Trouble on First Outing

[butlersrangers]

'Annapolis' - Any roughness on the extractor could be removed with file, stone, or emery cloth.

I will email you and would be glad to re-post any pictures of your Krag, on the KCA Forum for you.

p.s. The 1913 Annapolis photographs are Bain news photographs from the Digital Collections of the Library of Congress.

[butlersrangers]

'Annapolis' has emailed me some pictures of his Krag's bolt-head area, which I am posting here.

It appears to me that there are burrs or a blunt deformity of the tip of the small 'extractor spring' that is fitted into the left-side of the extractor-body.

This spring should have a smooth radius at its tip. As the bolt is being closed, this spring is forced downward by a flange or 'inclined lip' machined in the left receiver wall. This little spring helps increase the hold that the extractor 'claw' has on the rimmed cartridge case after the 'claw' rides up and over the rim.

If the small extractor spring is 'jamming into' rather than 'sliding under' the flange, this would cause difficulty in rotating the bolt closed.

IMHO - The solution is to remove burrs and restore the smooth radius on the tip of the extractor spring so that it is guided effortlessly under the lip in the receiver wall.

[butlersrangers]

Here is a picture of the tip of a typical extractor spring and the left receiver wall 'flange' it slides under.

[Culpeper]

That seems like a good analysis of the problem. I'll have a look at it when Annapolis and I meet. Secondly I think I will bring a couple of my krags to compare with what he has on his rifle.

[FredC]

BR, this is starting to make sense. Now we should ask why that spring is hitting the "left receiver wall 'flange'". Perhaps there is a bur or fosilized grease under the extractor making the whole assembly ride high when a case head is in the bolt? Maybe the whole extractor assembly has weak spring action to pull it down or it is bent upwards?
If that extractor spring has blunt damage to it, the "left receiver wall 'flange'" may need a little attention also. Mold makers use small abrasive stones to reach in areas like that. I have used such stones in increasing the size of the radius on the left side of the chamber to improve feeding. I also hate the idea of leaving abrasive particles in the action so I mask off the chamber with paper towels and fill the recesses with modeling clay (Play Dough would work) and dental floss while doing the work. A good cleaning afterwards is in order. The photo shows the masking I did in a recent reaming of the chamber. Yes there is a small brass spacer on the end of the barrel, its purpose is not relevant here.

[Culpeper]

I wonder if Annapolis has returned from the Grand Adventure.

Are ya' back yet, brother?

[Culpeper]

Yesterday Annapolis and I met up to troubleshoot his rifle. I noticed and as he has pointed out that the gun is not just as slick as others have described about the smoothness of the Krag. Cycling without ammo the bolt is slicker than whale snot. I will leave that aside for the moment.

I loaded factory Remington ammo in it and ran it through five shots. I found I would have to be definite of my purpose to pick up a round and get it chambered. I noticed Annapolis had the similiar issue when I had him run it and I observed.

He also had a problem with a round not extracting but the next round behind the chambered round was positioned incorrectly with the point angled wrong on the side plate preventing extraction.

I brought 3140 with me. It is my unmodified Krag and he had brought 177xx which is a 1894 modified to 1896. We compared the bolts and the extractors and I could not discern any difference. Looking back I believe I would bring a couple of my other krags on the second go round.

Towards the end of the evaluation before we switched to shooting our other guns I ran ten rounds of Winchester through 177xx and the ninth round got hung up and would not chamber. I do know a couple of my Krags will not chamber a round (I forget which because it has been eleven years after all) every now and then but others elsewhere think it is a function of the pointed bullets not being fed correctly due to nose shape. I will load up a bunch Sierra 220s so one variable is taken out of the equation.

Like I told Annapolis, I am not the krag expert but we can work the issue and find the problem.

[Annapolis]

Folks: what Culpepper forgot to mention is how courteous and patiently helpful he was during our morning of shooting. He is a splendid instructor and a genuine enthusiast of the Krag.

Annapolis

PS: I suspect many of us didn't know he is also something of a Constitutional scholar. jtr

[psteinmayer]

Paul (Culpepper) is a splendid fellow! He traveled to Michigan and met up with me at Cabelas in Dundee, and we spend a fantastic hour and a half just talking and sharing coffee (Ok, I had the coffee, he had a pop)! I look forward to meeting up at Perry next month to shoot side by side, along with my Son and Madsenshooter!

Now, to the problem at hand: There is many cases of Krags having problems chambering rounds with spitzer bullets from the magazine well. Some will and some won't without problems... or just won't altogether! My Krags will, however if I don't crimp the bullets, the bullets will telescope into the case neck every single time. This is an inherent quality of the Krag design, as it was designed for round nosed bullets. There have been cases of some (less than honorable) gunsmiths trying to modify the side plate and/or chamber trying to improve this, but all that does is make it worse.

My advise would be to try some round nosed bullets if possible, and see if the feeding improves any. Also, you might check to see if the rounds were positioned correctly when placed in the mag well (just speculating because it has happened to me).

I forgot to ask... was the magazine cutoff in place or removed? That will also sometimes hamper proper feeding.

[Culpeper]

Magazine cutoff is on the rifle and no parts are missing. I also gave Annapolis my second Steinmayer's Deluxe Krag Charger to have for his Krag. I won't say there is a human error component to this problem but I figure one less variable to deal with would get us closer to the solution.