Im looking for any Krag collectors in the Pittsburgh area to compare rifles as well as learn as much as I can about these fantastic rifles. I currently have a 1898 sporter. I do shoot and hunt with the 98.

I understand that the sporterized rifles have been done to different degrees and styles. Some butchered, some done with extreme care.

Of all the years I have hunted (19 years) I have never came across another hunter with one, well carrying one anyways. I understand they are obsolete, but still the smoothest action I ever got the chance to own.

please let me know if youre interested in comparing rifles, going shooting, hunting, dont matter to me. I have only came across a handful of Krags in my life, usually at gun shows or in dealers shops.

Im the only one I know with a Krag Rifle. All my friends thought the Krag is ugly, old, and incapable of matching the accuracy of their brand new shiny rifles.... until I put them in their place by out shooting every one of them at 200yds open sight at man sized targets. After that, they dont make fun of my ugly, old Krag.

Here in PA we hunt regularly with the 30-06 its a very universal round for bear elk and white tail, I have used the krag for bear, never shot at one yet. However I do prefer it to my remington model six as well as my remington 700LH, both chambered in 30-06. I have amused the idea of hunting bear with my Left handed Sako Custom 7mm mag. but feel its too expensive to traipse through the woods with.

Im not 100% sure, but I believe the ballistic measurements of the Krag very closely match the .308 win. Maybe not the ideal round for bear, but shot accurately, I feel its more than efficient. I also carry a .357 mag. Ruger Blackhawk just in case.

Here we dont have many brown bear, just black bear. A small population of elk, and tons of whitetail.

I usually load my own rounds for all the firearms I have. If you reload, I can give you all the measurements as well as the projectile I use for the Krag. I shoot a 175 grain boat tail with 40.336 (40.5g or higher may damage uncared for parts) grains of charge. Makes it a little faster without damaging the chamber. I get an extra 225+/- feet per second. Matched with the boat tail, it turns out amazing results under 500yds.

The K98 8mm Mauser is also a rifle that can be loaded without taking gloves off. However, the Krag is the only bolt action that can be loaded with a round in the chamber.

Just on the off chance you are talking about the Chaffee-Reese, it cannot be, as the bolt must be open before the trap (unless you want to break something). And, I know that you know that wasn't the first US bolt-gun, so I'm interested in a further explanation?

The Krag is certainly not the only one, of course.

I disagree on the Greene. The operation is exactly as you describe, but the weapon is not fully loaded until the complete (but "inverted") cartridge has been installed - from that point on one is just continuing a (rather strange and overlapping - since the "cartridge" is basically useless) cycle.

While not explicitly stated, I believe the premise under discussion was that a complete immediately fireable round is in the closed chamber, ready for use, while the magazine is being refreshed. The Krag qualifies. Any Lee does as well.

This discussion usually omits the myriad qualifying .22s, as the capability is normally cited as an advantage when dealing with dangerous game - number of legs not specified.

Quote:

kstone1020 wrote on Jun 7^th, 2011 at 4:29am:

Not Krag related, and I'm not a gunsmith, further I own exactly 1 aforementioned animal (325C), but my two minutes of knowledge on them:
The Stevens 325 was only chambered in .30-30.  Scratching the recesses of my brain I'm thinking that "spruce, Northwest, Winchesters, WW1" are about the only chance for .30-30 FMJ to exist?  So it's chambered for .30-30 soft-point hunting bullets.

The 325 (A) (B) have a different machining in the receiver than the 325(C) and Savage 340s.  325s are '47-'50 with Savage picking them up (340) and dropping the Stevens branded ones in '50.

That different machining affects the magazines - later magazines (325C and 340) won't fit early 325s correctly.  Removing some metal permits them to work.

Heck if I know, it's a family gun I never shoot as I have other, interesting, guns.  Uncle returns from WW2, buys deer gun, sticks in closet and never hunts.  55 years later aunt gives gun to me.  End of history.

kstone,
I'm sure it's got to do with the top rim of your 325 clip. I've never bought a clip rifle new that I didn't have to round and smooth the top edges, sometimes even bend them, to get the rounds to feed smoothly into the chamber. Probably the top shell (on the right?) feeds fine but the second shell coming from the left (or vice versa) is catching on the clip edge or chamber mouth due to its attitude when sliding out of the clip. Try loading one less shell in the clip and see if it still does it. As to your earlier point, yes you can load a clip magazine rifle with a round in the chamber but it's not nearly as simple as dropping shells (any old way) into the side magazine of a Krag and snapping it shut. I truly think this is one of the best features of the rifle, for military or sporting use - the ease of loading. It can be loaded with one in the chamber or without one in the chamber; you don't have to open the bolt to load it. Imagine trying to load two rounds into a partially loaded Springfield 1903 magazine while laying in a shallow muddy trench. First you have to open the bolt and eject the cartridge from the chamber, then you have to find that cartridge, then pull two rounds out of a full stripper clip and load them individually into the magazine. Mauser style claw extractors can only feed from the magazine, which inherently reduces their magazine capacity by one shell if its a box magazine (not a clip). The US Army seemed to think the Krag magazine was a disadvantage (in 1900) and opted for a Mauser type rifle but I think they were wrong; it wasn't long before they realized that they needed a rifle that was easier and faster to load and asked Mr. Garand to make them one prior to the next big war! Also, the 30-40 is ample for bear, deer and elk and many grizzly and moose were taken by them North of the lower 48. The Krag provides optimum velocity at typical ranges for standard jacketed bullets like a CoreLokt, Power Point or Sierra GameKing to work best.