Sometimes it just pays to hit the 'text books'. I certainly have gotten my money's worth and great pleasure from the works of Franklin B. Mallory, Ludwig Olson, and William Brophy (and Richard Hosmer, too)! I think I'll take a vacation and read their works cover to cover, instead of jumping around for specific information, as I'm inclined to do. Rifling information contained in Mallory's "The Krag Rifle Story", 2nd edition, confirms that the early Danish Krags had 'Rasmussen rifling' that was derived from Metford rifling. This was replaced around 1925 with a concentric rifling (which reminds me a lot of a Model 1867 (11.5mm) Danish Rolling-Block, I use to have). The 'small bore' smokeless era probably prompted many earlier ideas to be retried.
The 'Cole elliptical rifling' was influenced by the Lancaster Oval bore rifling. Dr. W.F. Cole, of Waco, Texas, may have been the first to apply this old idea to small bore, high velocity, jacketed bullets. Springfield tests in 1902 showed some minor improvement in accuracy to 500 yards in the Krags equipped with the Cole barrels. Apparently, several 1902 Krags were fitted with Cole barrels for International Matches, held at Ottawa in that year. Bullet jacket stripping with the Krag, 2,200fps ammo, (This ammo was later abandoned, due to bolt lugs cracking), appears to have prompted, November, 1900, tests with gain twist and Metford rifling. Apparently, tests showed no advantages to these other rifling types. Mallory presented the Springfield version of 'Metford rifling as using four lands and grooves.
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