Bolt Action Rifles. Wayne Zwoll

is not to be fired and put on safe instead, then pull back on the safety hook, swing the hook upright and ease it forward or release it to fall forward. Either way the rifle won’t fire because the twin projections on the end of the safety no longer align with the notches of the striker sear, thus halting the striker well before the striker tip (firing pin tip) protrudes from the bolt face. With the safety in this position the hook obscures the sight line and locks the bolt closed. To fire the rifle, the striker must be cocked again and to do this it has to be pulled back via the safety and the safety swung to the left.

      I imagine this is the reason why this rifle is called the Hook Safety rifle. Anyway, before the safety hook can be swung to the left, it is being held back far enough so that when it is swung all the way the action is cocked and ready to fire. Closing the action, putting it on safe and cocking it again cannot be quickly or conveniently done. One reason the safety is not conveniently operated is due to the puny finger hook.

      Disassembly in the field of the firing mechanism surely posed a greater threat of losing parts at both ends of the bolt.

      This bolt has not a single commendable feature, or at least I have not found it.

      The trigger mechanism is a simple, but rather crude one comprised of the trigger, sear, sear spring and two pins on which these two main parts pivot and are held in place. On the front end of the sear, and extending upward through a hole in the receiver, there is a pin. There is a matching groove cut into the bolt body so that unless the bolt is fully closed the trigger cannot be pulled to fire the rifle. This same arrangement is used on the later Arisaka rifles as well as in the P-14 and M-17 Enfield actions.

      The trigger guard and magazine plate is a one-piece machined steel unit with a hole at each end to accept the two guard screws which thread into the receiver to hold the action in the stock. The magazine floorplate is detachable and held in place by a spring-loaded catch positioned in the front of the guard bow. Fitted between the trigger guard and receiver is a sheet metal magazine box. The magazine follower is also a sheet metal stamping and it is provided tension by a zigzag wire spring fitted to both the floorplate and the follower. This is the first high-powered action I have ever seen using spring wire for a follower spring.

      All in all, this action is well made but poorly designed. In particular, both ends of the bolt. For example, take the bolt head. Field-stripping this bolt while on anything other than a bare floor or bare ground, the bolt head assembly could easily be lost, and if not the entire unit, the extractor and/or the ejector could be more easily lost. I have come across quite a few German M88 Commission rifles with the bolt head missing or the extractor gone, probably due to having been lost. This surely is a deplorable arrangement for a military rifle.

      A close-up detail of the hook safety.

      The rear end of the bolt is just about as bad. This action could have been made to fully cock on the up-swing of the bolt handle, but instead it was made to cock on the closing of the bolt. This is not altogether bad, but I see no rhyme or reason in the design of the hook safety. To begin, the hook is too small. Rather than being designed as a safety, it appears to me that the hook was put there in order for the soldier to recock the striker in case of a misfire, but with the hook is too small to do this with ease. And as for a safety, after the action is cocked, this hook can only be swung down requiring that it be pulled back a slight amount first. When swung down, the striker is then put on SAFE. However, there is no positive halting point to stop the swing of the hook until its end touches the stock and then it is not easily swung back again. It is crude to say the least.

      And cruder still is the entire cocking mechanism. Not having any instructions on how to disassemble the bolt and firing mechanism it took me hours to figure it all out. Anyway it was no wonder why this Hook Safety rifle with its rather complicated action was replaced by the Type 38 rifle.

      Conclusion

      A great many Japanese rifles were brought into the United States by G.I.s after WWII, and many more were imported and sold by dealers in military surplus arms, so the total number in the U.S. must be great. Many of them will remain souvenirs and many of the better specimens and the rarer ones are in collections or will be obtained for this purpose.

Krag-Jorgensens: U.S., Danish and Norwegian FdH

      U.S. Krag-Jorgensen Model 1898 rifle.

      THE CALIBER 45-70 single shot “trapdoor” Springfield rifles and carbines had served the United States Army quite well since 1873, when the model was adopted. By the late 1880s, however, military men were discontented with it, and it was felt that a smokeless-powder cartridge and a repeating rifle to handle it were needed. Some of the other world powers had already adopted these changes, including France (8mm in 1886), Germany (8mm in 1888), England (303 in 1888) and Belgium (7.65 mm in 1889). To work toward this change, boards of inquiry were appointed to look into the selection of a suitable new rifle and cartridge, to determine by test the best rifle to adopt and manufacture. In 1890, some 53 rifles were submitted (some were nearly alike or minor variations of the same action) for the tests.

      Among the rifles submitted were the Lee Magazine system, Mauser (Belgian M1889), Swiss Rubin, French Berthier, German Commission M1888, Mannlicher, Savage and Krag-Jorgensen. Incidentally, the Savage was an early version of the M99, a lever action with rotary-spool magazine. As a result of these trials, the Krag-Jorgensen (with some modifications to be made) was adopted in 1892, with a royalty to the inventors.

      This rifle was a joint invention of two Norwegians: Capt. Ole Hermann Johannes Krag and Erik Jorgensen. Denmark had already adopted their design in 1889, but Norway waited to do so until 1894.

      Adopted with the new rifle was a new 30-caliber cartridge. Using a rimmed, bottlenecked case, it was the first U.S. military cartridge loaded with smokeless powder— officially the “30 Army” or “30 Government” or, more popularly, the “30-40 Krag.” More on the cartridge later.

      Although officially adopted in 1892, it was not until 1894 that Springfield Armory (Springfield, Mass.) was sufficiently tooled up to begin making the Krag. Meanwhile, and for several years after 1892, the old 45-70 Springfield continued in service use. In fact, not enough Krags had been made by 1898 to arm all of our soldiers who fought in Cuba during the Spanish-American War, and many of the old 73s were used in that short but costly conflict.

      The Krag Rifles and Carbines

      All U.S. Krag rifles and carbines are marked on the left side of the receiver roughly as follows:

      U.S.

      MODEL (year) SPRINGFIELD

       ARMORY (serial number)

      Only rifles were made at first, these the M1892. On this rifle, the word MODEL was omitted from the receiver marking and they were stamped 1894, indicating only the year they were made.* The M1892 (marked 1894) has a 30” barrel with a flat muzzle, a ramrod under the barrel, a square-toed stock, and no trapdoor in the buttplate. The first deliveries were made in the fall of 1894.

      A very few test M1892 carbines were also made. These had a 22” barrel, were stocked nearly to the muzzle and had a ramrod. All military U.S. Krags were made without a pistol grip.

      Some changes were made, and a Model 1896 rifle and carbine were brought out—and so marked—in that year. The muzzle was crowned, the ramrod was eliminated, and a 3-piece sectional cleaning rod, to be stored in a hole in the buttstock through a trap in the steel buttplate, was furnished. The buttplate toe was rounded also.

      The M1892 Krag rifles already in use in the field were returned to the armory and converted to the M1896 pattern. To identify these converted models, look for M1896 features on those pieces bearing the 1894 date.

      The first real carbine