30-40 Krag Bolt Removal???

[AyeAye]

I just got one of my father's/grandfather's Krag's from my brother. He's had it since our dad passed away but has never fired it. It's just been sitting in his gun cabinet. Still in good shape but I want to remove the bolt to give this weapon a good cleaning. I have tried all possible combinations of the side lever up/down Magizine open/closed and pulling the trigger but the darn thing just won't come out!! I thought that it would be similar to my 03A3 but I'm obviously missing something here.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Picked up two boxes of 180gr. SP and I'd like to shoot this thing.

Thanks in advance.

[Gewehr98]

Pull the bolt back until that pin on the extractor snaps into the matching detent on the rear receiver bridge. It's the last "click" you hear as you pull the bolt back all the way to the stop.

Now, with one hand on the bolt knob, use your other hand to gently lift up on the extractor claw at the front of the bolt. While lifting up the extractor, rotate the bolt knob upwards even further. The extractor will partially rotate, and the bolt will come out once the single lug aligns with the slot in the rear receiver bridge. Voila'!

Assembly is basically the reverse, although you don't need to lift the extractor.


Let me know if this works, if not I can scan in some images.:D

[toot44]

that is great I always how to remove it ?

[toot44]

I always wondered how to do it?

[FrankenMauser]

Yep.
Lift extractor.
Rotate bolt counter-clockwise.

Reinstallation is even easier. Begin inserting bolt, with extractor laying on top of the split bridge. Rotate when appropriate. (Keep your eyes on the extractor for alignment.)
Usually pops right in, without any intervention.

I know you get the excessive speeches about inspection and 'fit for use' release from a gunsmith with any surplus firearm, and even commercial used guns mentioned on the interwebs.
But it is very important with the US Krags that you carefully inspect the locking lug before firing.
There is only one. They are prone to cracking with prolonged use, and/or abuse.
If the locking lug lets go, the only thing keeping the bolt out of your skull is the bolt handle.

[tangolima]

Look it up on YouTube. It is easier to understand than text description.

Krag actually has 2 lugs. The bolt handle is extra insurance. However, to improve part interchangibility, US krag has the 2nd lug (in front of bolt handle) not bearing, so it works the same as the bolt handle. Norwegian krag has both lugs bearing. Some US krags, both two of mine do, bears on both lugs. It could be result of wear due to normal use, or the previous owners might have ground down the primary lug. The price to pay is a bit more head clearance (have to be terminlogically correct here).

Carefully inspection of old rifle of this vintage is always a good advice.

-TL

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[44 AMP]

Always keep in mind that the very newest Krag rifle are well over a century old, and until/unless you can actually see physical damage you have no idea what kind of stresses they might have been subject to during their long lifetimes.

[tangolima]

Even worse, didn't Springfield armory manufacture the US krag? That was before the dreaded M1903. They eyeballed the temperature, did they not?

-TL

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[44 AMP]

Even worse, didn't Springfield armory manufacture the US krag? That was before the dreaded M1903. They eyeballed the temperature, did they not?

Not an "even worse" situation at all.

First, Springfield Arsenal (a govt arsenal) made the US Krag and the 1903 Springfield. And, they had previously made the 1873 "Trapdoor" Springfield.

Springfield Armory is a private company, They got their start making civilian legal receivers and building M14 rifles on them with GI parts. Their name for their gun was the "M1A". Since then, they've expanded.

Next point, yes they did it "by eye" in that era EVERYONE "did it by eye" judging the temperature for heat treating. Springfield Arsenal did it by eye. Colt, Winchester, Remington, Mauser, etc. everyone did it by eye because accurate, responsive temperature indicating instruments had not yet been developed. Those came along a couple decades or so later and were not in use until the late 20s or 1930s or so, according to the information I found.

The people doing the heatreating, by eye, based on the color of the metal were master craftsmen. These were not people with just a tiny bit of experience, but people with decades of experience, though being human, they weren't infallible.

Krag rifles were very well made, plenty good enough for the job they were designed to do. The magazine is a piece of engineering genius. Not quite as fast to reload the rifle in combat as stripper clips, but otherwise it is art. No clips needed, no precise alignment of rounds, no worry about rimlock as long as the bullet it at the front you dump rounds in, close the box and it feeds flawlessly.

