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The charge by the storied cavalrymen of the Rough Riders up the San Juan Heights in Cuba during the Spanish-American War was actually undertaken on foot. The San Juan Heights consisted of a pair of modest, though heavily-defended hills titled San Juan Hill and Kettle Hill. The American attackers outnumbered the Spanish defenders some 16 to one. However, the Spanish were dug in deep behind well-sited positions. They also wielded state-of-the-art Mauser bolt-action repeating rifles.
The American troops opposing the Spanish were armed with a wide variety of disparate weapons. Power projection outside our borders was a fresh, new and unfamiliar thing for Americans, and we were not terribly adept at it. The Spanish earthworks were out of range of the blackpowder artillery we had available. However, a battery of four 10-barreled .30-caliber Gatling guns under the command of a Lt. John Parker dominated the fight.
One gun was held in reserve, while the other three were arranged some 550 meters from the Spanish trenches. During the eight and one half minutes of the ground assault up Kettle Hill, Parker’s three Gatlings expended 18,000 rounds in continuous fire. Despite losing half a dozen men to enemy action and heatstroke, Parker’s fast-firing guns kept the enemy suppressed long enough to allow the Americans to swarm the defensive works. The primary long gun wielded by American forces during this fight was the Springfield Model 1892-1899 “Krag.”
The Rifles
The formal appellation Springfield Model 1892-1899 describes the several subvariants of the Krag-Jorgensen bolt-action repeating rifle developed in the late 19th century. U.S. troops affectionately referred to the weapon as a “Krag.” The rifle was actually a collaborative effort of Norwegian gun designers Ole Herman Johannes Krag and Erik Jorgensen. The Krag was developed at a time when the entire planet was discovering bolt-action repeating infantry weapons. It nonetheless featured some radical new design elements.
Where most contemporary designs featured an internal box magazine loaded via stripper clips from above, the Krag magazine and its lateral loading system were integral components of the receiver. To load the weapon, you pivoted open a machined steel cover on the right and fed rounds one at a time from the side. Eventually, the army issued a claw-style clip that allowed the magazine to be loaded in a single step.
There were a few advantages to this complex design. It was a straightforward thing to top off the magazine without opening the bolt. Additionally, the loading system was designed such that the operator could drop a few loose rounds in the port and then shut the gate to feed them into the action. There wasn’t a great deal of finesse required. However, fumbling with individual cartridges is seldom a good thing when one is fighting for one’s life.
The Krag was a beautifully executed firearm. The components were meticulously machined, and the action was legendarily smooth. The .30-40 Krag round was the first smokeless rifle cartridge issued to the U.S. military.
The rimmed .30-40 Krag round was also called the .30 Army. It serviced both the Krag rifles as well as period Gatling guns produced from 1893 onward. A typical loading pushed a 220-gr. round-nosed jacketed bullet to around 2,000 feet per second.
Springfield Model 1892 Rifle Specifications
| Caliber | .30-40 Krag |
| Weight | 9.3 lbs |
| Length | 49″ |
| Barrel length | 30″ |
| Action | Bolt action |
| Feed | 5+1 internal magazine |
| Sights | Adjustable v-notch rear, front post |
Subtypes
The first Springfield M1892 rifle weighed 9.3 lbs. and sported a 30” barrel. A magazine cutoff on the left side of the receiver activated in the “Up” position, and the rifle carried a cleaning rod underneath the barrel. Tooling up for production took a full two years, so most M1892 rifles were marked 1894 on their receivers.
The M1896 variant included a magazine cutoff that engaged in the down position. It carried its cleaning rod in three separate pieces stored in a buttstock trap. An improved rear sight along with better production methods meant that the M1896 shot a bit straighter than the earlier version. The M1896 carbine was essentially the same rifle with a barrel shortened to 20.5″ and a half stock.
The M1898 included a rear sight adjustable for windage. There were also a few tweaks to the design to ease its manufacture. My personal rifle doesn’t have a magazine cutoff. The M1898 carbine was the standard shortened version, but only about 5,000 factory copies were produced. A few M1898 rifles were fitted with experimental optical sights for use as sniper weapons.
The M1899 carbine had a slightly longer handguard and forearm along with the windage-adjustable rear sights. Most previous carbines were arsenal refinished up to M1899 standards. Quite a few full-length Krag rifles were converted to carbines and sold through the NRA.
