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| Article by Jamie Mangrum | ||||||||||||||
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My first experience with a Krag was with a Norwegian carbine chambered in 6.5 Swedish Mauser. I have to admit that I was intrigued. The action was indeed as I had always heard...as smooth as warm butter. I get at least an email per day asking me when we are going to add an American Krag section to the site. I have been collecting for quite awhile and the Krag was one of the last major categories to elude me. I finally decided about six months ago that I would save up and pick up an 1898 rifle for the site. I looked around locally and the pickings were very slim and I did not like the idea of spending the $695+ price tag through an online auction to buy a specimen sight unseen. For this much cash layout I wanted a taste before I decided to buy. Basically I wanted to peer down the bore and know I was investing my money wisely. I saved up $800 and decided my chance to find a good specimen would be at the Reno Big Gun Show in March of 2006. Several weeks before the show I was mentioning my plans to a friend of mine and he said that he happened to actually know a guy who had a Krag and was planning to sell it at the show. He said the guy was a collector and would probably want about $1000 for the rifle. I decided to check it out. We met several weeks prior to the show. From the outside the rifle was immaculate. When I peered down the barrel I was disappointed. It was not very promising at all. I asked if I could run a brush down the pipe and see if I could stir things up a bit. After running the brush through I was able to see the beginnings of rifling. I was anxious to get one and the cosmetics of this particular rifle were too nice to pass up. I thought that with some work I could get the rifling to where it needed to be so I moved ahead with the purchase. I was able to get it for $800 and decided that even if I could never make it a great shooter I could at least use if for the photo work on the site and eventual manual. I shudder to think I even had this thought. Imagine buying a rifle and not worrying about whether you could even shoot it. My calm mindset was short lived. As soon as I got home I started to panic and question my judgment. What the heck was I thinking? I am a real compulsive personality when it comes to my procurements. If a buy does not turn out the way planned and I lose money on a deal then I am a bear to deal with at home. This is not one of the things my wife loves about me. This is one of the reasons I buy most of my collection from situations where I can actually lay my hands on the firearm and look it over before moving ahead. I did not want a wall hanger and $800 is a heck of a lot of money to just lay down for something I can never get the enjoyment of shooting from. This fueled my determination to make this turn out in my favor. I spent hour and hours in the garage cleaning the bore with little success. I was starting to really worry. I took the evening off and figured I would approach it fresh the next day. The next day I went over and showed it to my friend Paul (Popeye in the forum) and asked him if I was wasting my time or not. He said I should keep working at it. That he had seen a lot worse turn out good and he handed me some oversized bore brushes and sent me on my way. I went back home and decided to use an I love my guns electronic bore cleaner to see if I could break up some of the gunk in the bore. It worked. I finally started to see some promising rifling! Finally after soaking the bore with solvents, rigorous brushing and piles and piles of patches I finally had a shiny bore with very clean and defined rifling. I started to relax and was now confident that I had made a good investment. The proof would be in the shooting, but I was now very hopeful that it would perform at the range and not just be a pretty face hanging on the wall. |
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I drove to the Reno Big Show and actually took my 1898 Krag rifle (figure 1) with me to show off
to friends. I was really proud of my new purchase. The drive over the
mountain pass was a harrowing
experience in a raging snow storm but I arrived in one piece and
went into the show. It was Thursday, the day before the
show opened up to the public and an opportunity to walk
through the show and scoop up some good deals before
anyone else had a chance. I had some money but really
only enough for books and accessories. Literally right as I walked
into the entrance of the show there was a 1899 Krag
carbine (figure 2) sitting on a table. It was the very first thing
I saw. I looked at the price tag and sighed because I
did not have the $900 it would require to take her home
with me. I took a look down the bore - excellent! There
would be no
work to clean her bore and I noted that
everything was original and intact. I sighed again and
then walked onto find my friend's booth. That day every single
time I would walk in or out of the show I would see this
little carbine. It was calling out to me. I thought
about her all evening and toyed with my finances to see
how I could pull it off. I decided I should just let the
idea go.
The next morning I arrived about ten minutes before the show opened and walked in. I picked up the Krag carbine and a voice came out of me that I was not in control of. It was like I was watching myself do something stupid remotely on a television screen. I asked if they took credit cards. The man said no and I felt very relieved because if I had gone through with the deal I might as well stay in Reno and not go home. My wife would kill me. I smiled at the seller and started to walk away. As I walked away I heard the seller ask a guy at another booth next to his if they could take a credit card transaction for him and then write him a check for payment. The other man said - sure we can. Oh, crap! I was on the hook and surely headed for a divorce. My feet seemed to have a mind of their own and I walked right back to the seller's booth and before I knew it I had handed over my credit card to his friend who promptly rang up the sale. One part of me was relieved because I had seen other specimens at the show and online and this one was very nice and fairly priced. On a competitive note I had deprived someone else of her as she probably would have been sold in the first half hour of the show. I now had a American Krag family that would make any collector proud to own. |
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Saturday morning I was worried because the storm over
the pass was getting worse and I wanted to get home to
explain and defend my purchase to my wife. I walked into the
parking lot to where my truck was parked and found
a damaged heap. At first I thought that I had parked
somewhere else and thought the poor guy that owned this
wrecked heap was really going to be unhappy when he came
out. That is when I saw the license plate. It was mine.
