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Unread 06-16-2003, 11:20 AM   #4
unspellable
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The rimmed cartridge is not automatically a poor feeder in a magazine fed firearm. It depends mostly on the design of the magazine. The Krag was designed from the get go for a rimmed cartrdige and never had any feeding problems, and in fact has a reputation for being the slickest action of any bolt action, even better than the Mauser. The side gate makes it faster to load than a stripper clip fed magazine. You just flip the gate open and dump in a handfull of loose cartridges. Never had one jam. Quick to load while wearing thick mittens.

If one locking lug does the job, the second one is redundant. With the pressures we run today you probably need two, but back then they didn't believe in trying to get hyper velocity out of a short case. The Krag does have a second locking surface at the rear of the bolt as a safety meaure in the event the primary lug fails.

So I will still say that while the Mauser is a nifty rifle, the Krag isn't all that bad either.

Biggest practical difference was the service load. The Mauser round had a light spitzer while the Krag had a heavy round nose bullet, hence a bit slower. But that's the load, not the rifle.
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