got an offer to buy a semi sporter Kraig 30-40

One thing that needs to be noted is that Krags can crack the locking lug even with 40,000 PSI "safe" ammo, probably the result of high pressure military rounds years ago starting the process.


Be sure to inspect the locking lug area VERY carefully before shooting it.
 
Sweet rifle that I have always admired from afar... An historical note; Roy Rogers had a commercially sporterized .30-40 for his deer/elk rifle.
 
You could have the bolt Magnafluxed or dye penetrant tested.
Or the Poor Man's Magnafux, a dip in gasoline and look for gas weeping out of a crack.

Or look at the bolt rib-safety lug. In a US Krag it is not supposed to touch the receiver. (The Norwegian Krag had the rib bearing to hold 6.5x55.)
 
I have a friend who wound up with a Krag Carbine in a trade that was missing the stock. He spent 5 years in vain searching for an original one.
 
There has been a ton of Krag stuff on EBay for some reason. I saw an original carbine stock there in the past year, but the person listing it, knew what it was, and it wasnt a $35 stock. Ive seen a number of original full size stocks as well. Some of the stuff is pretty pricey, other stuff, you can get some pretty good deals, especially if your looking to put an bubba'd old shooter back into something more in line to what it was.
 
I have 3. One from my grandfather, one from my father, and one that I purchased (my first deer rifle). All 3 are sporterized. It is very difficult to find one that is not. They were usually purchased for deer rifles.

Sweet shooting rifle. Recoil is not bad........especially if the buttplate has been replaced with a pad. Componants are still available. Buy the brass and save it. 150 and 180 grain work well for deer and elk. All 3 of mine seem to shoot about 1 1/2 MOA. Not bad at all for military barrels. Definitely minute of deer.
 
Trying to recover stolen 30-40 Kraig

About 1978 my home, in Highlands TX, was burglarized and my grandfathers 30-40 Kraig rifle was stolen. I filed a police report and followed up but there was no real police interest in recovering the rifle. At the time I was not savvy at much of anything so years went by. Recently I got to thinking that I might be able to find it and buy it back from who ever may have it now. It looks a lot like the one pictured by SaxonPig. There were two fairly distinctive things about it. The stock was cut down quite short for me and it had the initials GW cut into the forearm of the stock. I do not have the SN of the rifle. It may have been restocked and if all that can be found is the stock I would even like to have that back but getting the rifle back would mean a lot to me. I am getting older and soon it will be time to give my firearms to my own son.

If this is not an appropriate post for this forum I will, of course respect your customs. I was drawn here by the two discussions on this firearm.

Should anyone know of this rifle or stock please call eight32 four14 three768.
 
hope you get yours back...

I was able to look at the rifle I was thinking about a couple weeks ago... NOS Springfield Armory "green" carbine barrel... The stock would be tough to tell it was not original except for the very well filled & touched up cleaning rod plug in the stock ( my understanding, the rifles had a cleaning rod, & the carbines did not ??? )

stock is in otherwise great shape with sharp military stampings

correct military sights... gun "looks" pretty correct

BTW... what was the purpose of the magazine block lever ???

BTW #2... probably will pick it up tomorrow :)
 
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George106- The reason the police were apathetic is because without the serial number there isn't much they can do. You can't really even prove legal ownership if you lack the serial because that's how a gun is legally ID'd. Always record serials and keep in a safe place.

WMW- The mag block was to allow the soldier to fire and load one round at a time from cover. The magazine would be used in situations requiring immediate recharging of the chamber, like when being rushed by the enemy.
 
Understand, the top brass making policy on infantry rifles learned their trade with single shots.

And resupply by mule was a big factor too.
 
so was the purpose to conserve ammo ??? slow things down??? seems kinda anti military, by todays standards

By today's standards, it does seem odd, but it was the policy of the era. Even the 1903 Springfield has a magazine cutoff.

