Can a M1898 Krag rifle be rebarreled and chambered for 405 Winchester? I think that this would be a great woods carbine with a 20 - 22 barrel. Seems to me that it would be rather straight forward since the 405 Win is based off of the 30-40 Krag.

Thanks,
Kent

I spoke with the folks at Montana Rifleman (http://www.montanarifleman.com ) about this a little while back. They'll do the barrelling if YOU get it to feed. I fiddled with it a bit, but the .405 is much fatter and had trouble "rounding the bend" in the Krag magazine. After much looking and headscratching, I gave up on the idea, not wanting to ruin a Krag action by screwing it up.

SamB,

What do you mean by fatter. Are you refering to the forward portion of the cartridge where on the 30-40 it necks down?

Also, where was the bottleneck? From your post it sounds as if it occurs when the cartridges begin to go up vertically.

Thanks,
Kent

I'm not sure this would be a safe conversion as the M95 Lever Action in which the .405 was originally chambered is significantly stronger than the 1898 Springfield Krag. According to my references, the M95 and .405 Winchester were built for 48,000 p.s.i. maximum working pressures, whereas the 1898 Springfield and .30/40 Krag were built for 42,000 p.s.i. maximum working pressures.

Yes, by "fatter" (no offense to the gravitationaly challenged), I meant that the forward half of the .405 case is much wider than the 30-40.

The problem, that I saw, was where the cartridge was pressing between the side plate and the middle of the receiver. The forward portion of the cartridge would not clear enough to get into position to feed. The center of the receiver would have to be relieved, a task I don't feel qualified to attempt.