I was given a 1896 Krag-Jorgenson rifle. It's missing the bolt. The barrel is in good condition. Stock is decent. Finish is nearly non-existent.
Would it be a worthwhile project to buy a bolt and set the headspace?
There is no sentimental value and I would need to buy dies and brass. I think it would be a cool cast bullet rifle.
Be aware that some bolts have cracked lugs from an ill-advised "hotter" military issue load during the latter part of the Krag's use as a military firearm. But, that also means that there are some new "old stock" bolts floating around that have never been in a rifle. There is a guy on ebay "movieman630" that also goes by grandpa's gun parts still has some of these
https://www.granpasgunparts.com/
Dealt with the guy before on restorations both on ebay and through his website and his stuff was as he said it was. There are slight variations among the different models of Krag bolts (1892, 1896, and 1898) but all should work. A long time firm, S and S Firearms also is good on Krag stuff but pricey
http://www.ssfirearms.com/
Sarco is mostly out of the Krag business and Numrich is hit or miss on them. Dupage Trading mentioned above are also good folks whose stuff is as they say it is but call them as their website is limited in what it presents as stock. I would recommend paying the freight for a new old stock bolt because some old-timers lapped bolt lugs until the Krag's bolt handle (the safety lug) was bearing--paying the price usually by having more headspace-on a used bolt, you won't know if that is the case until you get it and try it in your rifle with a headspace gage.
You might also find in your search some WWI era parkerized Krag bolts (Krags were used to guard railways among other places during WWI along with other obsolete rifles to free up m1917 and 1903's for the war effort). I believe that they used new bolts to parkerize but not sure about that.
Krags like many other rifles from that era headspace on the cartridge rim--not the shoulder. Most U.S. headspace gages are dual purposed with .303 as British .303 Enfield gages and technically a coin type gage is fine. For a used barrel, using neck sizing on the brass, if it passed the field gage test without going into battery, then it is probably ok on that standpoint. Go gages are usually used for setting headspace on new barrels which Criterion makes. Krags do vary a bit on bore diameter so slugging the barrel will be key for reloading cast boolits to establish size needed.
Go to castboolits forum for loads or older reloading manuals as the Krag is par excellence with cast bullets of the long heavy type and the lesser pressure on your old rifle won't hurt either. Grafs and sons have the brass
https://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/search?keywords=krag and Remington used to do seasonal runs of Krag brass around hunting season. Every major reloading company makes Krag dies. Only downside on reloading is that Krags are hit and miss with feeding spire point bullets due to the magazine design so long round headed bullets are the norm. Good luck with your Krag. They are fun rifles to shoot.