Talyn
SAINT
While every shooter knows the 5.56x45 NATO (the 223 Remington in uniform) is the smallest caliber widely adopted for general issue among the world’s militaries, few know the U.S. Army considered the 22 caliber - and a 20 caliber, as well – as far back as 1895, when it ordered Frankford Arsenal to make up a batch of experimental cartridges.
Known among cartridge collectors as the “22 Krag,” “22 F.A. Experimental” or “22 1895 Experimental,” few can boast of owning an example.
Theoretically, the cartridge looked promising. Bullet length in the blueprint is given as 1.276 inches; that’s only .026 inch longer than Berger Bullets’ modern .22 caliber 90-grain VLD bullet, for which Berger recommends a minimum twist rate of 1:7.
The experimental bullet was a round nose type, common among military cartridges of the day; spitzer bullets were just on the horizon. Calculating all three experimental bullets’ ballistic coefficients based on Frankford Arsenal’s blueprint shows they would have certainly been stable at 2,600 fps with the 1:6 twist.
Because there is no further report of the experiment, it is possible the Army never experimented with the cartridge after ordering test barrels and cartridges.
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A copper-case 45-70 Government Carbine cartridge (left) stands with two examples
of “tinned” cases – one shows an 1891 headstamp (center). A 30-40 Krag (right) is also tinned.
Known among cartridge collectors as the “22 Krag,” “22 F.A. Experimental” or “22 1895 Experimental,” few can boast of owning an example.
Theoretically, the cartridge looked promising. Bullet length in the blueprint is given as 1.276 inches; that’s only .026 inch longer than Berger Bullets’ modern .22 caliber 90-grain VLD bullet, for which Berger recommends a minimum twist rate of 1:7.
The experimental bullet was a round nose type, common among military cartridges of the day; spitzer bullets were just on the horizon. Calculating all three experimental bullets’ ballistic coefficients based on Frankford Arsenal’s blueprint shows they would have certainly been stable at 2,600 fps with the 1:6 twist.
Because there is no further report of the experiment, it is possible the Army never experimented with the cartridge after ordering test barrels and cartridges.
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A copper-case 45-70 Government Carbine cartridge (left) stands with two examples
of “tinned” cases – one shows an 1891 headstamp (center). A 30-40 Krag (right) is also tinned.
. The cartridge shown as an experiment, the 6mm Lee Navy, the .276 Pedersen. All ideas way ahead of their time military use.