Krag-Jørgensen

Origins

Ole Herman Johannes Krag, an artillery officer and later director of the Kongsberg arms factory, and Erik Jørgensen, a gunsmith there, designed their rifle in the 1880s, when the European powers were racing to adopt magazine rifles. Denmark adopted it first, in 1889, in 8mm. The United States Army, which was still using the single-shot Springfield "trapdoor" in black-powder .45-70, held trials in 1892 against more than fifty designs, including the Mauser and the Lee, and chose the Krag. Norway, whose own design had helped start the project, adopted a version in 1894 in the new 6.5x55mm cartridge. The American rifle was made at Springfield Armory, which built about half a million rifles and carbines in the models of 1892, 1896 and 1898.

Design & Construction

The Krag is a turn-bolt rifle, but its magazine is unique among major service rifles: a horizontal box under the receiver, loaded through a hinged gate on the right side. The soldier opened the gate, dropped in five loose cartridges, and closed it, and a spring arm pushed the rounds under and around the bolt into the feed position. The magazine could be topped up at any time, even with a round in the chamber, and a cutoff let the soldier fire single rounds while keeping the magazine in reserve — but it could not be loaded quickly with a stripper clip, the great advantage of the Mauser. The American action locked on a single front lug, which limited the pressure of its .30-40 cartridge. The Krag was, however, known for its exceptionally smooth bolt. The US M1898 rifle had a 30-inch barrel and weighed about nine pounds; the cavalry carried a 22-inch carbine.

Combat Use

The US Army took the Krag to Cuba in 1898, where its regular regiments — among them the Buffalo Soldiers of the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantry — fought at Las Guasimas, El Caney and San Juan Hill. There it met the Spanish Mauser and was found wanting: the Mauser fired faster from stripper clips and had a flatter trajectory, and the lesson led directly to the M1903 Springfield. The Krag stayed in service through the Philippine-American War and the Boxer Rebellion, and was used for training in 1917. Norway's Krags were its standard rifle when Germany invaded in April 1940, and they were used in the fighting of that spring; Denmark's served until the Second World War.

Legacy

The Krag was America's first smokeless-powder service rifle and first bolt-action standard rifle, and its short service marked the transition from the black-powder army of the Indian Wars to the modern army of the twentieth century. Norway kept its Krags for target shooting and hunting for decades, and the 6.5x55mm cartridge became one of the world's great sporting rounds. American collectors prize original, unaltered Krag rifles and carbines, especially those with documented service in Cuba or the Philippines; many were sold off and cut down into sporting rifles, so original examples are becoming scarce.