There were 53 rifles summitted for the test, some already in use by armies elsewhere ( like the French Berthier, the Japanese Murata). Also on hand were two Trapdoor Springfield rifles re-barreled and converted to a .30 caliber smokeless cartridge. The trial showed that the Trapdoor couldn't handle the pressure of smokeless ammunition. This, and the fact that the test site was away from the Armory, shows that the Ordnance Board had decided the Armory was, for the first time, not going to be the designer of the standard issue small arm, that it just wasn't up to that task. The Armory had contented itself with perfecting the design and precise manufacture of the Trapdoor for years, and had been supported in that by an Army officer corps who had mostly used rifled muskets in the Civil War and so liked guns that were long, had hammers to cock, and looked good on parade with bayonets. But it was finally impossible to ignore how obsolete the making of Trapdoors had become. Not only was there a need for a smokeless powder rifle, there was a need for smokeless powder- no one in the US really knew how to make it. The US would even have to buy it from Belgium. The Armory would rename a laboratory/firing house to Experimental Department in 1891, and it would then have a very steep learning curve, getting used to heat-treatable steels and the new models.

There were six Krag rifles, 5 Mauser rifles, and 3 Lee rifles . How were the six Krag rifles different from each other? Good question: I don't know. But it was Krag #5 that won the trial, with Capt. O. Krag, the inventor, on hand. Among other tests, all the rifles were tested for rate of fire, with 15 shots fired single-shot followed by 5 from the magazine. Then the rifles were tested to see how many accurate shots could be made in two minutes- again firing single shot. Then the rifles were tested as to how fast they could be fired from the magazine. The Krag fired pretty fast single shot, and fired pretty fast from the magazine as well, and was pretty accurate. It had ( and has) the smoothest action of almost any bolt action rifle, and that doubtless helped the speed and impressed the Board. But, unlike all the others, the side-loading magazine allowed the magazine to be re-loaded even if the rifle was ready to fire. This last requirement was handy later, when American gunmakers protested the choice of a foreign design and delayed things. The Ordnance Dept. produced a list of requirements for any new rifle design, and a side-loading magazine, special to the Krag, was on that list.

While they may not have been talking specifically about soldiers wasting ammunition, clearly the Army and Ordnance Board were still thinking that, much of the time, a soldier would be firing single shot, pulling cartridges from his belt. If there was an extraordinary measure needed, then the soldier could use the magazine as a reserve and fire rapidly.

In hindsight we can see the limits of their testing. If they had decided to run a test to see how fast a soldier could fire 100 , or 200 rounds, then a Lee with several 10-round detachable box magazines would have won. If , instead of testing the strength of the action with a somewhat hotter cartridge of around 50,000 psi they had tried something that would generate above 60,000 psi, the Krag would have blown up and the Mauser would have won. The limits of the Krag would be discovered during the Spanish American War. Springfield would work very hard to catch up in the next ten years, using its new Experimental Department, And the Mauser design would be , to put it politely , incorporated into its very fine 1903 Rifle. Which would also have a magazine cutoff.

Davis, J. C. (2007). US Army Rifle and Carbine Adoption Between 1865 and 1900 (Unpublished master's thesis). Command and General Staff College, US Army. doi: https://www.forgottenweapons.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/U.S.-Army-Rifle-and-Carbine-Adoption-1865-1900.pdf