The concept was that soldiers fired individual aimed shots. At identified targets (the enemy soldiers, primarily). Magazine capacity was to be kept "in reserve" so as to be available to repel attack. Suppressive fire was the job of artillery (if you had any) and those new fangled things they were calling machine guns, or to organized volley fire of squads, platoons or companies.

And this policy didn't change, really, until part way through WWII!
I have heard that rifle armed marines (Springfields) in the early Guadalcanal campaign were issued 40 rounds which was expected to last them two weeks in combat!

The Krag was a wonder, really. Vastly superior to the single shot it replaced. Unfortunately, the Krag was technologically inferior to the Mauser system.

TO me, the beauty of the Krag has always been the ability to dump rounds into the magazine in any fashion, as long as the bullet was to the front, the rifle would feed. No other bolt gun firing a rimmed case works as smoothly.

you can load a Krag wearing mittens, without much trouble. Might sound insignificant, but in the cold, its a different story.

The stripper clip system of the Mauser proved to be much better suited to combat than the Krag system, which is why the Krag passed in service to the Mauser pattern 1903 Springfield.
 
"so was the purpose to conserve ammo ??? slow things down??? seems kinda anti military, by todays standards"

Sort of...

The stated purpose was to make soldiers take their time and carefully aim.

It was thought that if a soldier had access to a whole magazine and was allowed to fire unrestricted, he'd just fire as quickly as possible without aiming.

That appealed to both the military AND to the bean counters in Washington who wanted any wars to come in on a strict budget.

The concept of mass firepower hadn't really come into its own yet, and wouldn't until World War I.

Even so, as late as well into World War II, state side firearms training emphasized slow, deliberate, aimed fire.

Once troops got to the combat zone, the veterans did their very best to demonstrate early and often that slow, deliberate, aimed fire was pretty much worthless in a modern combat arena.
 
Even so, as late as well into World War II, state side firearms training emphasized slow, deliberate, aimed fire.

Precisely

Training given recruits, even through the end of the war, in some places, put the emphasis on "see, aim, and shoot the enemy".

While this does work, it works best on the target range. Combat vets learned fast, (and taught it to replacements as best they could) that what works better is "shoot anywhere the enemy might be" IF in doubt, shoot. Shoot more than once...
 
You can buy a new Winchester 1885 carbine in 30-40 Krag.

As far as I know, this is the only rifle currently in production that offers that chambering.
 
picked up the rifle today... it does have some deep staining on the front of the stock ( could be blood ??? although it's nearly black ), & about 1/4" chipped corner at the top, behind the box "door"
My buddy also sold me 100 NOS unfired Remington cases ( which is nice, as it looks like cases can be hard to get ), for $30.00, Remington cases are out of stock at Midway, but are $54.00 per 100... so that was a good deal as well

( I'll try to get a couple pictures up later )

I don't have dies yet, but many are in stock... one set I'm looking at ( because of the price ) is a Lee Pacesetter 3 die set... I'm wondering if I'd ever use the factory crimp die on this cartridge ??? seems a light taper would easily be enough, since the cases are loose in the box ??? if that's the case, the RCBS 2 die set is slightly more money, & has the better locking rings, so are probably a wash, if I'd never use the Lee factory crimp die ???

BTW... anyone load this with cast bullets ??? might be a good rifle for cast...
 
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I think the main reason so was the soldier wouldn't be caught with an empty magazine if the enemy suddenly rushed his position.

Bang... load... bang... load... bang... load... bang...

Holy crap! Here they come!

Bang... bang... bang... bang... bang...
 
I never found the RCBS roll crimp to be inadequate in my usage.

And, trying to "make" a crimp groove by smashing one into the bullet with the FCD really shouldn't be a consideration. Krag throats are very long. With just about any bullet you might want to shoot, it's best to just seat to the cannelure and crimp.
(Long, Round Nose bullets are your friend. Uncannelured bullets like Sierra MKs are not likely to work well.)

I ran primarily Hornady 220 gr RNs in mine. Like most Krag owners, I found pointy-bullet performance to be unsatisfactory.
 
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