|
|
Some years back, my father got a tool along with some other “stuff” in a complicated trade (the kind he specialized in). Neither one of us knew what it was for, but it looked like a military rifle maintenance tool. It had two blades with different sized screwdrivers on the end of each, along with a small diameter rod at 90 degrees to one of them. I kept it with my other unidentified gun stuff, but did not do much to track down what it was for. Eventually, I saw an identical tool on a gunshow table. It was for the Krag. On the same table were several Krags in various guises. Most were “sporterized” (with varying degrees of success), but there were a couple of original rifles and a carbine. I did not know much about the Krag, but I started to learn more. The Krag had a short history. It was adopted in 1892 and withdrawn from service in 1907. Its active life was even shorter than that. The first rifles were delivered in 1894 and production ended in 1903, after less than a decade. But a lot was learned from the Krag and much of it went directly into its replacement, the 1903 Springfield. In spite of their short service, Krags are generally well spoken of whenever anyone talks about them. The Krag shot a small-bore, high-velocity, smokeless powder, jacketed cartridge from a bolt-action, magazine rifle. Quite a change from the 45-70 Trapdoor Springfield it replaced. Most Krags were made as rifles with a 30” barrel. A smaller number were made as carbines with a 22” barrel. During the few years it was produced, there were an endless number of changes, revisions, variations and reworks. In particular, the rear sights went through an unusually large number of changes. I quickly found that a REAL carbine is worth a LOT more than a rifle. And, there are a lot of fake carbines out there. Only an expert can follow all the changes and I have seen self-described “Krag experts” disagree on a particular gun. Krags were surplused and sold to US citizens in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Many were butchered, some were kept in military trim, and some were professionally sporterized. You will see the terms “NRA Sporter” and “Bannerman Conversion” if you spend much time looking at Krags. I don’t know if I have ever seen a real one, but the ones I have seen that claim that are trim, light, tight, and good looking. They are also almost as expensive as true Krag carbines. Again, if you are not an expert, you will likely never know for sure if it is a true NRA or Bannerman conversion. I never paid much attention to Krags before, but it is easy to spot them. The “sideways” magazine and “cut-away” stock are a giveaway. I soon noticed that although Krags in original military condition were expensive, most of the sporterized ones were fairly cheap. Of course, most of them were “bubbaed” rather than sporterized, so they were not worth much. Stock butchering was a common problem. One of the common mistakes I saw was putting a stock with a high comb on a gun with a peep-sight or original sights. Others had the original low-comb stock with a high scope. The variations were endless. Most were bad. However, a few were really nice looking. They went for a little more, but (at least in my mind) they were a bargain. Eventually, I found one that had been sporterized by someone who knew what they were doing AND it was at a reasonable price. I bought it. When I got it home, I started gathering more information on it. My Krag was originally an 1898 version of the rifle that was actually built in 1899. The barrel had been shortened to 22”, like most sporterized Krags are. Luckily, this one had a professional looking crown and a ramp-type front sight that had been installed straight. At first, I could not find the screwholes in the barrel that once held the rear sight. I eventually found them at about 45 degrees off-center. That was strange. They were plugged with screws and finished off flush with the surface of the barrel. The barrel had been beautifully reblued afterward. The main part of the action still has case-hardening showing. I did some checking and found that the barrel had been set back and rechambered so there is less of a jump to the rifling for the 180gr RN bullet (when compared to the original 220gr RN bullet). That was the reason for the offset rear-sight screws. I borrowed a headspace gage and checked the fit. It was correct. Someone had done the job right. The inside of the barrel was not in perfect condition, but I have shot worse that were still accurate. Both the bore and grooves were strong and bright, but slightly frosted, undoubtedly caused by corrosive primers at some time in the past. The Krag is noted for having an extremely smooth bolt throw. This is not an exaggeration. The bolt is operated conventionally, although it cocks opposite of more recent rifles. I really don’t know why some people dislike that. I pulled the bolt (that is a little tricky) and checked the SINGLE locking lug with both a 10x magnifier and some dye penetrant I had laying around. There were no cracks of any kind visible. The trigger is a conventional two-stage military trigger. I decided not to mess with it. The “magazine” is a heavy box on the right side of the action. It has a large thumb lever on top. Push the lever to the right, drop in five loose cartridges, then close the box. It has a cutoff lever on the left-rear of the action that kept cartridges in the magazine from feeding. Standard procedure was to use the Krag as a single shot and only feed from the magazine when in danger of being overrun. Not so far different from military rifles today that have semi-auto and full-auto levers. There was an original Lyman 48 peep-sight installed. The horizontal adjustment knob had been broken off, but I was able to move the threads with needle-nose pliers. The rest of the