Springfield 1898 S Plus Rifle Could

Flip the lever up, and the Krag feeds and shoots exactly like any other bolt action rifle.

Its a model 1898 Krag-Jorgensen chambered in.30-40 Krag, and its 111 years old.

Thats the same as Bilbo Baggins when he celebrates his eleventy-first birthday in The Lord of the Rings.

Thats seven years older than the state of Oklahoma and eight years older than the Model T Ford.

Springfield 1898 S Plus Rifle Could

During the lean years of the Great Depression, a cheap, easily-sporterized surplus rifle could mean the difference between eating meat and potatoes or just potatoes, especially in the rural, hardscrabble parts of America.

While considered underpowered today, its.30 caliber bullet traveling at 2000 feet per second meant it could effectively kill anything on four legs likely to be encountered in the lower 48 states.

A little searching revealed that the J, the S and the A are the initials of master armorer J.

Sumner Adams, showing the rifle had been accepted for use by the US government.

My grandfather and namesake, Roy Hale, was himself born near the end of 1900, close to the time when this Krag was made.

The strange, right-side box magazine with its rolling internal feed lever is a contraption from the time when the candlestick telephone was still a magical creation of modern technology.

When my rifle was made, nobody outside Ohio had ever heard of either Orville or Wilbur, and Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, was just another lonely stretch of empty southern beach.

For being 49 inches long, it is surprisingly lively and balanced.

I was amazed at the difference in feel between it and my Model 96 Swedish Mauser, also made in 1900.

But compared to the Krag, it hefts like a chunk of oak planking.

I think its because the extra metal of the Krags weird mechanism puts more weight between the shooters hands, instead of in front of them, like with the Swede.

Some have written that the Krags bolt is one of the smoothest ever designed.

Out of all my rifles, only my Remington 700 from DL Sports in Wyoming has a smoother, easier bolt.

The Krags bolt is smoother than my Swedish Mauser, my Winchester Model 70, and my Ishapore 2A Enfield.

I can push my thumb against the angled flange atop the long metal box on the right side, and it flips open.

Five cartridges drop neatly into the opening, and a little pressure on the outside of the flange causes the lid to snap shut.

On the left side, up near the bolt is the magazine cut-off lever.

With the lever down, the five cartridges in the funky magazine are kept in reserve, and the rifle has to be fed one cartridge at a time.

Springfield 1898 Serial Numbers