Collecting and Shooting the Military Surplus Rifle (2006)

Light Loads for the Norwegian Krag Carbine M1912/16

Article Written by: Jamie Mangrum

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Have you ever purchased a collectible firearm in an odd caliber and then it just sits in your safe, never being shot? This is me! Over the years I have purchased all kinds of rifles like this. This article is about one such firearm. I purchased my Norwegian Krag carbine a couple of years ago. The Norwegian Krag is chambered in 6.5x55mm Mauser. Actually a much lesser powerful version of the Swedish 6.5 cartridge. I make this statement because I have read that the bolt and receiver of this rifle cannot handle the full powered modern version of the cartridge and require something considerably less than 45,000 psi. The term "being loaded to Krag specs" has been stated when referring to the 6.5x55 cartridge loaded for the Norwegian Krag . Whether this is fact or fiction, I really do not know. But, since I value the bone structure of my face and my life in general I have been in no real hurry to take my Krag carbine to the range and test out this theory. I searched the web for reloading info but always to no avail. Then Surplusrifle.com's Mark Trope brought to my attention a powder produced by IMR Smokeless Powders. The powder I reference is IMR SR 4759.

IMR SR 4759

IMR Smokeless Powder States: This bulky handgun powder works great in the magnums, but really shines as a reduced load propellant for rifle cartridges. It's large grain size gives good loading density for reduced loads, enhancing velocity uniformity.

Web Address: http://www.imrpowder.com/sr4759.html

Mark suggested I also take a look at the SPEER Reloading Manual #13. He said that a lot of the rifle calibers listed in the manual also had "reduced load" information as well. He was correct! I found reduced loads for just about every bolt action military rifle I owned. For the 6.5x55mm Mauser, the manual offers the following reduced load data:

Powder	Bullet	Charge	Muzzle Velocity
IMR SR 4759	.264 120 gr (6.5mm Spitz-SP)	15 grains	1673
IMR SR 4759	.264 120 gr (6.5mm Spitz-SP)	17 grains	1911

IMR SR 4759	.264 140 gr (6.5mm Spitz-SP)	15 grains	1570
IMR SR 4759	.264 140 gr (6.5mm Spitz-SP)	17 grains	1797
Bolded Charge Denotes Maximum Loads
CAUTION: Please only use reloading information supplied on this site after you have referred to your own reloading manuals and have deemed the load to be within specifications and safe for your firearm. If you cannot then do not use the recipe.

I already had 140 grain .264 bullets sitting on my reloading bench so I decided to load both 15 and 17 grain loads to see which performed the best. This is where my adventure begins. Finding IMR SR 4759 to purchase is not as easy as I thought. No local store had any in stock. When I asked them to order it for me they said no. Not to be discouraged I finally found it online at a company called Powder Valley, Inc. They have it available in four and eight pound containers ranging in price from $55 to $99. IMR Hodgdon powder was kind enough to send me a sample for the article.

One note about ordering gun powder online or through mail order: Besides paying for shipping, you will also have to pay a Hazardous Materials Fee (Haz Mat Fee) to have gun powder or primers shipped to you.

What is a Haz Mat fee?

A Hazardous Materials Fee (Haz Mat Fee) is charged to any ground order containing powder, primers, fuse or gun cleaning liquids over one quart. This fee is per package with a max gross weight of 70 lbs/package. Smokeless powder and primers can be combined (up to 50 lbs) under one Haz Mat Fee.

SPEER Reloading Manual #13

SPEER States: The original bible of reloading, and still the number one reference worldwide. More than 700 pages of how-to information with charts, illustrations, and photographs. Over 9,000 powder loads, plus bullet data, detailed ballistics tables, bullet energy and velocity tables, special techniques sections, problem solving section and much more. An indispensable tool for every reloader's bench.

Web Address: http://www.speer-bullets.com/default.asp?s1=5

I picked a very beautiful Saturday to sit down in the garage and work up my reduced loads. Lately I have really strayed from the path of reloading. I really only reload a fraction of what I used to do. I blame this on several factors:

I just do not have enough time lately to reload as it can be a time consuming effort.
I have become less prejudiced against the use of surplus (and most of the time corrosive) ammo. Heck, it only adds a few more minutes per rifle when cleaning.
My garage is too dang hot in the summer time. I like to be comfortable and focused when reloading and sitting in a sauna is not conducive to the proper frame of mind required to handle materials with explosive properties.

