Around 1890, the world of military riflery in particular was changing. Germany had adopted the Gewehr 88, often known as the 1888 Commission rifle, and the 7.9x57mm cartridge. The United Kingdom was using the forerunner of the famous Lee-Enfield, the Lee-Metford, and the .303 round.

The United States, though, was still equipping troops with the “Trapdoor” Springfields and its low-velocity .45-70 Government black-powder round. These were great rifles for the post-Civil War era, but the advent of smokeless powders and the smaller-caliber, high-velocity rounds they made possible meant that the United States Army and Marine Corps needed a new service rifle.

Interestingly, they turned to a Norwegian design, the Krag-Jørgensen.

The Krag Rifle

Norwegian designers Ole Herman Johannes Krag and Erik Jørgensen had been working on bolt-action rifle designs since 1885. Their Krag-Jørgensen rifle was unusual by today’s standards. It had an odd magazine that loaded through a spring-loaded, hinged port on the right side of the action and fed rounds underneath the receiver to be fed into the chamber from the left-hand side of the receiver. It was an odd design and ended up being Krag and Jørgensen’s only major success.

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Norway adopted the Krag rifle as its primary service weapon in 1894 and went on to use several variations, ending with the M1930 sniper rifle. Denmark used the “Rifle 1889,” “Carbine 1889,” and the “Sniper Rifle 1928.” The Norwegian and Danish rifles were built by the Norwegian manufacturer Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk.

In 1892, the United States decided to hold a competition for a new service rifle. Among the more noteworthy candidates were the Lee, the Krag, the Mannlicher, the Mauser, and the Swiss Schmidt-Rubin. After testing a total of 53 designs, including the 93/95 Mauser – more on that in a bit – the Americans decided on the Krag design. The Americans had certain requirements, including a .30 caliber, smokeless-powder cartridge, a magazine cutoff, and a knurled cocking piece. Those attributes carried over to the American Krag’s successor, the Springfield, and while the last one may seem odd to modern shooters, in those days primers weren’t as reliable as now. The U.S. military insisted that, in the event of a misfire, the shooter should be able to re-cock the piece and try again without cycling the bolt.

Here's a good look at a Krag carbine in action.

Part of the reason for the adoption of the Krag design was that odd magazine. Ordnance felt that a slower reloading time would prevent soldiers from firing too quickly and wasting ammunition, if you can believe that. These days, the U.S. military is big on accuracy by volume, and while ammo is and has been cheaper than losing battles, in those days attitudes were, well, different.

The contract was signed, and the U.S. Springfield Armory went to work building the Krag rifles in 1894. Production continued until 1904, a year after the adoption of the M1903 Springfield. In total, about half a million M1892 rifles, M1892 carbines, M1896 rifles, M1998 rifles, and a few other variations were built. The cartridge was the .30 US Government, better known as the .30-40 Krag, a rimmed case round firing a 220-ground round-nosed bullet ahead of 40 grains of nitrocellulose (smokeless) powder; thus the civilian appellation of “.30-40.” The round was a rough copy of the British .303 cartridge and had similar ballistics to early .303 loads, launching its 220-grain pill at about 2,000 feet per second. These days those ballistics wouldn’t blow up any skirts, but in 1894, it was respectable. As is often the case with military cartridges, the .30-40 became popular in the game field and was chambered in hunting rifles like the 1895 Winchester lever gun.

The Spanish-American War and the M93 Mauser

Then America went to war.

Part of the notion of the Krag design, with its side-loading magazine and magazine cut-off, was that not only could troops top up the magazine with single rounds while retaining a round in the closed chamber for immediate emergency use, but that they could stop the magazine feed and use the rifle as a single-shot, keeping the loaded magazine in reserve in case a dozed screaming Spaniards with fixed bayonets came charging at one’s position. But it was the Spaniards and their excellent new rifle, the 1893/95 Mauser, that effectively ended the Krag as the primary U.S. service rifle.

The U.S. troops, equipped with the side-loading Krag, were dismayed at the rate of fire the Spanish soldiers put out with their Mausers, with their five-round box magazines that quickly reloaded with stripper clips, whereas the Krag required one round to be loaded at a time. The 7.57mm Mauser cartridge also was a higher-velocity round with a flatter trajectory than the .30 US, which meant that the Spanish troops could engage effectively at a greater range.

Being outgunned, especially at range, tends to make troops feel maladjusted. Clearly, something had to be done; a new rifle was needed, something that could compete with the Spanish Mausers.

Then, This Happened

As it happens, the United States War Department, as was, took those lessons to heart. The Spanish Mauser lesson was not in vain, and the result was a clone, more or less, of the 1898 Mauser, namely, the 1903 Springfield rifle and its immortal new cartridge, the famous Caliber .30, Model of 1906, or as it is better known, the .30-06 Springfield. This round would go on to be used in not only the 1903 Springfield but also in the famous M1 Garand.

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Not only did the rifle break new ground, but it stayed in use with the United States armed forces in one form or another for decades, in fact, into the Vietnam era. As for the cartridge, it’s in a class by itself, being far and away the most popular big-game cartridge in the United States. I’ve never been able to confirm the claim that more big game animals have been killed with the .30-06 than any other cartridge (I think the .30 WCF, better known as the .30-30 Winchester, would be a contender for that claim) but I wouldn’t be surprised to find it to be true.

So in the end, the American Krag rifle ended up being one of the shortest-serving service rifles in American history, being a primary-issue weapon for only 12 years. But the Krag still had a place – in the surplus rifle market.

As It Stands Today:

You still see a fair number of Krag rifles for sale. I know a couple of folks right around here who have old surplus Krags as a primary hunting rifle, and as long as one pays attention to its range limitations, the old .30-40 round puts even moose down with aplomb. The Krag rifle retains its original virtues, with a smooth, fast action and a unique loading method that allows one to top up the mag while retaining a load in the chamber ready to shoot.

The Krag was the shortest-serving rifle in American military history. It wasn’t a bad piece; it was reliable, smooth, accurate, and for its time (pre-1898), fired a modern, smokeless powder, high-velocity round. It had the misfortune to be adopted at a point when smokeless powders were driving innovations in guns and cartridges at a furious rate, and also at a time when all bolt guns were measured against the Mauser and the Lee-Enfield – and the Krag, like many others, was found wanting.

It remains an interesting piece and a niche item for collectors. And that’s not nothing.