The note left on the windshield said a very large commercial vehicle had hit
ice and slammed into the back of my truck. Loud and very
colorful explanatives poured from my mouth and I kicked
the truck several times. I had so much guilt for
spending the money on the carbine I have to admit that
the thought actually went through my demented mind at
that moment that I was in some way being punished for my
transgression of the purchase. I was so angry I drove
all of the way home without a left tail light and a
tweaked rear axle through a raging snow storm.
After I got home and figured out what I was going to do with the heap of metal I affectionately used to call my truck I sat down and calmly started oiling the metal and working the bolts. I finally started to understand the admiration collectors and hunters had for the Krag. They are beautiful and elegant firearms. |
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The Krag is a very important milestone in weapon lineage
for the United States. It was the very first U.S. service rifle that was a bolt action and fired
a small caliber, smokeless powder, metallic cartridge.
Many
variations of the U.S. Krag over the years were produced
including the following:
My two Krags (bolded in list above) are the culmination or final form that the American Krag eventually became. Meaning they were both produced at the end of the military life span of the Krag and incorporated most of the changes, modifications, and improvements that occurred over the service life span of the American Krag. Both sport the Model 1901 rear sight. The Krags were well liked by troops but were doomed because of the single front lug design that allowed only for lower pressure cartridges and the magazine loading system did not lend well to the use of clips for loading. In 1904 the Krag was replaced by the U.S. Model 1903 Springfield Rifle as the U.S. service rifle but still saw limited service through WWI and after. By the 1930s the military had sold off its stocks and the Krag became an inexpensive sportsman's rifle. |
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Top view of the 1898 Krag rifle with magazine gate closed. |
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Top view of 1899 Krag carbine with magazine gate open. Note straight cocking piece. |
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Side view of the Model 1901 rifle rear sight. |
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Top view of the Model 1901 rifle rear sight. |
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Left hand side of 1898 Krag rifle. |
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Left hand side of the 1899 Krag carbine. |
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| Loading an American Krag is an easy process (figures 15, 16, and 17). Open the magazine gate and insert five cartridges. Close the gate and cycle the bolt to load the first cartridge into the chamber. Its unique magazine system gave the soldier the ability to load cartridges while having a cartridge loaded in the chamber. | ||||||||||||||
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Figure 20 shows how my rifle
performs. This was my best 5 shot group at 100
yards of the morning. I read once that the Krag
surpassed the 1903 in accuracy in everything but
distance. Now I understand the Krags. These are phenomenal
rifles and carbines. Yes, they are underpowered
for a modern battle rifle...but who cares? They
work beautifully and are a joy to shoot with
minimal recoil. Who could ever ask for more? Not me. Most Krags have been handed down as an inheritance from a family member that most likely sporterized the rifle in some manner and used it for hunting. Up until 1931 the Krag was sold to American sportsman and collectors for amazing dollar amounts even by today's standards from $1.50 to less than $20. The Krag represented an affordable way if not the only way for hunters in the early part of the 20th century to purchase a bolt action rifle chambered in a smokeless powder based cartridge. The 30-40 Krag cartridge is capable of downing most if not all game in North America. A large percentage of Krags went this way and served many years harvesting deer, year after year. You can purchase sporterized Krags today from gunshows, online auctions and local stores for between $200 and $500 depending upon condition. A Krag in original military configuration brings a high premium because of scarcity. I rarely see intact specimens and spent the dollars described in this article because I knew that I had better if I ever wanted one. The Krag is not a rifle for a general collector who is just starting out. The Krag in my opinion is the type of rifle you obtain after you have been collecting for a number of years and have purchased all of the obligatory and inexpensive Mausers and Mosin Nagants and are ready to spend more to get something out of the ordinary. Basically it is not the rifle for the faint of heart when it comes to laying down money for a collectible. You can find good to very good specimens on the online auctions starting at about $695. The rifle or carbine will be intact and will have very little finish but will have a fair to good bore and the most important thing is it will be shootable. But, if you are already used to purchasing M1 Garands, M1 Carbines, and 1903 Springfields then you probably will not bat an eye at the prices. The Krag is a fine weapon worthy of our admiration and praise. I have never been a collector that could see myself collecting just a single weapon. With the Krag I think I could. As you can tell from my writing of this article that I am still alive and I am happy to say not facing a divorce...yet. | ||||||||||||||
| Article by Jamie Mangrum |
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