Action strength of 6.5x55 Norwegian Krag

[Peregrine]

Thank you madsen Shooter for a quality post.

I took the magazine spring between two fingertips and gave it a very gentle squeeze and was surprised how readily it bent inwards. I didn't bend it very much, and upon reassembling the magazine it did indeed lock into the recess in the receiver with a positive click. The problem is that bending it inwards increased the contact that the inner upper edge of it has on the magazine door, now when the door closes it actually has an increased tendency to be dragged upwards by the contact with the door. I have included a picture and highlighted where the contact is for those playing along at home. It's along the inside, on the back face. (I just noticed that rust while taking that picture, i'll clean that up shortly. Rifle had quite a bit of that going on when I first got it.)



The contact is on the inner upper edge. After working the magazine door a few times it seems that the leafspring on the pin has been bent back to where it was, and it doesn't have the same tendency to follow the door, but it also doesn't click in place anymoe.
It seems to me I should take a file to where the contact is to relieve it? There's no reason that leaf spring should actually be contacting the magazine door, is there?

The magazine spring on mine sticks down below the hook and bears on the little leaf spring of the magazine pin, but not the hook. That's likely intentional to keep tension off the hook. There's nearly a 1/16 difference between where the little leaf bears on the magazine spring and the bottom of the hook on mine. You might gain a little engagement by taking off a few thousandths.

Everything you wrote makes perfect sense until I got to here.
I see where the magazine spring engages with the hook and where it can come through the reciever and contact the leaf spring on the hinge pin. I'm not sure about where the 1/16th difference you're taking about or how it would keep tension off the hook and in which position, much less where you'd remove material from.

Here's a couple more pictures for those following along.








I will say one thing, this thread has at the very least gotten me to play around with the krag's magazine today. What a slick and mechanically novel design! I'm especially liking the protrusion on the magazine door that cams the follower back into it as you open the door and locks it in there against spring tension. In firearms design so often we see design features being reiterated time and time again, it's very cool to see something quite different that really does work relatively quite well.
Well, except for this hinge pin for me right now.

[303Guy]

Years ago I gave some thought to rebarreling a No.4 to take the 6.5X57 Rimmed.
I've heard of Enfields rebarreled to take the .257 Roberts necked up to 6.5 using Surplus 6.5 Japanese barrels. That would probably be in the same ballpark as the 6.5X55.

I've thought about that one too. I don't recall checking the OAL though. It might not fit the magazine. Then again, there is nothing wrong with single shot and the magazine has a neat trick if the innards are removed - it catches the fired cases!

Just the other day I was thinking about the .257 Roberts on a Lee Enfield. If the extractor claw is long enough, it will still eject. But I have a 25/303 so I don't actually need one .... but there is nothing wrong with wanting one!

[nekshot]

My grandfather was issued a krag to replace is old springfield(the single shot) rifle he originally was given. Now my son is on the look out for one of these because of his grandfathers connection to them. I am enjoying the search myself. Never can get my head around why the inventor went out the side as it surely weakens the stock I assume!

[uscra112]

I've thought about that one too. I don't recall checking the OAL though. It might not fit the magazine. Then again, there is nothing wrong with single shot and the magazine has a neat trick if the innards are removed - it catches the fired cases!

Converting Krags for the Lovell 22-3000 wildcat was quite common in the late '30s and up to about 1950. Since the conversion was necessarily a single shot, many 'smiths would mill the entire magazine off the right side, and omit the cover on the left, so the stock looked more "normal". And with the guts gone, the magazine well does neatly catch the fired cases. In the long grass of the woodchuck fields, that is indeed a nice feature.

[uscra112]

It's probably appropriate at this time to repost these photos of cracked Krag bolts:

[madsenshooter]

Here's how the Stomperud fits together. This is after opening and closing the door a few times. As you can see the little leaf on the pin is actually resting on the magazine tension spring instead of the recess in the receiver. There's room to take a wee bit off the bottom of the tension spring, (up in the pic, what's above the hook of the arbor) while still keeping the pin spring from hitting the arbor of the magazine follower. Yours might fit better, open and close the gate a few times to see where all the parts settle in to.

[jonp]

I have a Globe 433, it's a Norwegian Krag sporterized and in .308
Unsurprisingly I shoot it with cast and not full power .308 so i'm a long way away from having to mull over the strength of the action.

It's a very nice handling rifle and i've gotten excellent accuracy with it.
I do have one issue with it i've been meaning to post up here on the forum for advice so i'm going to go right ahead and take this opertunity while we're already on about these rifles.

When shooting it the magazine hinge plate tends to flip upwards and then come out forwards under recoil. This is very inconvenient as in short order it causes the magazine to partially disassemble and jam, I have quit shooting it because I always have to check it after every shot, and that's a shame because I want to shoot it more.


What is it that normally keeps the hinge pin locked in it's proper, down, orientation? Is it just friction between the leaf on the front of the pin and the bottom of the magazine body?


I took some pictures for those not as familiar with these who want to follow along.
Hinge pin in downward, locked position;




Hinge pin flipped forward;




Hinge pin backing out (at this point the magazine will loose tension on the follower and won't feed properly;





Magazine dissembled (for reference)





And I suppose I owe y'all a shot of the actual rifle, quick and not the best. I stole the sling on it and stuck it on the Ross 1905E I found the other day. It's my solution to a cast 30cal platform since the krag wasn't behaving. Although I would rather like to get the krag up and running because I have a whole ton of .308 brass and oddly enough nothing else chambered in it.

Hold on a second...You "found a Ross the other day"? Stamped Quebec?