[FrankenMauser]

Shhh.
Don't tell anyone.
But Krags did have clip loading available.
Shhh.

(Also a straight-pull bolt *and* clip-loading option. But no one adopted it.)

[tangolima]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield_Armory

M1903 blows up because of inaccuracy of eyeballing. US krag (M1898) is ok. Different eyeball schools? I was being facetious of course. The theory doesn't make much sense to me. I own and shoot Krag and 1903, but don't be like me.

Neat and interesting krag design could be, M1898 was probably one US military rifle with the shortest service life. It became obsolete as soon as it was fielded. We don't care about that today. I enjoy them all.

-TL

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[natman]

Krag rifles were very well made, plenty good enough for the job they were designed to do. The magazine is a piece of engineering genius. Not quite as fast to reload the rifle in combat as stripper clips, but otherwise it is art. No clips needed, no precise alignment of rounds, no worry about rimlock as long as the bullet it at the front you dump rounds in, close the box and it feeds flawlessly.

If you look at the amount of machining that went into making a Krag, it's obvious that labor was a lot cheaper then than it is now. They are amazingly well made.

[tangolima]

I still can't figure out why krag doesn't rim lock. It doesn't have an interrupter as mosin does.

-TL

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[FrankenMauser]

The geometry of the magazine and follower, and how they interact, are magic.
Take a Krag action apart and play with some dummies for a while.
Magic.

I made one feed a cartridge the action was never designed for. So much more machining and critical geometry came to light, that I had never seen before. There are probably more machining operations on just the left side of the magazine and 'feed ramp', for and behind the side plate, than the rest of the receiver combined.

[tangolima]

I know how it is done now. Thanks. The last round is tilted by the shape of the left plate, so that its rim disengages the 2nd last round.

The advent of rimless cartridge made all this redundant.

-TL

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[44 AMP]

The advent of rimless cartridge made all this redundant.

Remember there are two kinds of designs (for everything).

One kind is a design that is new, original and never done before.

The other kind is a design intended to "work with what you've got..." :D

And, what America had in the 1890s was rimmed rifle rounds. Looking at "modern" military rounds (meaning designed/readily adapted to use cordite or smokeless powder) The start is about 1888, in Europe. The French 8mm Lebel, and the British .303, both rimmed, and the German 8x57mm Mauser, which was rimless. The .30-40 Krag arrives in US service about 1892, the same year Mauser creates the 7x57mm. Other rounds show up in the later 1890s in Europe, remember all these are within a few years of each other.

The Spanish-American war was the first conflict of significant size where the advantages and disadvantages of cartridge and rifle design in combat were a significant lesson. Rimmed vs rimless, and Krag vs Mauser box/stripper clips.

Rimmed vs rimless was not a clear cut lesson for everyone at the time, or for some time to come. Krag vs Mauser box/stripper clips, was.

Britain and Russia/USSR kept their rimmed round, The US went rimless. Adopting many Mauser ideas into the 1903 rifle and cartridge.

Here's an interesting tidbit, the Krag system also works fine with rimless rounds. I have a Norwegian Krag in 6.5x55mm. Made in 1897. The Krag design was not limited to rimmed rounds, it just worked with them and that't what America used in them. Other nations used their own (rimless) cartridges in their Krags.

So, if someone tells you that the Krag was pulled from US service due to the "obsolete" rimmed round used, they're mistaken.

The Krag was replaced because real combat experience showed it to be inferior to the Mauser system's firepower. I know of no reports about the Krag's slower reloading speed vs the Mauser from the Philippine insurrection. Probably due to the fact that the Moros weren't armed as units with modern Mauser rifles.

The Krag is a great system and has a certain kind of elegance to it. It was surpassed by a design was superior in infantry combat, because the Mauser reloaded faster, but that's about it.

Note that the British kept a stripper clip charged 10 shot rifle with a rimmed cartridge the Russians a 5 shot one, and the rest of the world pretty much went to 5 shot magazine rifles using rimless cartridges., and this situation lasted pretty much until or through WWII depending on which nation you're looking at. The US was a little ahead of the curve with the M1 Garand, and after WWII every major nation replaced their bolt guns as the primary infantry arm within a few years.