98 Krag Bolt???

[afghanvet]

I was cleaning my 98 krags tonight and noticed that one out of the 8 has a five pointed star on the bolt handle. All of them have struck numbers, but I only saw one star. Is this star of any significance?

[madsenshooter]

I don't know if it has any significance, but one of my 98 receivers has one on the forward end of the magazine well, close to the receiver ring. It would have had to have been put there while the receiver was still hot, it is quite deep, too deep to cold stamp.

[kragnut]

A sign of a forging that passed?

[madsenshooter]

Probably stamped there when it got to "that certain color", that they approximated to a certain temp. The depth of the stamp could be some indication of consistency, depending of course on how consistent the guy with the hammer was. I recently got a late 98 receiver, 425xxx that has letters and other stampings about all over the front edge. That's odd compared to the older ones I have. Sure is a lot of machine marks in that late receiver vs an earlier one.