....in the FWIW category...

[Robert Swartz]

....I picked up a Krag. It has strong rifling but the barrel bore is "ugly".  Before doing any cleaning, I slugged the barrel. Low measurement .298, high measurement .304.  It drove right through, no tight spots. I have put everything through it from homebrew black powder cleaners and boiling water, hoppes #9. It's cleaner but wouldn't win a beauty contest.  I have no dies, brass or bullets as yet.  If I can beg a few bullets from somebody, I'll throw a few rounds out of it and see what I have. Hope I'm not too optimistic, it should shoot.

[Baltimore Ed]

Bop on over to the KCA, Krag Collectors Association, they are the ones to talk to about the mysteries of all things Krag though we also have some knowledgeable troopers here in The Barracks. You'll need photos of your rifle too. Good luck.

[Drydock]

Cool.  We'll get you running.

[Robert Swartz]

Cool.  We'll get you running.

....thanks Chuck....my big fear is the bore, I keep hearing the term "sewer pipe"!  The rifling is strong, I used a .375 round ball to slug it. It took steady pressure and slid through without any tight spots or loose drops. May try some Sweets bore cleaner, then put some rounds through it?

[Niederlander]

Krags are usually fairly easy to get to shoot.  As Chuck said, we'll get you running!  Have you tried copper scrubbing pad wrapped around a worn bore brush?  Sometimes it helps.

[Drydock]

Probably got a hunnert years or so of copper build up.  Might be a surprisingly good bore beneath it.

[pony express]

Probably got a bit of copper fouling in it. .304 is awfully small for a groove diameter for a Krag.

[LongWalker]

I recently spent more than a month cleaning up the bore on a Krag infantry rifle, and it still isn't "clean".  I decided to part  it out when I was tired of buying brushes, and it was clear that it would never be a cast bullet shooter.  With jacketed bullets, it will do 3-4" at 100 yards from a bench.  The bore wasn't just "fouled"--as is often found in milsurp rifles, it had layers of powder fouling combined with metal fouling from both cupronickel and gilding metal jackets. 

Foaming bore cleaner did help to speed things up (and to make a mess).  I didn't try electrochemical cleaning (like a "Foul Out" from Outers, or a homemade version), but it might be worth a try. 

One commonly-used way to "loosen" old fouling is to shoot jacketed loads through the gun, then clean it while it is still warm (or at least soak the bore with solvent).  I did this several times--and it did help--but didn't get it all. 

Once the bore is clean, if it isn't too bad (a very subjective thing) there are some "tricks" you can use with cast bullets to maybe get enough accuracy for GAF skirmishing.  Maybe.  It all depends on the bore, and bullet fit. 

[Arizona Trooper]

Try plugging the chamber and filling the bore with Hoppes or Bore Shine and let it soak. Will probably take several rounds. Another thing to do is shoot a bunch of reloads with IMR 4451. That powder claims to clear out jacket fouling, and it does seem to knock it back. I picked up a nice '96 rifle that was full of grease. The first one I got like that had a new barrel under the goop. Not this one. The first time I shot it and looked down the barrel, it had a forest of guilding metal in there. It eventually shot well enough to do middle of the pack in a DCM match, but it had a lot of throat erosion.  Krags are great rifles! one of my favorites.