Seen on the street in Kyiv.

Words of Advice:

"If Something Seems To Be Too Good To Be True, It's Best To Shoot It, Just In Case." -- Fiona Glenanne

“The Mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” -- The TOFF *

"Foreign Relations Boil Down to Two Things: Talking With People or Killing Them." -- Unknown

“Speed is a poor substitute for accuracy.” -- Real, no-shit, fortune from a fortune cookie

"If you believe that you are talking to G-d, you can justify anything.” — my Dad

"Colt .45s; putting bad guys in the ground since 1873." -- Unknown

"Stay Strapped or Get Clapped." -- probably not Mr. Rogers

"The Dildo of Karma rarely comes lubed." -- Unknown

"Eck!" -- George the Cat

* "TOFF" = Treasonous Orange Fat Fuck, A/K/A Dolt-45,
A/K/A Commandante (or Cadet) Bone Spurs,
A/K/A El Caudillo de Mar-a-Lago, A/K/A the Asset., A/K/A P01135809

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Krag Cracking

One of the things that I've heard over the years is that Krag-Jorgensen .30-40s are susceptible to cracked bots of they are fired with hot rounds. The explanation that I've heard consistently is that is because the bolt only has one lug at the face of the chamber.

But there is another rifle that had problems with cracking: Early model .30-06 Springfields, the receivers of which were made with Springfield Armory Class C steel. The initial fix, which began to be applied in 1918, was to double-heat treat the receivers. Nine years later, they shifted to making the receivers out of nickel steel.

The connection is this: The receivers of Krag-Jorgensen rifles were also made with Springfield Armory Class C steel.

(Source)

5 comments:

Eck! said...

The difference is the standard krag used a lower power charge of powder. Don't reload it up to +p or hot powders and no K-boom. The 30-06 was designed from the start to be much higher velocity and more powder to push it. They reached the metallurgical limits for that grade of steel and the basic heat treatments.

Still one of the coolest designs I'd seen.

Eck!

Comrade Misfit said...

I disagree about the design. Springfield took a perfectly good design, the `98 Mauser, and made it worse in almost all respects. The magazine cut-off is a solution to a non-existent problem. The utility of the sights in a combat environment is atrocious. The rear sights of a `98 Krag would have been better. About the only thing that they improved on was shortening the barrel by 6" over the Krag, so that they wouldn't have to produce carbine and infantry models. But even the Brits beat them to the punch on that, as the SMLE was made to about the same barrel length in 1895. At the end of the day, the government had to pay damages to Mauser for patent infringement for both the rifle and the cartridge.

Other than the Garand, it's hard for me to think of an Army Ordnance designed rifle that was an improvement on anything that existed. When they got their hands on Stoner's rifle, they even screwed that up with the change in propellants.

Eck! said...

For the comment on coolest designs.. I meant the Krag.

The 30-06 cartridge was good but the springfield initially
was, meh.

Eck!

Comrade Misfit said...

Oh, sorry. Yeah, that late 19th Century forged/machined loading gate is a marvel.

w3ski said...

I had an old Winchester Lever rifle. 32-20 with an octagon barrel. Sweet shooting rifle but it had a cracked chamber from I don't know what. I finally had a chrome insert put in. Barrel was still gone but at least it was safe to shoot. if I had reloaded at that point it would have been really sweet. Now I have a Marlin .357 lever and except for no octagon barrel I don't miss the Winchester.
Also I happen to own a copy of Mr Stoner's next rifle , the 18. Uses any load I can work up without stutter, it even has a bolt handle on the bolt of all things. Folding stock because the gas system is in the front like an AK. A much better design but because Colt got the 16 contract first, the US was stuck with the 16. The British however used them for years. A fine rifle with any old dirty round. Out of production now but it's next to my pillow every night.
Why use 7 rounds from a pistol when you have 38 hollow points from a rifle just a sitting there?
Whats that about "the lock was on the door to protect the outsiders from Me".
I love it when you 'talk guns'
W3ski