1898 Feed Issue

[Whig]

Congrats and enjoy the fully functioning Krag!

[psteinmayer]

Awesome news GunGrunt! Now go load up some rounds and bang away!!!

[GunGrunt]

Not so fast everyone. I just figured out the real issue on my bolt jam and failure to feed.

If the rim of the cartridge in the ready position is behind the rim of the next cartridge in line it will not load and keeps the bolt from going forward. The reason is that the rim of the ready cartridge is behind the rim of the next cartridge so it is trying to push the next round in the magazine forward with it. The nose of the next cartridge is up against the forward wall of the magazine well so it can't move.

If I carefully load each cartridge so the rim of each succeeding cartridge is behind the previous cartridge all is good.

Is something not working right, or is this normal?

[butlersrangers]

This is not normal. The U.S. Krag is not prone to 'rim jams'.

(As 'parashooter' has illustrated, in a previous thread on the subject, the Krag magazine surfaces direct the 'dumped-in' rimmed cartridges to sort themselves out and feed in 'echelon').

"Usual Prime Suspects" for feed problems are: 1. Dried grease & crud in feed-path. 2. Damaged or incorrect side-plate. 3. Early '92 or '96 follower-mechanism in a model 1898 action.

[Whig]

Again, first and foremost common problem is crud, dirt and lack of lubrication. I took one of my Krags a part and found a rather large dead bug stuck inside of the magazine well where I normally would not have seen it. That definitely would have caused some feed problems! There may be something bent or not functioning properly.

Keep us informed with the detective work. It's a labor of love. Keep at it!

[Parashooter]

. . . (As 'parashooter' has illustrated, in a previous thread on the subject, the Krag magazine surfaces direct the 'dumped-in' rimmed cartridges to sort themselves out and feed in 'echelon'). . .

I would add that the described effect occurs only with cartridges of regulation length. Shorter cartridges are not automatically aligned by magazine geometry.

[butlersrangers]

FWIW - I've never encountered a 'rim jam' with a U.S. Krag, even with reloaded cartridges that are shorter than U.S. military ammo length.

I have had bullet tips hang-up on the barrel breech-face of some Krags, with certain 'spitzer' bullet profiles.

I have had rim-jams with Lee-Enfield rifles, in .303 caliber.

[RichWIS]

What brass are you using, the original round had a beveled rim that would allow the round above it in the magazine to slide past. A flat rim can get caught and the round pushed forward before the round being stripped from the magazine goes over it. Experimented with using 303 Brit as a back-up for brass and this sometimes would happen.

[FredC]

I found the thread with Parashooter's diagram: http://www.kragcollectorsassociation.org/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1539825858/0
To find it I went to yahoo and typed this into the search line:
krag collectors association rim lock echelon
Google is actually more powerful but yahoo allows opens another window for you to look at, close it if it is wrong and type another search phrase.
You have eliminated something wonky happening with the ejector, correct?
In my short experiment trying to get a rim lock the speed which the loading gate and which way the gun was aimed while closing the gate made a difference. Maybe some experimenting is in order to find the solution.

My apologies I was at the end of page one and did not realize Parashooter had copied his diagram in to this thread when I posted yesterday. Instead of deleting this post I will leave it as some other useful info is in the other thread.

[Parashooter]

. . . In my short experiment trying to get a rim lock the speed which the loading gate and which way the gun was aimed while closing the gate made a difference. . .

If we think about Krag magazine geometry, it's apparent that short cartridges can align by gravity if the rifle is oriented significantly off horizontal during loading.