Cut and pasted
Regular Issue Krag Cartridges Manufactured at The Frankford Arsenal from May 1894 Until the E.O.P.
This article will only deal with the general issue types manufactured at The Frankford Arsenal and not take into account the many commercial contracts let to companies such as Winchester, Peters, Rem-UMC, Western, or Kynoch. It will also not delve into the experimental cartridges that began as early as 1890, or the high pressure test cartridges.
Early manufacture of Krag ammunition went through many different changes and modifications, mainly dealing with powders, primers, thickness of cases, configuration of bullets. Some of these were:
1. First model case had a balloon head which was changed to a flat head on August 29, 1895. This prevented the bursting of heads.
2. Initially all cases were tinned, but when non-mercuric primers were adopted the tinning officially ceased on May 8, 1900.
3. Originally the headstamp was configured with an “F” at the top, the month at the 8 o’clock year at the 4 o’clock position. In July 1902 this was changed to the headstamp we are more familiar with, and the addition of an “A” ofter the “F”. The headstamp then read “FA” at the top, with the month and year at the bottom, i.e., 03-04, which would be March of 1904.
4. Bullets varied also. Initially they were smooth. A single cannelure was added in August 1896, and two more were added in 1900. The final bullet configuration was the so-called Dr. Cole bullet, which was smooth and put into production in November 1902.
We will then briefly discuss the 8 primary types of cartridges that were issued .
220 gr. Service Ball: Manufactured from June 1894 (F 6 94) until September 1907 (FA 9 07). There was also a very short run headstamped FA 9 09, which may have been for sub-caliber use. There is a very interesting footnote to the ball round, which proves that military records say one thing…but the hardware disproves that. All scholarly writings on Krag ammunition gave the initial date of Ball manufacture, as I have above, as June 1894. In June 1998 a collector in Nebraska came across a Ball round headstamped F 05 94. This cartridge was sent off for examination and Xray and was proven to be authentic at the Woodin laboratory.