New guy here. Not really new, I have been kicked around for quite a while. I joined a couple of years ago and have been lurking since. I have two sporterized Krags, a rifle and a carbine and thoroughly enjoy shooting cast in them.

In addition to older firearms, I have an assortment of older reloading manuals. Many mention the potential failure of the Krag bolt lug and recommend inspection before shooting. My question is how to go about this. Is a simple visual, perhaps with magnification sufficient, or should the bolt be magnafluxed or some other means be used?

Hi.  Welcome to the forum.

As far as I know, cracks are usually evident with the named eye.  Back when the problem arose as a result of the Army trying a different hotter round in 1898, there was no magnaflux inspection.  The cracks were discovered visually.  As long as you stick to established pressures and stay away from max loads, you should never have a problem.  If you're concerned however, have your bolts checked by a competent gunsmith... one who KNOWS about Krags!  How about sharing some pictures of your Krags?

Thanks for that information. That was my suspicion, but the confirmation is appreciated. I am a fairly competent mechanic/gunsmith as long as I know what I am looking for.

With the current problems with photo sharing, I am not set up for photos at this time. The carbine was a rather derelict sporter conversion with a semi-inletted repro carbine stock that someone had started to install. I managed to undo most of the damage and finish the job in sporter form, less the handguard with a  Lyman peep sight. The rifle has a Fajen stock and side mounted scope.

I don't have one... but I know someone else has a picture of a cracked bolt lug, and it's fairly obvious.  Chuck, do you have the picture?

Sounds like you have a couple of decent sporters.  I'm betting that the semi-inletted repro is a Boyd's.  They are fairly notorious for being nightmare project stocks that require a ton of work to fit and finish!

Here's some interesting reading regarding the strength of a Krag action.  This test was performed many years ago, but speaks to the safety of the Krag design.  This is, however, in NO WAY stating that one should throw caution to the wind and purposely load Krags beyond max!!!

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Well, that was ill,,,,,,,, :-X. Another one lost.

Sadly, Michael Petrov passed away in 2014.  But he did a plethora of research on several different arms, including the Krag. 

There is so much written about US Krags only having only having one locking lug and inspecting the locking lug it would make us all paranoid.
My cat is awful jumpy because when he is outside, he has to avoid coyotes, coons, rattlesnakes, bigger house cats, bobcats and mountain lions. Being paranoid helps him survive, not necessary when shooting a Krag when using reasonable loads.
If Michel P had not done that research we would all be flinching wondering if the next time we pulled the trigger this old weak Krag is going to blow up in our face. And I am pretty sure Michael did not use an pristine original Krag.

I remember seeing that thread by Michael now. I seem to recall he did something similar for the low numbered Springfield too.

I doubt my stock was a Boyd's as those I have seen are usually of better quality. This one looked like the duplicator incorporated an axe and a Dremel grinder somehow. FWIW, I still have the upper handguard if anyone is interested in it for shipping charges, they are welcome to it. It is just the wood, no clips or rivets.

The Krag bolt really has three lugs, the front lug and two safety lugs, provided by the  'guide-rib' and the bolt handle root.

The case rim seals gases from a case split or separation from getting back into the action.

Butlers Rangers, I agree that it has 2 very strong safety lugs, but you would never know it when you read any description of Krags in reloading manuals. Every one I have read seemed to imply you needed to worry because of the single lug.
On my sporter the forward lug is worn and set back enough from many rounds being fired that it actually bears on both the forward lug and the guide rib. I can not prove it but I have a feeling this has happened on a fairly large percentage of the US Krags out there.
So if your locking lug has no visible crack, your headspace is with in reasonable limits do not worry, be happy.

Just a reminder it has been discussed on this forum that some reloading manuals have had loads that are unreasonably heavy. A new shooter of Krags has to be aware of what safe loads are and avoid the bad recommendations.

All the more reason to shoot cast at moderate velocity.  The shooter likes it, the rifle likes it,,,,,,,,

A lot of 'Sportered' Krags had their front Bolt Lug lapped so that the Guide Rib would make contact with the receiver. This was done in the belief it made the action stronger. In some cases it introduced excessive Head-Space.

This is likely corrected by neck-sizing only.

If in doubt, and its of no collector value, and you want to feel comfortable shooting it just use an old tire, tie it to it and a string to the trigger.

I have not seen a Krag Bolt, (personally), that had an obviously 'cracked' Lug.

I recall seeing a picture, on the internet, of a lug with a crack, visible at the rear base of the Lug, where it meets the bolt-body. (I do not have a copy of this picture).

I have seen at least one bolt that had a 'seam line' on the bolt-body. It ran on a 'curve', from the lower-rear corner of the bolt-lug past the bolt's ejector groove to the 'Bolt-Face Flange'. The Bolt belonged to a friend and he wisely replaced it, before shooting his Krag. We could see and feel this Line with a fingernail, but, we could not visually tell if it was the 'surface skin' hiding an underlying fracture or simply a surface irregularity left during manufacture (unlikely - IMHO).