Once, I Was a Peace Advocate. Now, I Have No Idealism Left.
After terrorists killed my cousin Daniel Pearl, my family called for peace. But after the worldwide celebration of our people’s slaughter, my hope for peace is dead.
The story I’m about to tell is one that many progressive Jews can relate to. In some ways, it’s a prototypical arc of a diaspora Jew who has always advocated for nuance. This week, something broke in us. We watched history repeat itself. Not just on the global scale, with the wanton massacre of our people, the savage mass murders and dismemberments of entire families and communities. But for many, my family included, history is repeating itself on a personal level as well.
In March 2003, I turned 13 and celebrated my bar mitzvah in Walnut Creek, California. By Jewish tradition, I became a man. But the ceremony felt redundant; I had already grown up. Only one year earlier, my older cousin, Daniel Pearl, an investigative journalist for The Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped and beheaded by Islamist jihadis while on assignment in Pakistan.
His killers, like the Hamas killers of last weekend, proudly released a video documenting Danny’s murder. Among Danny’s last words were, “My father is Jewish. My mother is Jewish. I am Jewish.” At first, I was in shock—how had my own cousin become a player in such a large international nightmare? Why did people get murdered simply for being who they are? In this case, for being Jewish?
Danny’s parents did not call for revenge. Instead they set up The Daniel Pearl Foundation that offers fellowships, sponsors cross-cultural music events (Danny was a gifted musician), and brings people together to improve the world. Even after what my family had been through, their work encouraged me to be idealistic and believe that the Jewish people could make peace with our neighbors. I became a fierce advocate for peace.
When I immigrated to Israel at the age of 18 and enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces, I was still driven by ideals. I thought I could promote more goodwill with our Palestinian neighbors. Serving in a combat unit based on the Gaza border, I witnessed the release of the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, held for five years by Hamas, when his freedom was exchanged for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. One for 1,000. Despite my many criticisms of the Israeli government, I recognized then how much Israel valued the life of every soldier.
On my rare free weekend, I spent my time at Kibbutz Be’eri. Because I was a “lone soldier”—that is, an immigrant without much close family in Israel—I was given a host family. They treated me like a son, including teasing me relentlessly for choosing to come to Israel and serve, whereas most Israelis have no choice. They were politically left, just like me. Despite rockets often raining down on them, they believed in peace, just like me. This week, when the terrorists came, ideals didn’t make a difference.
I watched the news in horror as terrorists massacred over 100 people at Kibbutz Be’eri. Women. Children. I frantically messaged my host family and heard nothing back. Like my cousin Danny years ago, my family was being held hostage. The good news: unlike Danny, my host family at Kibbutz Be’eri was saved. They are physically okay. But how can they really be okay, after watching their friends and neighbors being slaughtered?
There was a time when these types of events couldn’t shake my ideals. I used to argue relentlessly for a two-state solution. I fought bitterly with Israeli friends about the decency of the Palestinian people. Even though radical Islamists had murdered my cousin, even though civilians had been blown up in buses daily during the Second Intifada, I refused to give in to nihilism.
In 2012, I returned to the States to study film at University of Southern California, and published a book about my military service that criticized the Israeli government. This didn’t win me many friends, but I continued to advocate for nuance regardless. I proudly supported Black Lives Matter, LGBTQIA+, and feminist causes. I called myself a progressive Jew.
But over the years, I noticed a disturbing trend: With all the atrocities in the world, why did my social justice warrior friends hate Israel so disproportionately? Why did it feel like intersectionality excluded Jews? Why did the left—who supposedly stood up for human rights—put child-murdering Hamas terrorists on a pedestal?
At first, I thought it must be miseducation.
“Ah, they think Palestinians are the indigenous people. I’ll show that Jewish history, and the archaeology to prove it, dates back millennia.”
“Ah, they think we’re white colonizers. I’ll show how many Jews are people of color, including those who are Mizrahi, Sephardi, and Ethiopian.”
“Ah, they’ll get it once I show them that there are fifty Muslim countries, and only one Jewish state.”
But my friends weren’t interested in correcting their misunderstandings.
I agreed that the settlements were unlawful, that Gaza was a humanitarian crisis, that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyuahu was a dictator. I assumed—if I cared enough, if I mourned for the Palestinian dead, if I put nuance above all else—our neighbors and their allies would give us the same decency.
