Now that's an interesting wreck. Looks like the front lug failed which transfered the load to the rear of the receiver through the bolt rib with the rear of the receiver breaking off by brittle fracture. Interestingly the receiver ring looks like it held just fine.
Any information on the load or what may have lead to the failure other than poor metalurgy?
Jerry Liles
First thing first, you should not load a Krag over the recommended loads in your loading manual. This was done to test a theory and has no relation to anything a sane person would do.
The pictured Krag was destroyed in one of my test that was a result of more than one person warning others about the single forward locking lug of the Krag and how weak they were. I built a box set up for remote firing the Krag. I fired a factory round first. I then fired three loads using three different powder using the maximum load listed in a modern loading manual. I then fired three cartridges loaded with a compressed load of three different type powders from the same manual. No problems at all. There were about six people watching this test and everyone was looking for it to blow so I loaded up a case with a LOT of Bullseye, pulled the string, what a report, but the darn rifle was still holding. I then used a 2x4 to beat the bolt open. I loaded the last case with a lot more Bullseye and the action failed. One interesting side note, the box was painted on the inside and even thought the pressure destroyed the box the paint was not even scratched.
OH! One more thing, the test were done AFTER I ground off the front locking lug from the bolt.
