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The Krag-Jørgensen is a rifle design by the Norwegians Ole Krag and Erik Jørgensen. They designed various types of rifle between 1888 and 1935.
The main distinctive feature of the Krag-Jørgensen action is its magazine. Unlike other rifles of its era, the Krag-Jørgensen's magazine was not a box magazine. Instead, it was part of the rifle's main action, featuring a side-mounted opening covered by a hinged cover. The cartridges are inserted through the side opening, and are pushed up, around and into the action by a spring follower.
This presents disadvantages compared with the standard top-loading "box" magazine; among other things, using a "stripper clip" to reload is impossible. At the same time, unlike a standard bolt-action magazine, the Krag-Jørgensen's magazine can be topped up without having to open the rifle's bolt. The relative complexity of manufacturing this magazine is possibly one reason why few countries adopted the Krag-Jørgensen.
Today, the Krag-Jørgensen is a popular collector's rifle, and is loved by shooters for its smooth action.
The 1880s was an interesting period in the development of modern firearms. During this decade smokeless powder came into general use, and the caliber of various service rifles shrunk. Several nations adopted small caliber repeating bolt action rifles 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 (the government weapons factory), therefore continued the development of small arms as he had been since at least 1866. Not satisfied with the tubular magazine of the Jarmann rifle and his earlier Krag-Petersson rifle (adopted by the Royal Norwegian Navy in 1876), 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 was fitted to modified versions of the Jarmann — though it could be adapted to any bolt action rifle.
In 1886, Denmark was on the verge of adopting a new rifle for their 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 indicated 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 probably was 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 on 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 where considered more than strong enough.
All production rifles up World War 2 also featured a magazine cut-off, allowing the shooter to keep his magazine in reserve and use the rifle as a single shooter.
After strenuous tests the Krag-Jørgensen rifle was adopted by Denmark in 1889. The Danish rifle differs in several key areas from the weapons later adopted by the USA and Norway, particularly by the use of a forward hinged magazine door (as opposed to downward hinged), the use of rimmed ammunition and the use of a outer steel liner for the barrel.
The Danish Krag-Jørgensen was in 8x58R, 0.31 in (7.87 mm), 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 1940-04-09.
Like many other nations, the USA was also searching for a new rifle around the 1890s. A competition was held in 1892, comparing rifle designs from Lee, Krag, Mannlicher, Mauser, Schmidt-Ruben, and about 40 other military and civilian designs. The trials were held at Governors Island, NY. Despite protests from domestic inventors and arms manufacturers, the Krag-Jørgensen in an improved form won the contract. Two designers, Russell and Livermore, even went as far as suing the US government over the choice. The rifle was formally adopted by the United States in 1892 to replace the single shot Springfield. Around 500,000 'Krags' were produced at the Springfield Armory in Massachusetts from 1894-1904. It was the American military's main rifle from 1894 to 1907 and found use in the Spanish-American War and the Philippines.
The US 'Krags' were chambered for the rimmed 30-40 round, also known as .30 Army. The .30-40 Krag was the first smokeless powder round adopted by the U.S. military, but it retained the "caliber-charge" designation of earlier blackpowder cartridges. Thus the .30-40 Krag employs a .30 caliber (7.62 mm) bullet propelled by 40 grains (3 g) of some smokeless powder. As with the .30-30 Winchester, it is the use of blackpowder nomenclature that leads to the incorrect assumption that the .30-40 Krag was once a blackpowder cartridge.
The Swedish-Norwegian Rifle Commission started its work in 1891. One of their first tasks was to find the best possible caliber for the new weapon, which was found to be 6.5 mm (0.256 in). The round of ammunition is known as variously as 6.5x55 Scan, 6.5x55 Mauser, 6.5x55 Swedish and 6.5x55 Nor, but they are all refering to the same round. Despite rumours in the early years of the 1900s, the norwegian ammunition can be used from swedish mausers and visa versa. Once the question of ammunition was settled, they started looking at a modern weapon to fire their newly designed round. The processing was modeled on the US selection possess performed in the same timeframe, and considered, among other things, sharpshooting at different ranges, shooting with defect rounds, shooting for speed, and tests to see how easily the weapons rusted. How easy the rifles were to disassemble and reassemble was also tested. After the test, three rifles was shortlisted:
About fifty Krag-Jørgensen rifles were produced in 1893 and issued to soldiers for field testing. The reports were good, and a few modifications incorporated in the design. The Norwegian Storting (parliament) decided in 1894 to adopt the Krag-Jørgensen as the new rifle for the Norwegian Army. It is worth noting that Sweden instead adopted a modified Mauser in 1896. A total of more than 200,000 rifles were built in Norway, at a time when the population was less than three million people and Norway had yet to make money of the rich oilfields in the North Sea. The various subtypes of Krag-Jørgensen replaced all rifles and carbines previously used by the norwegian armed forces, notable the Jarmann M1884, the Krag-Petersson and the last remainding Remington rimfire rifles.
During the German occupation of Norway (1940-04-09 to 1945-05-08), the German forces demanded that Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk built weapons for the German armed forces. Despite placing large orders, both for the Krag-Jørgensen, the Colt M1914 (license produced Colt M1911) and 40 mm anti-aircraft guns, this was countered by sabotage and slow work by the employees. Out of the total of 13,450 rifles ordered by the Germans, only between 3,350 and 3,800 were actually delivered. To begin with, the orders was for standard M1894s, but during the war the model was altered to be more like the German Kar98K in the exterior. Experiments with using 7.92 mm ammunition also took place.
A few Krag-Jørgensen rifles were put together after 1945, for sale to civilians for hunting and sharpshooting. While there was at no point plans to re-equip the Norwegian Army with the Krag-Jørgensen, attempts were made to adapt it to fire more modern, high powered ammunition like the 30-06 and 7.62 mm NATO rounds. While it was found to be possible, the cost of the conversion was about the same as a new gun with a more modern design. The last Krag-Jørgensen in production was the m/1952 Elk-rifle, of which 470 was sold during the 1950s.
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