How wrong I was. This past week, as over 1,300 Jews were slaughtered, the most murderous attack on Jews since the Holocaust, I saw the true face of Palestinians and their allies. All around the world, they celebrate. They gloat. They mock our tears. They do not protest against Hamas. They embrace pure evil.
And so, to the terrorists I now say:
When you killed my family, I forgave you. When you killed my people, I forgave you. But when you killed my idealism, I had no forgiveness left.
To non-Jewish friends who have reached out, thank you. It is simply the human thing to do. To friends who dare justify what has happened, you are not friends. You are nothing but Nazi supporters dressed up in leftist intellectual language. To the Palestinians: you have lost all moral authority to claim victimhood. I will never advocate for you again. To my family, friends in Israel, and Jews around the world hurting right now, I love you. Stay safe.
In Berlin, where I live today with my German-Ukrainian Jewish wife, Germans love to say “Never Again.” Right now, Never Again is happening again in real time, livestreamed for the whole world to see. I find myself looking up my military number in case the IDF reserves call for me. Unlike our enemy, I feel no joy at the prospect of going to war. But if our people’s existence is at stake, I will do what I must. I will be the world’s favorite villain: the Jew who has the audacity to defend his people.
Ilan Benjamin is the founder of FourFront, a social media entertainment business; an award-winning filmmaker; and the author of Masa: Stories of a Lone Soldier. Follow him on Twitter (now X): @ilanibenjamin.
Image courtesy of Rock Island Auction.
Elvis Presley sat atop rock and roll’s throne as unofficial “King” for decades, although he was more proficient at handling a firearm than a royal scepter. He owned guns throughout most of his life and, while serving in the U.S. Army, earned sharpshooter badges for his skill behind an M1 rifle and M1911. He collected firearms and kept one by his side for self-defense, although there’s little doubt the highly embellished Smith & Wesson Model 53 revolver he owned—which went for $199,750 during a Rock Island Auction sale on Aug. 26—was not his first choice for carry.
Appraisers assigned the handgun a value of between $60,000 and $90,000 long before bidding began. The historic .22 Mag. was accompanied by paperwork that provides irrefutable proof of its original owner.
Elvis purchased the gun in 1974, only two years before the United States was going to celebrate its bicentennial. In 1976, the “King” shipped the gun back to the Smith & Wesson factory, requesting its artisans make it into a masterpiece befitting freedom’s 200th anniversary.
Master engraver Russell Smith was assigned the honor. He drafted a pair of designs in pencil drawings—clearly labeled as work for Elvis—that were part of the gun’s sale last month. The final design on the receiver features a gold-engraved American Eagle and flag on one side with the words “The Spring of 76” below. A minuteman, also in gold, stands proudly on the other side. The package also includes a matching .22 LR cylinder to complement the look perfectly.
The gun also wears the floral scrollwork Smith is known for, as well ash gold inlaid bands at the muzzle and breech. The rear sight is adjustable and has a gold outline. The front sight is a gold bead, and the kit comes complete in a walnut presentation case. Appraisers estimate more than 99 percent of its original, bright factory-blue finish remains on the gun.
Handwritten notes, job cards and receipts accompanying the gun all list the “King” as the owner. Also included is a Smith & Wesson company newsletter prominently featuring the firearm on the cover as “Elvis Presley’s Bicentennial Model 53 done by Russ Smith.”
The only drawback is the fact that Elvis probably didn’t have much time to shoot it. The revolver was delivered on Nov. 16, 1976. Presley died on Aug. 16, 1977.
As part of the continuing program of resurrecting older and popular models of Smith & Wesson revolvers, the Model 58 .41 Magnum has been brought back into production. Addressing and hopefully appeasing what is often considered a somewhat cultist group of shooters, the .41 Magnum, in fact, might have been singled out by a sharp group of individuals who saw and continue to see the advantages of this mid-size caliber handgun.
Introduced in the mid ’60s, the .41 Magnum was considered by some to be the optimum self-defense cartridge and load for American law enforcement use. Historically, it can be traced to a wildcat cartridge called the .400 Eimer, which was on the drawing boards as early as the 1920s. In its initial introduction, the Smith & Wesson .41 Magnum was brought on the market in 1963-64 in the form of the named cartridge mated to the Smith & Wesson Model 57. The Model 57 was an adjustable sighted, 6-shot, large N-frame revolver. Shortly afterward, the factory folks at Smith & Wesson introduced a beefed up Model 10 fixed-sight version numbered the Model 58 that might be one of the best examples of a true fighting handgun—if there is such a thing.
