I have two Krag's, a sporter (   (You need to Login ) which I shoot quite a bit, and an early 92 (   (You need to Login) which I've never shot.

I'd like your thoughts on shooting the '92, so here's what I can tell you.  As noted in the '92 thread, it's not all minty and shooting it shouldn't hurt any value by safely putting a couple of rounds through it.  The bore has considerable pitting, but does have strong rifling.  My foremost concern is the bolt.  As noted by Whig, the early bolts were susceptible to failure from cracks.  This raises the question, is it safe to use the bolt from the sporter in the '92 while shooting it?  I can chamber and extract brass that has been full sized using the bolt from either rifle.  I cannot close either bolt (without considerable pressure) on brass that has been fired (in the sporter) but not yet resized.  Is there more I need to check before the question can be answered?  Do I need to check with headspace gages?  Is there something else I need to check?

I suspect you have been unnecessarily cautioned about alleged fragility of 1892 bolts. There is likely no significant difference in materials or manufacture methods between the earliest and latest US Krag bolts. All can be damaged by excessive pressure and all are entirely adequate with normal-pressure ammunition.

My advice: examine your 1892's bolt carefully for cracks; if none are found, use it when firing your 1892 Krag; stop worrying about headspace because it's not a common problem with US Krags.

You took the words right out of my mouth Para!  Too much emphasis is placed on headspace in Krags.  It's much more of an issue in a round where the headspace is on the shoulder... Krags seal on the rim!

Anytime people talk about the possibility of cracked bolts, I just refer back to Michael Petrov's experiment!  The single locking lug is perfectly fine in the Krag and there are two very strong safety lugs (the guide rib and the bolt handle)!

Let us know how that 92 shoots.  Bring it to the Roosevelt Match!

Heck send the '92 to me in africa if you are afraid of it.  :(  And a couple of boxes of that dangerous to use .30-40 ammo. :-?

I want to hunt the elusive sub-saharan albino polar bear.  Scientist speculate that they migrated at the beginning of the last ice age when the Med was a slushy duck pond.  They didnt get the memo when the ice moved north and were trapped in africa.  Over time Albinoism became the dominate trait of coloration.  It was in one of the National Geographics.  I swear it. ;)


nnnn

I've never recently heard of anyone ever having had a bolt crack or get damaged in a dangerous manner using properly loaded ammo. It's just what the history books have recorded regarding the use of the "hotter" ammunition used in the late 1890s and early 1900s when testing the ammunition used in the Krags that tried to push 2200 FPS out of the 220 grain bullets. That's what mandated the rear sight changes in the later Krag rifles and created some of the rarer rear sights that were discontinued early.

As far as I would be concerned is if you have properly loaded reloads to shoot. Many of us have safely reloaded 30-40 ammo for years without any hint of trouble. If you are shooting factory ammunition, there should be no problem.

Remember what we have said many times here at KCA- many "shot out" or severely pitted bores can shoot quite accurately. You might want to stick with jacketed bullets and avoid cast lead bullets which might leave behind some darned difficult lead in the pits of the barrel to clean out.

So, try your rifle out and report back on your success!

Thanks everybody for your thoughts.  You've confirmed that, as I suspected, there is no great concern about swapping the bolts due headspace (or other) issues.

Just to be clear, I didn't ask because I am concerned about any 'personal' danger caused by a bolt failure.  I mentioned that I wasn't concerned about the rifle losing value just by shooting it, however, I am concerned about losing value by breaking it or part of it.  Since a concern for the bolt was noted in my original post,


Whig wrote on Sep 27^th, 2018 at 12:09pm:

.... I wouldn't dare risk shooting my 1894. Some of the older bolts have almost invisible cracks in the rear of the bolt that can worsen with even lightly loaded ammo. Low risk but why take the chance? ...

, and no other posters disagreed, it seemed to be a valid concern.  Given that, it would seem silly to shoot the rifle with the original bolt in it when another perfectly good bolt (with little 'relative' value) is in the next rifle in the rack.  I just wanted to make sure there isn't a problem in doing so that I'm not aware o.f

Even low risk activities should be avoided when you are dealing with rare or valuable firearms like an original 1894 Krag.

I had a well known gunsmith/armorer tell me a technique he uses to check bolts to find hidden or small cracks. It involves wiping the bolt with some chemical which allows a die to penetrate small hairline cracks that can then be easily seen. Obviously it is a concern for certain situations but is very rarely seen today.

Just be careful with what ammunition you shoot and you should be fine.

Most of my loading experiments, which others shy away from, have been done with a 92 bolt.  It was fitted, or it stretched, so that the guide rib bears on the receiver.  No problems so far.  They kept track of the steel lots, if there ever were any weak ones they likely got pulled and replaced during rebuilds.

boomer wrote on May 3^rd, 2019 at 2:06pm:

I cannot close either bolt (without considerable pressure) on brass that has been fired (in the sporter) but not yet resized.  Is there more I need to check before the question can be answered?  Do I need to check with headspace gages?  Is there something else I need to check?

What you are describing is unresized brass that has been expanded in another chamber (your sporter) which is probably 001-.002" of an inch too long or wide at the shoulder than the chamber of the rifle you are trying.

Perfectly normal. That brass will likely need to be full-length resized to make it fit.  In the match shooting world, there are fancy sizing dies that just size the neck and knock the shoulder back and in a hair to make them chamber easily. If you're going to use ammo between two different rifles, it's generally recommend to full-length resize the brass so it will feed and chamber like factory ammo. The brass will "flow" or extrude toward the case mouth which causes the brass to elongate and therefore trimming will be needed at some point.

The only down side is depending on how much the neck and shoulder of the brass are worked during these firing/sizing cycles it will harden over multiple firings and can eventually split. No good. Us crazy folk who have too much time on our hands anneal the neck and shoulder to soften the brass to let it expand and contract instead of crack. As a side effect, maintaining uniform hardness (or softness in this case) keeps the neck tension around the bullet more consistent, which enables consistent starting pressure as the powder burns, which enables more consistent velocity, which enables happiness.