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 10 Krag Rifle Issued To 12th Engineers In WWI (Read 6011 times)
Dick Hosmer
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Re: Krag Rifle Issued To 12th Engineers In WWI
Reply #15 - Aug 6th, 2019 at 5:36pm
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Knute,

Your link is all that I have ever found. There must have been more, but it may not have survived.

BoOF = Board of Ordnance & Fortifications (sorry, I thought it was obvious)
  
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Knute1
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Re: Krag Rifle Issued To 12th Engineers In WWI
Reply #16 - Aug 7th, 2019 at 4:38am
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Reports on this subject are proving hard to find. The 1903 Chief of Ordnance Report only mentions that several rifle trials took place, but concentrated on the early 1903 Springfield design.

Here is another writing from the Plattsburgh Barracks that discussed trials being performed, but only talks of the early 1903  Springfield design and shooting similar loads in the Krag. It comes from the 1903 January issue of "Recreation".  I'll still be looking and trying different word searches.

GOVERNMENT EXPERIMENTS
The crack shots of the 23d infantry have just returned from Sea Girt with a store of information on rifles and ammunition. A number of experiments were made there by the Government. The new Springfield rifle was tested and found the most powerful military arm on earth. The new cartridge contains about 44 grains of smokeless powder and a 220 grain bullet. Its muzzle velocity is about 2,250 feet. The shell is a little over 2-1/2 inches long and much heavier than the old shell. It has a grooved head like the Mauser shell. Several Krag Jorgensen rifles were chambered for testing this cartridge but the gun action was too weak for such a powerful load. Breech bolts were broken so often that it was unsafe to experiment with the old army rifle.  A so called rifle without rifling was also tested and gave good results. If the new cartridge is ever taken up by sportsmen, gunmakers will have to design a new rifle. I am sure none of the old model rifles could handle this load.
A. J. Hubbard, Color Sergt. 23d Inf., Plattsburgh Barracks N.Y.
  
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butlersrangers
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Re: Krag Rifle Issued To 12th Engineers In WWI
Reply #17 - Aug 7th, 2019 at 5:51pm
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From Knute's last post:

"A so called rifle without rifling was also tested and gave good results".

FWIW - This is likely a reference to "Cole Rifling".

Dr. W. F. Cole, of Waco, Texas, applied 'Lancaster Oval-Bore Rifling' to small-bore barrels for metal-jacketed bullets.

A test of Cole rifling was conducted at Springfield Armory in July, 1902. Four model 1898 rifles were fitted with Cole barrels with one turn in 10" rate of twist.

They gave slightly better accuracy than service barrels at ranges up to 500 yards. A twist rate of one turn in 8" was also tested.

Apparently, accuracy improvement was not significant enough to merit adoption.
  
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Knute1
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Re: Krag Rifle Issued To 12th Engineers In WWI
Reply #18 - Aug 8th, 2019 at 3:07am
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Dick, I now feel your pain. I've tried many things, but have not come up with anything. I have run into some of your posts on other forums on this subject during my search, so I know you have been trying to figure this out for quite a while.

What I am going to say you probably already know. The 1903 ordnance report dwells on the "experimental Springfield rifle" with barrel lengths of 24", 26", and 30", pitting them against the 1898 Magazine rifle (30"). They soon after settled on the 24". The 26" Krag likely became a mute point and not worthy of reporting the trial results as the trials were probably close together during the same fiscal year. There had to be a report somewhere, but possibly not where it can be found on the internet. Likely in some stuffy folder in a file long forgotten if not thrown out like you are suspecting.

I do many searches to pass time and find stuff I'm not looking for all the time, but still of some interest. So perhaps in my unorthodox methods I may bump into a reference to your subject of interest and will post it.
  
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Knute1
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Re: Krag Rifle Issued To 12th Engineers In WWI
Reply #19 - Aug 20th, 2019 at 2:11am
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I went back to pull up the link for the history of the 12th, but it wouldn't bring the whole book up. This link will:

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+the+twelfth+engineers+u.s.+army&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi975GHr5DkAhVDOKwKHWBNDfU
Q6AEwAHoECAAQAg#v=onepage&q=history%20of%20the%20twelfth%20engineers%20u.s.%20ar
my&f=false
  
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