Often with dismal results, the .38 special was for many years a pretty universal cartridge for the law enforcement community. Its failures are well noted and early attempts, such as the 200-grain .38-44 Super Police load, still did not bring the .38 to acceptable standards of stopping power. The .357 Magnum was the upgraded version of the .38, but it still lacked cross-sectional density, which is always helpful in a fighting handgun cartridge.
The current production Model 58 has the 4th sideplate screw like earlier models. This is part of the
program in producing newly made older-style revolvers. The grips are handsomely made and fit well.
The lineage of the .41 Magnum includes (from top to bottom) the Model 57 with blue finish,
Model 57 nickel finish and the original Model 58 with Spegel grips.
The .44 Magnum was, in fact, too much gun for general police use and the closest it came to solving the problem was the Remington 240-grain mid-range load. The .41 Magnum gave better cross-section density than the .38 Special and the bullet weight at 210 grains could be an attention getter to the misbehaving.
Two factory loadings were available. The barnburner was the 210-grain jacketed softpoint, which ran the gates at a smoking 1,500 feet per second declared and a probably true 1,400 fps. The second load was a 210-grain lead semiwadcutter cruising across the chronograph at a nominal 1,150 fps declared, but was in reality probably closer to 900 fps in the factory loading. It was plenty of load with plenty of projectile for the average shooter, and probably on the verge of too much.
I think one of the key ingredients to the failure of the .41 Magnum to achieve general acceptance in the law enforcement communities was the unclear boundary between the two loads and knowing the difference between the two. Probably if the truth was known, had the .41 Magnum been loaded to a nominal 850 to 900 fps with a 210-grain lead wadcutter from the get go I believe it would have been force to be reckoned with.
Clint shot the test target at 10 yards with the current production Model 58 using .41 Magnum ammunition made by CorBon.
At 10 yards free hand, no rest, I shot CorBon DPX 180-grain hollowpoints for the test and the Model 58 placed them (with me attached) inside a nominal 1.5″. Moving at 1,300 fps, the 180-grain DPX projects a true 676 foot-pounds of energy downrange. CorBon is one of the few who actually load what they say they are loading on the box. The rounds were stout and impacted steel had a distinct sound not often heard when 9mm or .40 S&W calibers are used on plates.
As mentioned before, this revolver is part of the program to bring back into the market older revolvers and this Model 58 falls into that category. The new Model 58 has a 4″ barrel and fixed sights like its predecessor. The gun I had has the old-style cylinder latch and square butt, which is, of course, correct and true to the gun’s linage.
The stocks are nicely done wood with silver Smith & Wesson medallions inlaid. This grip style and these stock panels are a good candidate for a Tyler T-grip filler for anyone who actually wants to carry and shoot the gun. With the filler or larger stocks the gun is a bit of a knuckle buster with full-power loads, which was the whole point of the exercise.
Total original production was a nominal 20,200 made during the years of 1964-1977.
The gun may be an example of a dud or, in reality, it may have been a gun and caliber ahead of its time. Either way, people who want one or wanted one to shoot, now have the chance thanks to the new Smith & Wesson Model 58 .41 Magnum being brought back online.
Model 58
Maker: Smith & Wesson
2100 Roosevelt Ave.
Springfield, MA 01104
(800) 331-0852
www.smith-wesson.com
Action: Double-action revolver
Caliber: .41 Magnum
Capacity: 6
Barrel length: 4″
Weight: 41 ounces
Finish: Blue or nickel plated
Sights: Fixed
Grips: Checkered wood
Price: $1,090
Holster 5 Shot Leather LLC
18018 N. Ligerwood Ct.
Colbert, WA 99005
(509) 844-3969
www.5shotleather.com
Ammunition CorBon/Glaser
P.O. Box 369, Sturgis, SD 57785
(800) 626-7266
www.dakotaammo.net
Custom Stocks Craig Spegel
P.O. Box 387, Nehalem, OR 97131
(503) 368-5653
www.craigspegel.com
Tyler Mfg.
P.O. Box 94845
Oklahoma City, OK 73143
(800) 654-8415
www.t-grips.com