Great Krag bullet for .310 groove diameters

[maico75]

I have a Krag model 1898 rifle, manufactured in 1901. It has a decent bore and I had been experimenting with loads. Started with Sierra 220 gr .308 dia. loads which shot OK. Then I sluged the bore and found the groove diameter to be .310. So I tried some .310 standard AK/SKS bullets with mediocre results. Then I tried the Hornady V-max 123gr bullets. I am currently using this bullet over 48.0 gr IMR 4350 with the bullet seated out a little, 3.090 OAL. This shoots fantastic, 2 3/4" 10 shot group at 110 yards- open sight. Tried the same load in my 1895 Winchester chambered in 30-40 and shot 3" 10 shot group. Just thought I would throw that information out there.

[madsenshooter]

I've used that one myself, even shot it at Camp Perry one year. I used a near max load of Blue Dot for an estimated 2400fps. The picture is actually two three shot groups with a scope adjustment between the lower and upper groups. My rifle also had a .310" groove diameter. I tried some powders with a burn rate slower than BD, but it appeared to me that Hornady's engineers fine tuned the design for 7.62x39 velocity. I could get it going faster, but the faster it went, the less accurate it became.

[Eagle223usa]

Why Madsen, I didn't know you used J-bullets! Nice groups!

[madsenshooter]

Sometimes I do. That's mostly what I've shot out of my Krags at Camp Perry. Last year was the first attempt with cast. This year, maybe some PRVI 190gr match bullets that mic .3085".

[reincarnated]

There was a mention of surplus or salvage Russian bullets in the first part of this thread. I have pulled and measured diameters on hundreds of them, mostly from the 7.62x54R cases, but some from the 39mm cases. The Russians (or whoever else made them) has pretty sloppy quality control. I have found a few that measured .308 and a few that measured .316" and (as loaded ammunition) would not chamber in any of 3 ordinary Russian rifles.

If you are careful in selecting bullets, they can be used in a Krag with large groove diameters. The 147 grain bullets shoot much more accurately than those intended for the SKS/AK cartridge.

You might check out the Lapua D 200 match bullets, but they are costly. The ones I have measure .310".