^^ which is why my go-to deer rifle is a custom lightweight Krag sporter carbine, full length Mannlicher stock, with ghost ring rear sight and three flush Pachmayer sling swivels so I can use a "Ching Sling". It was built back when Colonel Cooper was mooting a Krag type action as a Scout Rifle action as one of the study-rifles for the Scout Rifle Conference. Cooper smiled when he saw it, and smiled more after he shot it.
The Krag rifle itself suffers from a locking system that only makes it suitable for cartridges of .30-40 pressures, but the magazine system would be adaptable to a stronger action without problem. The .30-40, BTW, is an excellent deer cartridge and was our first martial smokelss-only cartridge. Like the .30-30 the description is the caliber (.30) and the grains equal of a black powder loading. It was, however, never loaded with black powder.
I might mention that one of the features required for the Scout Rifle, as defined at the Scout ifle Conferences, was the ability to quickly reload "from the top", without interferance by a telescopic sight. The two branches of the tree were use of a forward mounted scope ahead of the action, and stripper clips or single cartridge loading, or a side-loader like the Krag where a normal scope could be used. We never considered the Krag ACTION to be suitable, but much study was made of the magazine. Bear in mind that at time suitable scopes for mid position mounting were only available from Burris, and in only one model, so we looked very carefully at an action that would allow conventional scope positioning while retaining fast "top up" loading. Nothing was as good as the Krags system. In the end is was easier to get scopes built than a new rifle action, and that's one reason the Scout Rifle looks like it looks today. I should write a long post about the development of the Scout Rifle, from Krag to Remington 660, to CZ, to Remington Model 7, to Steyr, the .308 v/s .350 Rem Mag concept, and "Why the Ruger Scout Rifle is not a Scout Rifle". Maybe when I get bored I will. In any event the design studies for that concept fits neatly with this concept.
Study the magazine system if you are serious about the design of a perfect tactical "zero-feature" carbine. Stripper clips allow you to rapidly load an EMPTY rifle. Krag style loading allows you to "shoot one, top up one, shoot two, top off two" as tactical reloads while maintaining the rifle closed and able to be employed immediately even when being reloaded. Think about this: You essentially need to shoot a Garand empty before reloading, or manually open it and eject a partially loaded clip "into thin air" and then replace that with a fresh clip in order to continue. Not exactly the best tactical reload. Stripper and en-bloc clips are inferior to the Krag in this important regard. You can "top up" a Krag while keeping it at your shoulder if you know how.
Willie
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