The first repeating rifles

Norway’s first repeating rifles
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The Norwegian navy was one of the first military forces in the world to adopt a repeating rifle – The Krag Petersson M1876. Eight years later, the army adopted the Jarmann bolt action. Both of these rifles are very difficult to obtain for collectors. Very few Krag Peterssons were ever made and the Germans made sure the rest of the Jarmanns were burned and melted down during WW2.
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Krag Petersson M1876 (navy)
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The Krag-Peterson rifle was developed in conjunction between Ole H. Krag (later the director of Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk) and Axel Petersson (Swedish engineer that had moved to Norway). This was to be the first of Krag’s rifle designs set in production.

The Krag Petersson had a falling block type mechanism where the block dropped when the hammer was pulled all the way back. The rifle was fitted with a tubular magazine under the barrel. It was chambered for the 12.17 mm rim-fire cartridge and was adopted by the Norwegian navy in 1876. The bayonet virtually the same as for the M1867 Remington, but with the serial number stamped on the brass guard.

Only about 975 of these rifles were ever made, The two hundred at Carl Gustaf Stads gevãrfactori in Sweden, the next hundred at Carl Johans Vern in Horten, Norway, then 400 at Carl Gustaf Stads Gevärfactori in Sweden again and the last 275 from Swedish leftovers assembled in Horten. Krag Petersson is the rifle “everybody has heard about, but nobody ever seen”.

The Krag Petersson must have been a terrible nightmare in use. In order to reload, one pulled the hammer all the way back and down. This would then force the falling block all the way down to the same level as the magazine. At the same time the extractor would pull out the empty shell from the barrel lying above the magazine.

A new cartridge would be pushed in to a slot in the falling block from the magazine by the spring and the empty shell would be pulled by the extractor on to the top of the new cartridge. By letting go of the hammer, this would come halfway up and remain cocked and the falling block would also come halfway up. The empty shell would still be on top of the cartridge. Here comes what really Krag Petersson is all about:

Push the rifle some 25-30 cm forwards and give it a good jerk back! This will enable the new cartridge to slide into the chamber, bringing the extractor forward with the cartridge. When the extractor is in forward position, the falling block comes all the way up and the old shell falls off. Wow – why do it simple or efficient when you can do it navy?

Years back we found that an untrained person could fire 5-6 rounds twice as fast with the single shot Remington rolling block as with the repeating Krag Petersson – and that was when all the rounds already were in the magazine. With training, the speed is just about the same. We found out that you could also push the new cartridge into the chamber with your finger – if you were not afraid of being pinched by the block coming up.

Expressing that this rifle was no great success is rather an understatement. The navy followed the army (for the first time) and exchanged it for the Jarmann in 1884 or 1885. The Krag Petersson was, however, still in use at some of the coastal fortresses as late as after WW1.

The Norwegian navy was one of the first military forces in the world to adopt a repeating rifle – The Krag Petersson M1876. Eight years later, the army adopted the Jarmann bolt action. Both of these rifles are very difficult to obtain for collectors. Very few Krag Peterssons were ever made and the Germans made sure the rest of the Jarmanns were burned and melted down during WW2.

Jarmann M1884
Norway’s first repeating turn bolt action rifle was the Jarmann M1884, designed by Jakob Smith Jarmann and adopted when he was 68 years old(!). JS Jarmann came from way up in Gudbrandsdalen and had plans to become an officer in the Norwegian army. After having failed to pass his exam at Krigsskolen, he decided on becoming an engineer. In 1854 he was one of the two founders of Nylands Mek Verksted in Christiania (Oslo), one of Norway’s most successful shipyards in the last half of the 1800’s. He was also the managing director there in the 1870’s.

It is said that Jarmann spent most of his time at the ship yard in the late 1870’s working on gun design. The Jarman rifle started out as a single shot hunting rifle, patented in 1877. In 1879 the first tubular magazine 10,15 mm versions were ready and Jarmann tried getting the rifle approved for the Swedish and Norwegian army.

A large number of prototypes were made – with box-, drum and tubular magazines, with different shapes on the bolt etc. I’ve had several myself and Forsvarsmuseet in Oslo must have about 20 different ones. In 1881 it was agreed on producing a trial run of some 1200(?) rifles with an eight round tubular magazine at Carl Gustav Stads Gevärfactori. These were made in 1882 and 1883, but all of them were probably not assembled in the military version. The Jarmann was, however, never used in the Swedish army and most of the rifles were sold off to the public. The Norwegian production started at Kongsberg in 1884 and some 29 000 rifles were produced in only 3-4 years.

The Jarmann was the first rifle used for both the army and the navy in Norway. The army ordered about 28 000, the navy some 800. It was supplied with a 50 cm long cruciform blade for the army and a knife bayonet for the navy. Both bayonets are very difficult to get hold of for the collector.

The rifle had a couple of rather impressive features. Although using black powder, it was reckoned deadly at up to 2800 m! It was a very good sharpshooter for its day. On the other hand, the tubular magazine altered the balance of the rifle for every shot and black powder was rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Jarmann was replaced by the Krag Jørgensen after only ten years.

With more than 30 000 rifles produced, what on earth happened to all of them? Why are they so unbelievably difficult to get hold of? There is a rumour that 20 000 were sold to a country in South America in the late 1920,s and that the ship sank in the mid Atlantic. This might be true of course, but….

The Jarmann rifles were stored in warehouses as the Krag Jørgensen took over – and there they stayed for a long time. This started creating a storage problem and finally dismantling of the guns started, some were converted to harpoon guns for the fishing fleet (redningsgevær – saviour gun), some were re-melted, some even used for concrete re-enforcement. Next to brand new extremely rare collectors pieces. Terrible! I have seen a picture from WW2 were German soldiers pour gasoline over a stack of Jarmanns – some 2 m tall and 50 m long – that alone was a lot of rifles!