Bequeathed an 1898 Krag rifle

[kragluver]

How did you measure barrel length? The Krag rifle should have a 30" barrel when measured from the face of a closed bolt to the muzzle (use a dowel rod or cleaning rod to measure). If yours is 29.5", then chances are someone cut it off and re-crowned it to eliminate a worn muzzle.

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[beltbuckle]

How did you measure barrel length? The Krag rifle should have a 30" barrel when measured from the face of a closed bolt to the muzzle (use a dowel rod or cleaning rod to measure). If yours is 29.5", then chances are someone cut it off and re-crowned it to eliminate a worn muzzle.

THANKS, kragluver! My education continues.

To be honest, the way I measured it at first was with a tape measure, on an open bolt, from where I eyeball-estimated the boltface would be when closed.

Your post made me get up off my butt and go break out the rifle (thanks for giving me an excuse for a midday fondle), a cleaning rod, and an architect's straightedge, and guess what? It's 29.5".

So I'm still puzzled, though a re-crowning seems like a logical explanation to me.

Thing is, I've had a couple of other rifles re-crowned, and they never lost more than a very small fraction of their length -- nothing like half an inch. I dunno why anybody would take a half inch if they didn't need to, but... I wasn't there.

This may wind up in the category of enduring mysteries.