Winchester 1895s chambered for military ammunition

[Naphtali]

Among cartridges for which Winchester 1895s were chambered, 30 US Army, 303 British, and 7.62 mm Nagant account for nearly the entire production. In its military bolt action rifle 303 British and 7.62 Nagant used chargers (stripper clips). The 30 US Army may have been able to be loaded into 303 chargers, but I understand the experimental charger for the US Krag was significantly different in configuration compared with the British and Russian chargers.

1. Were 1895s for the Russian army made with charger guides?

2. Were 1895s chambering 303 British cartridge available with a charger guide, perhaps on special order?

3. Were 1895s chambered for 30 US Army cartridge available with a 303 British charger guide, perhaps on special order - that is, if such charger guides were available for the British cartridge?
***
Were 303/30 US charger guides available, I wonder whether any hunter had Winchester install it on his 405 Winchester?

[2ndovc]

To answer the first question, yes the Russian 95s have stripper clip guides. The U.S. proofed 95s did not, as the Krag stripper clip guides were of a much different shape and style and were scrapped pretty quickly if I remember correctly. The .303 British Model 95s were strictly commercial and to my knowledge were not offered with receiver mounted stripper clip guides. Special order or otherwise. But you never know.
My Russian 95


jb

[HawkCreek]

Among cartridges for which Winchester 1895s were chambered, 30 US Army, 303 British, and 7.62 mm Nagant account for nearly the entire production. In its military bolt action rifle 303 British and 7.62 Nagant used chargers (stripper clips). The 30 US Army may have been able to be loaded into 303 chargers, but I understand the experimental charger for the US Krag was significantly different in configuration compared with the British and Russian chargers.

1. Were 1895s for the Russian army made with charger guides?

2. Were 1895s chambering 303 British cartridge available with a charger guide, perhaps on special order?

3. Were 1895s chambered for 30 US Army cartridge available with a 303 British charger guide, perhaps on special order - that is, if such charger guides were available for the British cartridge?
***
Were 303/30 US charger guides available, I wonder whether any hunter had Winchester install it on his 405 Winchester?

First off I believe you're confusing the 7.62 Nagant with the 7.62x54R, The 7.62 Nagant is a pistol round (and a rather unusual one at that).

1. Yes the Russian contract 1895's were made with stripper clip guides. They required modifying the box magazine to accept cartridges loaded in this manner. The Russian contract rifles were also all in the Musket configuration, anything else would be an aftermarket chop job. There MAY have been a custom order in 7.62x54 that is different but I've never heard of one from the factory.

2. No, I dont believe I've ever heard of any 1895's other than the Russian contract guns leaving the factory with stripper clip guides.

3. Same as #2 above.

The loading of an 1895 magazine is a bit different than any other box magazine so it took some work from the folks at Winchester to get them to load from a stripper clip. As neat as it would be I've not heard of any other (even prototype) 1895's that were made to use stripper clips. Remember at the time the US Army adopted the Krag in 1892 we weren't using strippper clips, one simply dropped lose rounds into the magazine. Soldiers even carried ammunition in older style cartridge belts with each round having it's own loop of fabric. It wasn't until the 1903 Springfield was adopted that we started using stripper clips.

[2ndovc]

The US did use a limited quantity of stripper clips on the Krag rifles. It did not work well and they were dropped.





jb