.30-40 Krag

The .30-40 Krag/.30 Army/.30 Government was a round of ammunition developed in the early 1890s to provide the US armed forces with a new, powerful round to fire from the rifle it was going to select in the 1892 trials. Since the round it was replacing was the .45-70 Government, the round was considered small-bore at the time. The rifle selected was ultimately the Krag-Jørgensen. It was the first round used by the United States Army designed for smokeless powder.

The rimmed 30-40 round was also known as .30 Army. The .30-40 Krag was the first smokeless powder round adopted by the U.S. military, but it retained the "caliber-charge" naming system of earlier black powder cartridges, i.e., the .30-40 Krag employs a .30 caliber (7.62 mm) bullet propelled by 40 grains (2.59 g) of smokeless powder. As with the .30-30 Winchester, it is the use of black powder nomenclature that often leads to the incorrect assumption that the .30-40 Krag was once a black powder cartridge.

In 1899, the .30-40 was used to shoot the world-record Rocky Mountain elk. The record stood until the latter half of the 20th century.

Rifles and Handguns Chambered in .30-40 Krag

 * Krag-Jørgensen
 * Winchester High-Wall
 * Remington-Lee
 * Remington Rolling Block
 * Winchester Model 95
 * Ruger No. 1
 * Thompson-Center Encore

Categories
Cartridge:rifles