Krag-Jorgenson 6.5mm

[ovenpaa]

I used to work for a Norwegian company and was discussing rifles over lunch with the head of corporate security and asked him if he knew of the Krag-Jørgensen which he did, he then went onto tell me a story as follows.

He was with a friend visiting a very old relative in his late 80's who lived in the Norwegian mountains when all of a sudden an even older chap cycled past, without a moments hesitation the old chap they were visiting ran upstairs, hauled an old 6,5 Krag-Jørgensen out of a wardrobe, stuck it out of the window and fired a shot. Of course the old chap cycling past almost had a heart attack as he wobbled around on his bicycle. Luckily he survived and stayed upright as well. They all laughed and went back to drinking whatever it is Norwegians drink in the afternoon. Aquavit probably.

Apparently this routine had been going on for many years....

[meles meles]

Didn't you offer to adjust the sights for him ?

[adage]

Here's a ikkle sneak preview, ooman...

Mmmm, tasty.

Looks very nice, even the sporterized checkering is quite tidy. Dare I ask what the bore is like and the state of the forend?

John

[Tower75]

I've seen some really rare stuff in my, relatively short, shooting-time, but I've never seen a Krag. Ever.

I'd love one, too.

I get the impression, though, that you'd firstly need £££ to get one, and the additional £££ to get the dies and cases, and bullets to feed her. Alas, I wouldn't be able to cope if I had one.

And at the moment I don't get to shoot enough to warrant the cost.

[meles meles]

Rare, yes, but expensive, not necessarily. Ours was eminently shootabubble as it was but we felt it fitting to have it put back in an original style stock rather than the sporter we acquired it in. In terms of ammunition, it eats standard 6.5x55 Swedish fodder: Norway and Sweden jointly designed that cartridge but selected different rifles in which to use it.

[dirtbag]

Here's a ikkle sneak preview, ooman...

Old post so apologies

Nice, that looks like an M51 Elgrifle, is there a date on the top of the reciever ?
If this is an M51 then I wouldn't touch it (alter it), as this is how they came out the factory

[Meaty]

Steve at MFL Classic Firearms has one for sale but it is 8mm flavour
http://www.gunstar.co.uk/krag-8-mm-rifl ... les/628215

[Laurie]

The review referred to was probably one I wrote many, many moons back in the days of the old Petersen Publishing based in Droitwich who had a stable of four magazines including 'Target Shooter' (predecessor of 'Target Sports') including another whose name I now forget but which was a specialist historic arms and armour magazine. ('Arms & Miltaria' or something like that.) I wrote the feature for Target Shooter but the editor of the historic arms job who also owned Petersen claimed it and published it in that rag.

The rifle was one I found in York Guns, back when it was in the pokey premises in King Street, York just above the notorious Kings Staithe and pub that is shown so often on the news whenever the Ouse floods. YG, in the form of its proprietor John Smith was VERY good at nosing out people's and institutions' collections for sale in those days - and there were a lot becoming available as the police had started to demand serious and very expensive security installations in schools and museums with cadet armouries or museum weapons collections. I don't know where the Krag originated, but it would have been around 1999, 2000, and was apparently a one-off acquisition. It was made by Waffenfabrik Steyr and was one of the thousand examples made there before Kongsberg started production. The serial number was in the five or six hundreds and I think it was dated 1895. The editor of the magazine got very excited about this and thought it might have been one of a number of rifles in this production lot that were diverted to one of the South African republics as the Boers tooled up in anticipation of a war with the Brits, which of course did happen. If this was the case, the rifle was worth serious money to present day South African collectors. I passed this info onto John Smith and his business MD Gary Hyde, but they weren't interested so far as I could tell and the rifle was sold in the normal manner either to an FAC holder, or possibly an RFD like Jeremy Tenniswood who specialised in historic stuff.

It was pricier than run of the mill stuff, but not silly money - I can't remember what now at this remove, maybe 450/500 sort of figure. If it had shot well, I've had been tempted - but it didn't, not with my 140gn Sierra MK handloads anyway. The trigger was diabolical too even by military rifle standards, and I didn't particularly enjoy shooting it. The magazine system worked as it said on the tin, and everything said about Krag action smoothness was true - very nice to shoot it in that sense.

[dirtbag]

Steve at MFL Classic Firearms has one for sale but it is 8mm flavour
http://www.gunstar.co.uk/krag-8-mm-rifl ... les/628215

I too have been pondering that one for many months, but I have come across a nice Krag Dane Engineer Carbine which I will stick my name on.

[ovenpaa]

DB, sounds nice, you need to get some pics posted when you get it and shout if you need any parts. I found a 1940's build recently that is all but new in appearance, a truly remarkable rifle however we already have a couple of 8x58RD's

BTW, you can use 54R brass for reloading and I have some dies here, alternatively you can use factory and there is still some from the 1960's although it is in short supply these days.