As an exercise for me to learn some of these details better, I have been reviewing the changes in the bolt designs over the years for the Krag. I learned a lot from the measurements I made with Fred's bolt measuring gauge. We collected data from numerous bolts to see if there was any correlation between measurements of the length of the bolts and the stamped numbers and symbols on the bolt handles. We checked dozens of bolts but found no patterns. That exercise gave me a chance to learn a lot about my Krag bolts in my rifles and carbines and some of the changes made over the model years.

The changes were sometimes subtle, sometimes quite obvious. Changes were usually made for functional reasons or for production cost savings. Some of these changes are noted below and annotated on the pictures over the next few posts. Hope they help collectors better identify what you have and what you might see when evaluating these firearms.

Interestingly, all of the bolts are interchangeable across all models and head spacing, although an important issue in safely firing your Krag, is rarely an issue.

Poyer's has excellent pictures and good labeling for many of these changes. I use Poyer's a lot for some of this detailed information. It has its place in Krag collecting as do Mallory's, Brophy's and Joe Farmer's excellent Krag book.

This list is not all inclusive, just some more helpful features that help identify different Krag bolts.

The early M1892 bolts have the smooth extractor without the hold-open pin. This change was made as a M1896 change and M1892 Krag rifles that were "updated" to the M1896 format included this important alteration. This allowed for inserting a round in the opened chamber without having the bolt close from gravity on the operator when the gun was pointed downward. New M1896 bolts produced had the extractor held in by a rivet instead of the screw found on the M1892 bolts. The updated M1892 (92/96) bolts retained the screw.

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