Why did the US go with the Krag design?

[Bernt]

I often see the argument that the Krag could not be loaded by a charger. This is of course not true. The Krag was designed with chargers since the beginning. It was just the armies that adopted it, that didn't want the chargers. They wanted a single loader with the magazine in reserve.

In 1888 Kongsberg arms factory delivered 50 Krags for the danish trials. These were delivered with 200 chargers. Below is an image of the charger. The metal wire held the cartridges in place. The soldier held the charger on the open magazine and flipped the loop over with the thumb, and the cartridges would fall into the mag.

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The norwegian riflecommission of 1891 came up with this idea. It was used in trials in both Norway and Sweden. You open the mag, place the charger so the small catch touch the edge, a short push forward and the cartridges fall into the mag.

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[Knute1]

Here is a link to the Parkhurst clip for the Krag and the reason it never caught any traction.

https://www.historicalfirearms.info/pos ... 892-the-us

[psteinmayer]

Anyone who has seen me at Camp Perry will know just how fast a Krag can be reloaded using a charger (design courtesy of Parashooter). Just check out my reload here:

https://youtu.be/z80OJ_WhYZk

In my humble opinion, the Krag is a brilliant design for the era... and was never fully given it's due. In terms of operating speed alone (cycling the bolt to charge the chamber and fire a round), it FARRRRRRR out classes the not-nearly-as-smooth 1903 and most other bolt-action designs. Again... just my opinion!

[Ned Butts]

+1

In my humble opinion, the Krag is a brilliant design for the era... and was never fully given it's due. In terms of operating speed alone (cycling the bolt to charge the chamber and fire a round), it FARRRRRRR out classes the not-nearly-as-smooth 1903 and most other bolt-action designs. Again... just my opinion!

[Knute1]

Hey Paul, great video. Aside from the reloading, you can just see how smooth that bolt is.

[butlersrangers]

Compared to the field of 53 rifles submitted to "The 1892 Ordnance Board for the selection of a magazine rifle", the Krag-Jorgensen models were rugged and excelled in speed and ergonomics.

IMHO - A lot of the "First Generation" of small-bore 'smokeless' magazine rifles were fragile, awkward, overly complex and really not ready for production or mass manufacture.

[butlersrangers]

IMHO - The Mauser and Mannlicher submissions were well developed arms, but the Mannlicher designs are rather clumsy to operate.
The early Mausers lacked the refinements of the 1893 Spanish model and the even more superior post 1898 models.

There was a plethora of magazine designs submitted and 'rotary' types were much in evidence.

Bottom Line - In 1892/1893, without a 'crystal ball' to the future, the Krag-Jorgensen and .30-40 cartridge were very good choices.

(My opinion is that with a barrel designed for 150 to 180 grain projectiles and Parkhurst style 'charger-loading' it would have been even a better arm).

[kragluver2]

We are in agreement on that!

Cost of production and time required to produce each rifle were certainly a factor in the decision to switch to a Mauser based receiver. A lot of lessons from the SAW with regard to rifle production came into play in addition to the performance differences.

The 30-40 was ballistically similar to the 303 British given equivalent bullet weights. The 30-40 would have served well in WW1. I cant see production of millions of Krag rifles occurring in 1914-1918 however.

[Cat Man]

I think we are too hung up on the technical design features. Find a copy of the book "MISFIRE" How America's small arms have failed our military. Chapter 18 details the political, industrial and military officer personalities that bucked and thrashed over the Krag. "Scandalous bureaucratic ineptitude" in the authors words. It is a well researched book. With 40 chapters, it covers failed American small arms procurement from the revolution through Vietnam and into the 1990's.

Jeff the Caterpillar Man

[Doubly Reincarnated]

Just ordered Misfire via ABE. Zowie, $85+, but your posts always make sense. In our beloved country, short-term politics is everything. Good ideas finish dead last.