sight is in good shape. Interestingly, the Lyman 48 sight for the Krag is the mirror image of the same sight for the 03 Springfield, Mauser, and most other bolt actions. The Krag sight mounts on the left side of the action. The newer Williams peep-sight (and most other Lyman sights) mounts on the right side. Having handled rifles with both, the original Lyman (left-mount) sight is definitely better. The right-mounted sights interfere with opening and closing the Krag magazine. The stock was not original. It had a low comb (which matched the peep-sight) and an old, rubber recoil pad. Unfortunately, the recoil pad was starting to crack with age. I pulled off the stock and saw that the interior was not up to the standards of the outside. The woodwork was pretty much hacked up inside. I decided to refinish the stock and glass-bed it at the same time. First thing that came off was the recoil pad. I got a new one and matched it to the shape of the stock. Since I was going to refinish the stock anyway, this was easy. Then I bought one of Brownell’s original glass-bed kits and bedded the front of the stock. This is from the front of the magazine to the front of the stock. That was also simple. Then I looked at the rest of the stock (from the front of the magazine to the rear of the action). This is a lot more complicated in a Krag than in a normal bolt action. It looked like bedding that was going to be difficult – VERY difficult. So I did some thinking. I had a piece of steel tubing that was just about right for the bolts that hold the action – 1/4”ID and 1/2”OD. That looks like a pillar! I drilled out the hole in the stock for the rearmost tang bolt (the long one). With a hacksaw and a file I carefully fitted the “pillar” to the top and bottom rear steel pieces. Then the pillar was glued into the stock. The whole trick is to keep the barrel/action absolutely level in the stock from front to rear. No bending allowed. I started to do the same thing with the front action-bolt (the short one). However, I realized that it was probably going to introduce a bending force into the gun regardless of how careful I was at fitting it. So, I drilled the hole in the wood oversized and let it float. The length of the steel sleeve was carefully fitted so that it holds the metal pieces the correct distance apart, but it does not introduce any bending force into the action. Unfortunately, the two bolts that hold the action to the stock are not enough to hold onto a sporterized stock. They are too close together and too far from the front of the stock. The original Krag used one (carbine) or two (rifle) barrel bands to hold the barrel and stock together. Various people have attacked that problem in various ways. Some just ignore it. I doubt that their guns shoot very well. What I did was use the middle band from a Krag rifle (or front one from a carbine). I filed a groove near the front of the stock, pushed the band over it, and tightened it down. It works great. Just make sure that the barrel fits flat and level in the stock before putting the band on so it does not introduce any bending. After all the fitting, finishing the stock was easy. The stock was sanded, stained lightly, and had three coats of TruOil placed on it. It looks nice. Now was time to shoot it. I bought a box of (expensive) 30-40 Krag cartridges and took it to the range. It shot very well. Then it was time for handloads. The cartridge is a conventional rimmed, bottleneck case. It is a little longer than the 30-30 WCF, but they look a lot alike. The neck is longer than most at 1/2“, about 1-1/2 times the bullet diameter. This makes it easy to seat long, heavy bullets and hold them without a heavy crimp. It seems that most loadbooks think highly of IMR 4350, but I decided to start with IMR 4831. It looks (from the loading books) like it is impossible to overload the Krag with 4831. Remember that the Krag is over 100 years old, has only ONE locking lug, and is limited to about a 42,000 to 45,000psi maximum load. I started with 150gr bullets and found that the Krag magazine does not like short, pointed bullets. Feeding them one at a time into the action worked OK, though. Accuracy was not bad. Then I bought some 180gr and 220gr RN bullets. Dummy cartridges with both bullets fed as smoothly as you have heard, although the 220gr bullets had slight rifling marks on them when they were ejected. I decided to work up some loads with the 180gr bullet and IMR 4831 powder. Some of my loading books gave the maximum load for this combination as low as 47gr, others went up to 50gr (compressed). I started with 42gr and worked up to 48gr. The case is totally full to the base of the bullet (no compression) at 48gr. There was some compression with 49gr, so I did not continue with that. The gun was accurate and there were no signs of excessive pressure with any load I tried, however, there seemed to be a definite “sweet spot” at 46.0gr (2,150fps). This is pretty mild for the Krag, but group sizes with that particular load were so small, I found them hard to believe (remember this is with iron sights). I will be shooting some more to see if the string of small groups continues. Even with this mild a load, it matches or exceeds 30-30 velocities and power. 48.0gr of IMR 4831 with the same bullet gave another 100fps (2,250fps). Groups were not bad with that load, but not as good as the 46.0gr load. Certain other powders are supposed to give up to 2,400fps with this weight bullet, but I don’t intend to “hotrod” this fine old gun. 46.0gr of IMR 4831 is just fine for me. The properly sporterized Krag is a light, quick-handling, and accurate gun. That is amazing considering that it is well over 100 years old. The Krag is a welcome connection with our past.
Harry O harryo@tconl.com
|
|
Copyright © 2004-2007
The Sixshooter Community
|