Attached is a picture of a 'fractured' Krag bolt that recently sold in a batch of parts on ebay. (I was unsuccessful in my bid to get it).

The picture may be indicative of one way a Krag Bolt-Lug might fracture. (I imagine the broken or 'sheared' bolt section remained in the action until the bolt was opened. I would believe there had to be and indication the Lug was failing, before this complete separation). 

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I would have liked to seen that one with a magnifier. The shear line goes through the area the case hardening would not reach. The areas near the surface do not seem as fine grained as I would expect, most of the sheared surface seems coarse which to me means not so hard. First guess is a serious overload is the cause.
if I attached the photo correctly it is a tractor axle, you can see the fine grain near the surface, I do not know if the axle was case hardened or selectively hardened, but the relative hardness is indicated by the grain size.

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Looked at Butlers rangers photo again and I think I see fine grain at the "corner" at 3 o-clock and a thin line on the bolt face and maybe a little thicker along the edge from 5 to 6 o-clock. If this I am really seeing that then the original heat treating is not suspect. Really hard to tell with the photo quality.
If there was old bore solvent, grease and oil on a portion of the fractured surface you could think that it let go gradually over the years. Makes me want to think it went all at once due to an over load.
Was there also a photo of the guide rib?

The rusted/discolored area in BR's photo indicates to me that the bolt lug had been cracked almost through for a long time. It was only held together by the shiny triangular section at 3 o-clock and possibly a couple of other smaller areas that also do not show the rust.

I saw the red also but thought the bolt may have been lying around for years since it came out of a "junk" box. If it was from an outside part that was exposed to the elements rust would be a real indicator. On a gun not sure. Stored in a box at the back of a bench after it broke, the softer areas further away from the lubricant will rust first. A lot of questions would need to be answered first and better photos would be needed to say what happened.
I was asked for an opinion on that tractor axle, the machine had 60 hours on it, but not being there when it broke left enough questions as to whether it should have been a warranty issue. If the operator side stepped the clutch when the engine was wide open would be one thing or did it break while pulling a steady load? The machine was stuck up to the axle in wet sand. The owner was not the one operating the tractor so no one questioned really knew what happened. All I could go by was the appearance of the grain structure of the steel, it looked right.
For all the comments about Krags in the reloading books there are very few cracked bolts to be seen.

I downloaded this picture from GunBroker a while back (forgot I had it).  I don't know who took the picture and can't remember who posted it... but it does illustrate an example of a cracked Krag bolt!

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psteinmayer wrote on Dec 22^nd, 2017 at 12:47pm:

I downloaded this picture from GunBroker a while back (forgot I had it).  I don't know who took the picture and can't remember who posted it... but it does illustrate an example of a cracked Krag bolt!

Not many examples out there, it looks like the one on top has a crack through the bright spot from the flash/light. Not bad considering almost 500,000 made, a century plus of use, and with many still being used on a regular basis. Not too many other products have been in continuous use for a century with as few failures.

Just read this thread, I just happen to have a bolt with a visible crack.  A gunsmith friend gave me a cut down rifle. Upon inspection of the bolt this is what I found. You can not really feel the crack but it is obvious the bolt is cracked under visual inspection.

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5 X magnified

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'Zgun' - Thanks for the pictures. I think you and your gunsmith friend are correct.

IMHO - First evidence of a developing crack is probably subtle, below the surface 'skin', and easily missed or assumed to be 'galling' or a finish blemish.

I agree Chuck. I have another Krag bolt with a similar crack that came from a DCM Krag that my grandfather purchased in 1928. (for $8.50) The family never shot anything but factory ammo so I know it did not crack from them shooting hot hand loads.  I have the paperwork of the ship date on the replacement bolt that was purchased somewhere, think it was 1968.  I would hazard a guess that maybe that one shot some amount of the hot stuff that was issued to increase the velocity and was stressed enough that it eventually cracked after 60 years.

I found the packaging from the box for the replacement bolt my Grandfather purchased.

$12.20 COD.  :)

Flaig's is a well know  gun shop/supplier from the 50's and 60's.

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Shipment Label

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I've read in more than one discussion in the past that someone thought some Krag bolts were over hardened, they were the ones that cracked.  Others stretched over many firings, without cracking, until they bore on the guide rib also.  And then there's the ones that were lapped.  A Lt Col friend of mine tried that, lapped the lug until the guide rib touched on a new bolt body, then discovered he had excess headspace due to his work.  Interesting to note, his lapping did not take any of the locking recess metal from the receiver, another new bolt body headspaced properly.  Sometimes, a cracked, stretched or highly stressed area will show as rubbing on the bolt body. Thanks for bringing up Flaig's, I need my memory jogged from time about where a curly maple Krag blank I have came from.  Always forget the name of the company!  The inletting on the blank is short enough, it could be used for the US or Norwegian models.