1898 springfield help

[bocephus223]

A friend of mine inherited an 1898 Springfield .30-.40 Krag recently, but it won't shoot. The primer does have a dimple on it after pulling the trigger, but no boom. The ammo is new, and he tried many rounds, so I'm thinking the headspace is off a tiny bit. The only fix I can think of is turning the barrel in one more turn. Is it possible the firing pin has backed out? I am not familiar with this gun at all, so I am at a loss. I searched all over this thread and couldn't find any answers either. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[freonr22]

What is the firing pin protrusion? Does it have cosmoline in the bolt?

[bocephus223]

I do not have the rifle with me, but I have asked my friend to measure it. And there is no cosmoline on the bolt. Thanks for your speedy response! Is there a spec. sheet we can consult?

He will not be able to measure it until tomorrow.

[kendog4570]

Firing pin protrusion should be within .044" min., .063" max.

[6mmintl]

Those damn krags.

[kendog4570]

Delete

[kcstott]

Gun most likely just need a thorough cleaning. Like full disassembly cleaning

[bocephus223]

His firing pin sticks out .059".... Seems inside the specs. Any other ideas?

[kcstott]

Clean it. As its a rimed case head space will most likely not be an issue

[Bhobbs]

His firing pin sticks out .059".... Seems inside the specs. Any other ideas?

If there is any cosmoline or grease in the firing pin channel it can slow it down enough so that it doesn't fire. That or the firing pin spring may need to be replaced.

[bocephus223]

He has ordered a new spring! I'll update as soon as we know if it shoots. Thanks for your advice!

[kcstott]

WTH
No mention of any details on wether or the thing is clean and ready to fire. "i'll just throw money at it."

The spring may be the problem but only in rare cases. Is the rifle clean and free of grease or cosmoline??

This is a military rifle and was designed to operate in extreme environments. So the spring is probably fine.

[acalder924]

Hi and thank all of you for your advice, I am the owner of this 30-40, and thought i could could chime in fill the void and answer some questions.

This was my grandfathers favorite hunting fifle and he took good care of it, it is very clean and heavily sporterized the sights are modern, and the barrel looks to be professionaly cut and recrowned (22") although i see no original markings on the barrel other than a barrel strap from the orig stock, it has a nice bishop stock and what looks to be an aftermarket jewled bolt.

When i took apart the bolt the spring had a home made shim on the spring, so with what looks like an attempt at making the pin hit harder and the fact that i can rest the round that the pin struck on the bolt with the pin extruding the round will teeter on top,

With what i read on here in this thread and the rest of the research I've done the 7 dollar spring in my opinion isn't quite throwing money at it.

Thanks again for all advice and opinions

[acalder924]

Thanks again for all the help, just wanted to confirm that the new spring did in fact correct my no fire issue, it was a very nice feeling squeezing that trigger and not getting a sad little click but a very impressive boom, now I just need to get it dialed in, cleaned , oiled and put away, thanks again for the help.