I have a Danish Krag sporter with a 28 inch barrel that I would like to shorten about 2or3 inches .It would be better  to do with the barrel off the action so that I could mount it on my lathe.How hard would it be to remove it and does it have right hand threads? Thank you,Kooler.

12TPI V threads RH twist.  It isn't hard to remove Krag barrels with the right vise and wrench.  I have had to add a cheater pipe to the wrench for a few.  Someone with more arm and shoulder muscle than what I have probably wouldn't need the pipe.

Madsenshooter, I know at least some of the European Krags have left hand threads. Is there a list published some where that tells which have which?

Kooler, Anyway you can mount it in the lathe with the action attached? If your lathe has a reasonably short spindle it might allow you leave it together and just spin it a little slower to deal with the weight imbalance. Most doing this work will use a 4 jaw chuck on the small end of the barrel with a copper wire wrapped around the barrel to prevent marring. Ones that do the work all the time will have a "cat's head" on both ends of the spindle. They use soft brass screws in the cat's heads to prevent marring the barrel. If you do not have a cat's head for the outside end of you spindle they are not hard to make, I made one for each of my manual lathes. If you do not want to do that you could use tapered wood wedges to more or less center the receiver end of the barrel. On the end you are going to face and crown indicating to .001 TIR will be good enough, if I was threading it for a muzzle break or something critical I might try for closer.

If the concept of a cat's head is new to you might do a google search. I bet there are lots of examples on youtube. Many have been shown in Practical Machinist in the gunsmithing section, but I think you have to be a member to view the pictures. I can take some pictures but it will be later as the cattle need working real bad to day.

Was up to the last word and dropped the mouse and closed Windows, everything disappeared. GRR!
The top cats head was made for my old South Bend 9C lathe from a piece of scrap bronze. The set screws are standard steel with rounded ends to prevent marring the barrel or lathe spindle. A friend suggested 3 screws would work for centering. It did but it was not as easy to adjust as 4 screws in opposing pairs.  I did use this one to rethread my dad's 1917 Enfield then later rework the chamber as the fellow that did the chambering left a sharp edge on the shoulder that would catch the case necks when chambering slow.

That is a US Krag barrel in the 9C. The 9C (with a 3/4 inch through hole) could be used to shorten a barrel with the same profile down to 24 inches, when using a 4 jaw chuck. Substituting a short cats head for the chuck you could probably shorten a barrel to 22 inches.

The second is for my tool room lathe and was used in sporterizing the 35 Krag. It is made from stainless and is a precision fit on the spindle stub with no arrangement for clamping. Screws are shop made brass with flat ends. Even though the tool room spindle is longer it allows shorter barrels to be worked on because of the larger spindle ID.

No cats were harmed here. I did not name these devices, long history of use by gun smiths and they have always been known as cat heads.

Anyone have a list of which European Krags have left or right hand threads?

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Norwegian Krag barrels have the Left-Hand Thread, (even those made by Steyr).

FWIW - Canadian Ross Rifles also use a Left-Hand Thread. Left-Hand threads are pretty rare in gun manufacture.

I believe the idea of Left-Hand threads on a barrel-shank, was that with bullet rotation to the right, forces would serve to 'tighten', rather than 'loosen', the barrel into the receiver.

Frank DeHaas illustrated some barrel shanks in his book, "Bolt Action Rifles".

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