I have a large quantity of "once fired" 6.5x55 brass and I set about depriming and resizing. Within moments I had broken the depriming pin on my die. Crap, it was not replaceable! To my surprise very little words of the colorful expletive persuasion exited my mouth I was still in a great mood. I smiled at my wife and told her I was going on an adventure to find replacement parts. One way or another I was going to shoot the Krag the next morning. I drove across town to the store where I had purchased my dies from and discovered to my dismay that they had changed the amount of square footage they devoted to reloading equipment. To save space they had decided to only carry calibers that fit into the Huntin' persuasion and they did not consider the 6.5 x 55 to fit into this category. No, problem...it was still a beautiful morning and I could drive to another store that was only 30 miles a way. I called the store to see if they had what I needed in stock, but they were too busy to check. I was willing to take a chance they had it in stock and decided to go anyways! I was on a mission and I was not going to fail. I call it "mission", my wife calls it "psycho". I called my wife and told her I would be a little longer than I originally thought. I think she was irritated I had called in the first place so I figured she would not mind me being gone for half the day. Finally after about an hour and a half of city driving I arrived at the second store and asked if they had what I needed. They did not have a set of 6.5x55 dies but they did have a universal decapping die in stock. This could still work. I could decap with the new die, resize with the die I had broken the decapping pin, and then seat the bullet with the seating die. It would add additional steps to the process, but heck I had not planned to drive all over creation as part of the project so what was a few extra hours of work? I kept on reminding myself....complete the mission, complete the mission. Maybe my wife is correct? I arrived at home after lunch time and went directly into the garage. Within minutes I had broken the decapping pin on my new die. Now the colorful language poured from my mouth freely and unhindered. My wife would later comment that she heard some strange and loud gargling noises, that scared her, emanating from the garage. After finding my composure I discovered that some of the brass had lacquered primers. What had Jamie done wrong? He had not inspected the brass properly. This would have prevented all of the traveling and additional cost to begin with. Hopefully I have learned this lesson the hard way. I sorted out all of the offending brass and luckily I had purchased extra pins for my new decapping die and was able to get it back into service quickly. By 2pm I was finally churning out the reduced 6.5x55 cartridges.

Norwegian Krag Carbine Model 1912/16 Specifications
Length	43.6 inches
Barrel Length	24 inches
Weight	8.8 lbs.

General Krag Information

The Krag-Jorgensen is a repeating bolt action rifle designed by the Norwegians Ole Herman Johannes Krag and Erik Jorgensen in the late 19th century. It was adopted as a standard arm by Denmark, the United States and Norway. The most distinctive feature of the Krag-Jorgensen action was its magazine. While most other rifles of its era used a box magazine, the magazine of the Krag-Jorgensen was integral with the receiver (the part of the rifle that houses the operating parts), featuring an opening on the right hand side with a hinged cover. The cartridges were inserted through the side opening, and were pushed up, around, and into the action by a spring follower. This presented both advantages and disadvantages compared with the standard top-loading "box" magazine; among other things, using a "stripper clip" to reload was impossible. At the same time, unlike a top-loading magazine, the Krag-Jorgensen's magazine could be topped up without opening the rifle's bolt. The relative complexity of manufacturing this magazine is possibly one reason why few countries adopted the Krag-Jorgensen.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krag-J�rgensen

Top View of Norwegian Krag Carbine with Bolt and Magazine Closed.

Top View of Norwegian Krag Carbine with Bolt and Magazine Open.

Right Hand View of Krag with Magazine Closed.

The Norwegian Krag carbine is a thing of beauty. It has some of the prettiest lines I have ever seen grace a military rifle and believe me I have seen a few. It is light in weight, narrow, sleek, and ergonomic to hold. Like all Krag rifles the operation of the bolt action is like slicing a knife through warm butter.

The overall fit of metal to wood is outstanding. They have not made rifles like this in 90 years (an intended joke since this rifle was made in 1916).

To load the carbine you just flip out the magazine and feed in the cartridges (as shown in figure 5). Like other military rifles of the time there is a magazine cutoff that closes off the magazine and does not allow the bolt to grab the next cartridge. You can then load rounds from the top of the receiver one at a time. I found that no matter what I did, the bolt did not want to engage the next cartridge and strip it from the magazine, regardless of the position of the cutoff. I ended up leaving the magazine cutoff engaged and loaded from the top one round at a time.

Very Interesting Rear Sight in Rear Position.

Very Interesting Rear Sight in Forward Position.

Front Nose of Carbine. Note the Band Encircling Stock to Rear of Bayonet Lug.

The ammo was very light! For accuracy I had the opposite problem that you normally have with a mil-surp rifle - the rifle shot low. I would aim at the bullseye and would get a group about 6 inches low at 100 yards. This was pretty much consistent with both loads (15 and 17 grains). There was zero noticeable recoil and overall it was just plain fun to shoot the carbine and the reduced loads. I am going to have to try this for some of my other rifles. It is nice to know that if all you are doing is punching holes in paper you can work a light load that is accurate, does not make you flinch to shoot, and does not leave bruises on your shoulder.

The Krag carbines are not easily found in a non-sporterized, original military configuration as shown in this article. That is a shame. Periodically you may see one at a gun show or in a local shop. They usually range from around $500 and up in price. They are a very odd and beautiful piece of history that will get a lot of attention at the range. During the shooting session for this article I had at least half a dozen fellow shooters approach me and ask me what it was. I would tell them it was a Norwegian Krag in 6.5 x55 caliber and most would smile and ask - you rebarreled it? I would smile and say "Nope, it came off the show room floor that way."

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Article Written by: Jamie Mangrum