Krag–Jørgensen


The Krag–Jørgensen is a repeating bolt-action rifle designed by the Norwegians Ole Herman Johannes Krag and Erik Jørgensen in the late 19th century. It was adopted as a standard arm by Norway, Denmark, and the United States. About 300 were delivered to Boer forces of the South African Republic.
A distinctive feature of the Krag–Jørgensen action is its magazine. While many other rifles of its era use an integral box magazine loaded by a charger or stripper clip, the magazine of the Krag–Jørgensen is integral with the receiver, featuring an opening on the right hand side with a hinged cover. Instead of a charger, single cartridges are inserted through the side opening, and are pushed up, around, and into the action by a spring follower. Later, similar to a charger, a claw type clip would be made for the Krag that allowed the magazine to be loaded all at once, also known as the Krag "speedloader magazine".
The design presents both advantages and disadvantages compared with a top-loading "box" magazine. Normal loading was one cartridge at a time, and this could be done more easily with a Krag than a rifle with a "box" magazine. In fact, several cartridges can be dumped into the opened magazine of a Krag at once with no need for careful placement, and when shutting the magazine-door the cartridges are forced to line up correctly inside the magazine. The design was also easy to "top off", and unlike most top-loading magazines, the Krag–Jørgensen's magazine could be topped up without opening the rifle's bolt. The Krag–Jørgensen is a popular rifle among collectors, and is valued by shooters for its smooth action.

Early development

The 1880s were the decade where smokeless powder came into general use, and the calibre of various service rifles diminished as new small-bore, high-velocity cartridges using smokeless propellant were developed. Many nations adopted repeating bolt-action rifles using such cartridges during this decade.
Even though Norway had adopted the repeating Jarmann rifle in 1884, it was soon clear that it was at best an interim weapon. Ole Krag, captain in the Norwegian Army and director of Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk, therefore continued the development of small arms, as he had since at least 1866. Not satisfied with the tubular magazine of the Jarmann rifle and his earlier Krag–Petersson rifle, he enlisted the help of master gunsmith Erik Jørgensen. Together, they developed the capsule magazine. The principal feature of the capsule magazine was that instead of being a straight box protruding below the stock of the rifle, it wrapped around the bolt action. Early models contained ten rounds and were fitted to modified versions of the Jarmann—though they could be adapted to any bolt-action rifle.
In 1886, Denmark was on the verge of adopting a new rifle for its armed forces. One of the early prototypes of the new rifle was sent to Denmark. The feedback given by the Danes was vital in the further development of the weapon. The test performed in Denmark revealed the need to lighten the rifle, as well as the possible benefits of a completely new action. Krag and Jørgensen therefore decided to convert the magazine into what they referred to as a half-capsule, containing only five rounds of ammunition instead of the previous ten. They also, over the next several months, combined what they considered the best ideas from other gunsmiths with a number of their own ideas to design a distinct bolt action for their rifle. The long extractor, situated on top of the bolt, was inspired by the Jarmann mechanism, while the use of curved surfaces for cocking and ejecting the spent round was probably inspired by the designs from Mauser. For a time after the weapon was adopted by Denmark they experimented with dual frontal locking lugs, but decided against it on grounds of cost and weight. The ammunition of the day did not need dual frontal locking lugs, and the bolt already had three lugs—one in front, one just in front of the bolt handle, and the bolt handle itself—which were considered more than strong enough.
The rifle had a feature known as a magazine cut-off. This is a switch on the left rear of the receiver. When flipped up, the cut-off does not allow cartridges in the internal magazine to be fed into the chamber by the advancing bolt. This was intended to be used for when soldiers were comfortably firing at distant targets. After each shot, the soldier would take a round out of his pouch and load it directly into the chamber as if he was using single-shot rifle. The rounds in the magazine are thus held in reserve. If the enemy suddenly charged or the soldier was ordered to charge, the soldier could then retract the cut-off for up to five rounds of rapid shooting. The M1903 Springfield that replaced the Krags had a magazine cutoff, as did the SMLE until 1915.

Danish Krag–Jørgensen rifles

After strenuous tests, Denmark adopted the Krag–Jørgensen rifle on July 3, 1889. The Danish rifle differed in several key areas from the weapons later adopted by the United States and Norway, particularly in its use of a forward hinged magazine door, the use of rimmed ammunition, and the use of an outer steel liner for the barrel.
The Danish Krag–Jørgensen was chambered for the 8×58R cartridge, and was at least in the early years used as a single shooter with the magazine in reserve. It stayed in service right up to the German invasion of Denmark on April 9, 1940. Danish Krags were given the German identification code Scharfschützen-Gewehr 312.

