Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 30-40 Krag... Any fans? Who hunts with the 30-40?

Several years ago I saw a Stevens single shot in 32-40, but it was no near as nice as the rifle pictured above

Answer to 10gaugemag Where does the line start to buy a rifle like that?

A long story of how I came to own it. I was in high school, 1954, & found it in a small gun store. Our family had a 30-03 and 2 boys.

I knew that if I was to have one I had better buy it. It is not all orig. but that is fine. I have almost sold it when needing $$$ raising a family.

I am to the stage where I am giving my kids, grandkids,and great grandkids my guns. So it will be leaving here some day before long.

This is the single shot rifle I have always wanted.

Yep, Stevens alrght, appears to have been redone as the bluing is in good shape. Another tell is the wood on the beavertail forearm doesn't match.

I bought it via a online auction, caliber was unknown at the time. Was pretty happy it was a 30-40. Gail at CPA helped me out with a firing pin and a couple of screws, they sure build some beautiful rifles.

Unless I'm mistaken, I think the original 44 1/2 frames were all case hardened. Mine still has over 50% of the case hardening left and the bluing on the original .22 LR barrel is still deep and lustrous. My great-grandfather purchased it new along with the J. Stevens 6x scope with external adjustments.

That sounds like a pretty special gun.

I had one years ago,

Regrettably, I’ve never run into a nice one when I had the money. I guess it will remain a void in my experience.

OTOH, for my use, Eastern whitetails in mixed hardwoods and brush, I lump all the major .30s into the same well, lump. My .308s get loaded like Krags or .300 Savages, and the ‘06 like a .308. If I had a .30/40, especially in a Krag, I’d probably load it like a .30/30. The parties on either end likely wouldn’t notice much difference.

The 30-40 Krag always fascinated me but so far I've never owned one. Part of my interest in it has been from all my 303 British loading and shooting over the last 25 years and the similarities of these two cartridges. Perusing this thread reminded me of an old Elmer Keith quote where he stated that, "The old Krag hits hard". Can't recall where I read it or who was the author quoting Elmer but this interesting thread brought it back to me.

It is pretty nifty! Stevens never chambered the 44 1/2 for large bodied cartridges like the .30-40 (and big BPCR cartridges) because it was deemed not up to snuff. Strong design but limited by smallish barrel tenon diameter, best limited to cartridges of .30-30/.32-40/.38-55 head diameters. It's why Paul Shuttleworth designed the CPA copy of the 44 1/2 action to be wider with a larger barrel shank, and made it out of modern high strength steel alloys and not the low carbon case hardened steel that Stevens employed. You can make a CPA work with anything you can shove into it, not so much with a Stevens.

I’m a fan of the Krag, both rifle and cartridge. Have hunted with mine a bit but never much luck. Still hold out hope. 😁

Used to own one. I killed game with it. Always with handloads and always with 220 grain RN bullets. It was a very cool rifle and very accurate.

No complaints at all.

A Krag story of ignorance compounded by youth.
My father, who could have afforded any reasonable cartridge/rifle combination returned to the .30-40 after every digression into 'faster, better, newer'. When he was killed, I inherited his guns of course. Of the rifles, at that time, he had only an 1895 Win in .30 Army, and a 1898 Springfield Carbine. Also was a big box of mixed ammo. The ubiquitous factory Peters 180's of course and some good looking (Remington Bronze Points) ammo marked reloads. Without much thought, I burned up the ammo over the next few years in both rifles, hunting, rock busting, but I was mildly annoyed that the Buffington, at it's lowest setting still shot high with the reloads. Finally, after burning up more than a hundred rounds, I pulled down one of the reloads, yikes..a compressed load of 4350, 180 gr Rem Bronze Point....obviously intended for the 1895. I called my uncle, told him what I had done. He reassured me, told me that my Krag had been sent to a machinist retired from Benicia Arsenal, who gave it 'the full treatment' (?). He said that part of the rebuild was a bolt re- heat treatment, 100% bearing surface fit so that the front and rear lugs bore evenly, and headspace adjustment. In 1938 when this took place, my uncle claimed my dad got 'taken' for 40 dollars, twice what the rifle cost originally. Lucky me, the Krag took it all in stride, now it gets a pure diet of published safe loads.

More pics?

Rifle specifics?

Looks sharp in this 1 picture.

Yes, it does. More pictures!

I have shown it before and some people might be a little sick of it.
But I am proud of it. It was given to me in non working order and pretty bad cosmetically. The plastic fore end tip, gripcap, and buttplate had shrunk a lot. The stock had a few issues and the metal had some surface rust.

The bore, surprisingly enough was in good shape. So I spent time on it and replaced the plastic with ebony, fixed the issues with the stock and stripped it and refinished it. Filled some holes and had it reblued. Found a Redfield 102K receiver sight and went to the range. It’s very accurate with just about anything. Hitting the gong at 200yds at the range is not to hard at all.

It has a little bit of headspace problem that our own John Barsnees helped me with.
Now, like I said above, I need to shoot something with it. 😁

I am ignorant to how these barrels came from the factory.

Was the outside of the barrel altered, ( steps turned down) anything like that?

Barrel is as it came to me. Front sight was changed and rear sight holes filled.
gnoahhh or Kaywoodie would probably know more about the barrel shape than I do. Barrel is 24.5” long.
As close as I can figure it was sporterized just before or after WWII. It had been neglected for a lot of years but came out nicely I think.
Of all my small collection of rifles I think I have the most fun fooling around with this one.

They were a straight taper from the get-go, no bulge at the chamber. .982" at the shoulder, .620 at muzzle (carbine).

I have a Browning 1895 I bought new years ago. It has taken several whitetails and my one and so far only black bear. It really likes IMR4350 and either 180 RN or 220 RN bullets