is there a serial number range to watch out for or ?

The soft bolt condition may be very common.  I was a metallurgist before retiring.  In the late 60's I had access to a broken bolt as well as a blown receiver.  The bolt head was not haardened.  The receiver was very brittle, probably from "burnt steel" from over heating for forging as were some early 03's.  The bolts I purchased in the 60's were used for the .219 Zipper and later in the target rifle.  They had soft heads as did the used bolt in the Mannlicher before I had them hardened and tempered.

Ted