Krag Collectors Association Forum

I wonder, is it logical that all new factory brass should be trimmed to length? With several bags awaiting loading I thought I should poll the group to be sure my ‘logic’ is . . . logical.

I am hoping it isn’t necessary to run new cases through a FL die. There is a ‘go/no-go’ between my 1896 and my 1898. Once fired, I treat each as if it were different caliber. The ‘98’s won’t fit the ‘96 chamber. The ‘96 will fit each and then fire-form to the ‘98 chamber. Keeping them separate means I have adequate stocks for each with just neck-sizing.

Any further thoughts on new brass would be appreciated. After all, there may be a return to adequate stocks of components. Two days ago I picked up 2 boxes of Hornady 220Gr. RN. $45.00 each. Humph. Now to get a stock of IMR-4350.

The shop had IMR-4198, which is good for BR’s 110Gr. “plinker” loads. I get center of bull @ 100 yards with the 1896 with that load. It benefited from my file work on the over-height front sight. The drift adj on the original rear sight corrected what might be a slightly off vertical front blade.

Regards to all - R

I load W-W .30-40 Brass right from the factory bag, without Full-Length Sizing.

I have a Lee case-trimmer hand tool (shaft & shell-holder) for .30-40 Krag. These changeable parts are used with the Lee 'cutter/handle'.

If a new case-mouth is a bit deformed in shipping, I insert the Lee trimmer shaft into the case just to reshape the mouth.

I trim my cases with the Lee tool and deburr case mouths inside and outside with an RCBS tool, after the first firing.

Afterward, I neck-size with a Lee collet-die for the 7.5 X 55 mm Swiss cartridge, which reduces the working of the case-neck and need for multiple case trimmings.

I am a bit lazy and like to eliminate steps like case lubing, cleaning off lube, and repeated brass trimming.
(I personally believe a lot of case stretch is caused by the expander-ball in some Die Sets).

Most of my Krag rifles & carbines will share each other's Fired Brass without chamber issues.

I keep separate the Brass fired in my model 1896 rifle because it appears the chamber is dimensionally a bit different.
I am also keeping separate the Brass fired in a Remington-Lee rifle.

My experience is that many case mouths are not completely uniform and often are not perpendicular to the main axis of the cartridge case. Some sort of trimming seems necessary. May not give a uniform case length. Maybe that comes later.

I know that I am anal about my reloading but I full length resize all of my new brass, fire form to the gun I am shooting them in and neck resize after that. I run all of my cases through a trimmer just for consistency sake. That is not always necessary. This trimmer chamfers and deburrs the cases. I also like to check the chambers with a Hornady case length gauge. Just to see where my OAL runs with the chamber I am shooting in. Always compare and adjust, if needed, to common recommendations. SAAMI didn't get developed until the mid 1920s, so, their guidelines don't really fit Krags, if they even exist. Haven't checked. But, most reloading guides have lots of great info even about .30-40 Krag reloading.

I often find that new bottleneck brass has some cases whose case mouths are a little bit "out of round". In seating the bullet with mouths like that, sometimes the neck crushes and the never fired brass will need to be tossed. As such I aways full-length sized, trim, and shamfour new bottleneck brass.

Olpeddler, so do I, the result is consistent cartridges.

FWIW - I have found my initial loads using out-of-the-bag brass to be accurate. (Deformed case-mouths are easily made round, even with the shank of a Phillip's-head screwdriver).
The unfired factory-brass though slightly irregular is shorter than the length of my Lee trimming tool.

Once fired, the fire-formed brass is long enough to be squarely trimmed & deburred.

There can be multiple ways to achieve good results. Do as you please.

To answer the OP's question, at least one of us finds, that Brass can be loaded 'out of the bag' with good results, given a little bit of care.

Two examples attached: