The .30-03 was developed to replace the
.30-40 Krag cartridge used in the
Krag–Jørgensen rifle, which was the first
bolt action rifle adopted by the US military, and the first that used
smokeless powder. The Krag–Jørgensen rifle had some serious limitations compared to the new
Mauser rifles being used by European armies; its 5-round capsule magazine was loaded one round at a time, rather than using a stripper clip into a box magazine, and the Krag–Jørgensen's single locking lug on the bolt made the action much weaker than the strong, two lug Mauser bolt, limiting the power of the round. A new rifle was designed, using the Mauser as a guide, and a new cartridge was designed for it. Initially the
.30-01 cartridge was developed in 1901; also referred to as the .30 ball Model of 1901 - the ".30-01" or "Thick-rim", the .30-01 used a bullet covered by an alloy made from copper and nickel and was the immediate predecessor of the .30-03. It was short-lived however, quickly being replaced by the .30-03 cartridge. The new cartridge was more powerful, using a 45-grain (2.9 g) charge of smokeless powder, 5 grains (0.3 g) more than the .30-40. The bullet was the same, a .30 caliber, 220 grain (14 g) round-nosed jacketed bullet, at a higher velocity of 2,300 feet per second (700 m/s), compared to the 2,000 feet per second (610 m/s) of the .30-40 Krag. The new rifle was also the first in a trend of shorter infantry rifles; the 24 in (610 mm) barrel was halfway between the standard infantry rifle and the
carbine used by the
cavalry, and thus there was no carbine variant of the 1903 rifle. The Model 1895 Winchester lever-action rifle was offered in .30-03 from 1905, but sold poorly in comparison to the .30-06 chambering offered in 1908. Vickers Company in England produced Maxim M1904 machine guns in .30-03 for the US Army from 1908. Later M1904 machine guns were produced by Colt in .30-06 and the .30-03 guns were re-chambered for the .30-06. In 1903, the Army converted its M1900
Gatling guns in
.30 Army to fit the new .30-03 cartridge as the M1903. The later M1903-'06 was an M1903 converted to
.30-06. This conversion was principally carried out at the Army's Springfield Armory arsenal repair shops. All models of Gatling guns were declared obsolete by the U.S. Army in 1911, after 45 years of service. ==Problems==