The Krag M98

As the United States service rifle, the Norwegian-designed Krag-Jorgensen was produced at the Springfield Armory from 1894 to 1904. It was used in the Boxer Rebellion, Spanish-American War and in the Philippine-American War before it was replaced by the Model 1903 Springfield.

This may represent a fairly short reign as our standard-issue service rifle, although it’s a couple of years longer than the M14 — although the ’14 remained in limited service for far longer.

Back In The Hunt

Although the Krag and its rimmed .30-40 cartridge may have been “obsoleted” by various Mausers, not to mention the Mauser-copycat ’03, it found favor with many hunters in sporterized trim. Its .30-40 cartridge — while not the equal of the .30-06 — was reasonably close ballistically to the similarly rimmed .303 British, at least in 180-grain configuration as opposed to the original 2,000 fps 220-grain loading.

It was, and is, a perfectly serviceable number for North American big game. In fact, it was used to take the world’s record (until recently) Rocky Mountain elk in 1899 according to Barnes’ Cartridges of the World.

Any commercial loading you may encounter is pretty much restricted to the 180-grain weight. Winchester, Hornady and Remington offer excellent hunting loads (Power Point, SP Custom and Core-Lokt) approaching the 2,500 fps mark — still about right for a general-purpose deer, bear and hog load. Regardless of fad and fashion, 3,000 fps is not the critical yardstick for a viable big-game load used at real-world yardages. Handloaders, of course, can go heavier or lighter.

Surplus Krags were shockingly inexpensive for decades and were often the only available choice for many hunters, particularly when there was a world war going on. The term “buck-fifty” Krag wasn’t all that much of an exaggeration.

Divine Flaws?

There were several American Krag variants — Models 1892, 1896, 1898 and 1899 in both rifle (30″ barrel) and carbine (22″ barrel) configuration. Many “civilianized” Krag sporters — usually 22″ carbine variants — had the side magazine “chopped” and replaced by a flush-fitting hinged cover. It only cut the 5-round cartridge capacity down by a couple of rounds but kinda destroyed the distinctive “Krag Kool” look of the originals.

Unfortunately for the prospects of Krag longevity, the Mauser stripper clip system had gotten all the major powers hot and bothered, so the simple, single-loading virtues of the Krag system were relegated to sportsmen. You could stuff a handful of cartridges in and — as long as the bullets were pointed the right way — once you snapped the cover shut, you were good to go.

Another factor contributing to the ’03’s adoption was the desire for an action permitting a more powerful cartridge than the 30-40 Krag (or .30 Army) which the .30-03 and .30-06 were. The single-lug bolt of the Krag action as slick-cycling as it was, couldn’t handle the pressures the multi-lug setup of the ’03 could.

The machining required to produce this wondrous side-magazine today would make any attempt at a current “Krag” prohibitively pricey. Me? I had one once, loved it, and traded it away. The lesson? If you have a nice Krag, hang on to it. Dump it and you’ll regret it. Trust me on this one.

One period military holdover is the magazine cut-off, a small lever at the left rear of the receiver which allows single loading without tapping into the main 5-round payload sitting in reserve.

Most changes in the M98 variant were minor and included a slight redesign of the bolt handle and a reversing of the operation of the magazine cut-off lever from the previous versions.

Incidentally, a few other notable American rifles have been chambered to .30-40 Krag, notably the lever-action M95 Winchester, the Remington-Lee Model 1899 bolt action and, much, much later, Ruger’s nifty little single-shot No. 3 Carbine.

Tweaks And Touches

Our shooting buddy Doug Fee’s particular M98 specimen — obtained at auction six years ago for the enormously agreeable hammer price of $275 — had been left alone magazine-wise but had some sporting touches that would have put it in the state-of-the-art class back in the day. Stock-wise, it has a checkered pistol grip and Schnabel fore-end, a suitably vintage and still relatively pliant Red Head recoil pad and an add-on sling swivel band.

But the pièce de résistance was a Lyman 1A peep sight set in a milled dovetail on the cocking piece. This little item gave you a choice of two aperture sizes in a remarkably inconspicuous package. I’ve seen a lot of Krag sporters with larger, more elaborate receiver sights, usually Redfield, Williams or Lyman M48s but this little Lyman is small, efficient and uncomplicated. I’ve also seen scoped Krags, but most have featured side-mounts, or rarely, a Scout-type forward mounted setup if your tastes run that way. Mine doesn’t.

Supremely Shootable

Our test ammo menu was restricted to Winchester Super-X 180-grain Power Point that proved to be an excellent load in the Krag. Out of the 22″ barrel of our carbine sporter, it averaged 2,308 fps. Since Doug had seen fit to bring along his unaltered full-length (as in 30″) 1898 rifle, we were curious to see what kind of velocity boost an extra 8″ of barrel would impart. It turned out to be considerable — clocking an impressive 2,639 fps and crowding .308 territory by our reckoning. Pretty interesting, although not quite enough to justify wrestling 49″ worth of overall length through the deer woods.
One thing worth mentioning is the very pleasant level of felt recoil of the Krag. Maybe it’s just me, but the older I get, the less I like getting kicked. After shooting Doug’s little sporter, I began to see why some troopers bitched about the ’03 Springfield.

In terms of accuracy, we were limited to what ammo we could come up with. But those 180-grain Winchester Super-X Power Points pretty much stayed at well under an inch for 3 shots.

For most of my life, I’ve heard old-timers rhapsodize about how smooth the Krag action is. It won’t take you long to realize they were right. One front locking lug was stout enough to handle the .30-40.

The trigger on our sporter was nice and crisp. We actually compared it to a dead-stock ’03 Springfield. Both broke at just under 3.5 lbs.
While it’s true the rock-bottom price of surplus Krags made them a tempting object for sporterizing, this is no longer a viable excuse or one making financial sense. A recent 1898 rifle — in what was described by Gunbroker.com as resembling “Unissued Mint” condition — boasted a starting bid of $3,000.

But fear not, previously sporterized carbines can be found for a lot less.

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