Subtypes of the Danish Krag–Jørgensen

While information on the various subtypes of the Krag–Jørgensen used in Denmark has proven difficult to find, at least the following subtypes were manufactured:
  • Rifle M/89, stocked almost to the muzzle, no hand guard, straight bolt handle and an outer steel liner for the barrel. This weapon is typical of the period in having a long barrel and stock without pistol grip. Was originally issued without a safety catch; instead, a half-cock notch on the cocking piece/firing pin assembly served this purpose. In 1910, this weapon was modified by the addition of a manual safety, which was placed on the right side of the receiver just behind the closed bolt handle.
  • Cavalry carbine M/89 and engineer carbine M/89, wooden hand guard, shorter than the other carbines. The two designs differed only in placement of the barrel bands and the cavalry carbine's lack of a bayonet lug. The cavalry carbine M/89-23 design added a bayonet lug.
  • Artillery carbine M/89-24 and infantry carbine M/89-24, differed only in placement of the sling-swivel, and look like short versions of the rifle M/89.
  • Sniper rifle M/89-28, an alteration of the rifle M/89 with a heavier barrel and a wooden hand guard, micrometer rear sight and hooded front sight.

    American Krag–Jørgensen rifles

Just like many other armed forces, the United States Military was searching for a new rifle in the early 1890s. A competition was held in 1892, comparing 53 rifle designs including Lee, Krag, Mannlicher, Mauser, and Schmidt–Rubin. The trials were held at Governors Island, New York, and the finalists were all foreign manufacturers—the Krag, the Lee, and the Mauser. The contract was awarded to the Krag design in August 1892, with initial production deferred as the result of protests from domestic inventors and arms manufacturers. Two rifle designers, Russell and Livermore, even sued the US government over the initial selection of the Krag, forcing a review of the testing results in April and May 1893. In spite of this, an improved form of the Krag–Jørgensen was again selected, and was awarded the contract. The primary reason for the selection of the Krag appears to have been its magazine design, which could be topped off as needed without raising and retracting the bolt. Ordnance officials also believed the Krag's magazine cutoff and lower reloading speed to be an advantage, one which conserved ammunition on the battlefield. This magazine design would later resurface as a distinct disadvantage once U.S. soldiers encountered Spanish troops armed with the charger-loaded 1893 7mm Spanish Mauser in the Spanish–American War.
Around 500,000 "Krags" in.30 Army calibre were produced at the Springfield Armory in Massachusetts from 1894 to 1904. The Krag–Jørgensen rifle in.30 Army found use in the Boxer Rebellion, the Spanish–American War, and the Philippine–American War. A few carbines were used by United States cavalry units fighting Apaches in New Mexico Territory and preventing poaching in Yellowstone National Park. Two-thousand rifles were taken to France by the United States Army 10th–19th engineers during World War I; but there is no evidence of use by front-line combat units during that conflict.
The US 'Krags' were chambered for the rimmed "cartridge, caliber 30, U.S. Army", round, also known as the.30 U.S.,.30 Army, or.30 Government, and, more popularly, by its civilian name, the.30-40 Krag. The.30 Army was the first smokeless powder round adopted by the U.S. military, but its civilian name retained the "caliber-charge" designation of earlier black powder cartridges. Thus the.30-40 Krag employs a round-nose 220-grain cupro-nickel jacketed.30 caliber bullet propelled by 40 grains of smokeless powder to a muzzle velocity of approximately 2000 feet per second. As with the.30-30 Winchester, it is the use of black powder nomenclature that leads to the incorrect assumption that the.30-40 Krag was once a black powder cartridge.
In U.S. service, the Krag eventually proved uncompetitive with Mauser-derived designs, most notably in combat operations in Cuba and the Philippines during the Spanish–American War. It served as the U.S. military's primary rifle for only 12 years, when it was replaced by the M1903 Springfield rifle in 1906 and many units did not receive it until 1908 and later. Surplused Krags were given to the US Navy where they remained in second line service well into the 1930s. US Marines were still using Krags in Nicaragua in the late 1920s.