Krag Collectors Association Forum

Sorry to ask a question.

42 gr of IMR 4350 is to hot with a 220gr bullet?

DuPont listed 43 gr of IMR 4350 and a 220 gr Remington corelock using W-W brass and W-W primer at 38700 CUP and 2205 FPS out of a 25.5 inch barrel in the February 1976 Rifleman??
Hodgdon lists 42 gr of H 4350 as their max
I personally am using 40-41 gr of H 4350 with Hornady 220 gr in my ’98 and showing signs of low pressure.
I know H 4350 is listed as slower than the old IMR 4350 and that burn rates have changed since DuPont sold its powder division.
I do not understand, could you have meant another powder?

I had a similar question/discussion a while back. Posting a link:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=572

My "back of the truck seat" rifle was (still is) a Bannerman 1896 Krag, put together by them from parts. Barrel is from some .30 cal military firearm, but not a Krag. Maybe a 1917 Enfield, maybe even a machine gun of some sort. Not Krag dimensions. Not D&T for any military barrel sight, but front sight is a pre-WW2 Springfield. Probably was a .30-06, cut off at the breech, shortened & re-threaded. Chamber is NOT 100 % in line with bore. Headspace? I never checked. Probably neither did the guy at Bannerman's.

Not a Krag stock. Some aftermarket or Bannerman special. Has a pistol grip and grasping grooves, but a very nice figure to the walnut.

At West Loch Naval Ammunition Depot in 1962, a friend glass-bedded the thing. We tried it with Remington factory ammo on the beach at Kaena Point. In 2011, it was a hard place to access (+/-) some sort of albatross protected status. Back then, just a place we could go and nobody bothered us.

Rifle has functioned for years with factory 180-grain loads. Fired cases bulge on one side just above the web. After 3rd reload, some show longitudinal split. Scrap them.

In 2002, I came onto several boxes of 220 grain commercial bullets and then a quart Mason jar full of Cole bullets. Loaded 20 of the commercial bullets into new Remington cases. Tried the load recommended by Ken Waters in his Pet Loads book. Used an old Ideal tong tool in my apartment at work. All powder weighed. #3 cracked the bolt.

Put in another bolt found in odds & ends box. Seems to work fine. Have not checked headspace. Another friend refinished the rifle just before he died. I'm retired, so is the Bannerman Krag.

Doubly R, that is some story. Thanks for telling the rest of it. Maybe that load would have been safe in an original Krag. Or not. Hearing your story would sure make me cautious though.

Did you keep the cracked bolt?

Still have the bolt.

Doubly Reincarnated wrote: ↑Thu Dec 01, 2022 9:20 am Still have the bolt.

Good to know, it was possible that the one for sale was your old one, so there are at least 2 cracked 96 Krag bolts in the world now.

Examples posted on the KCA Forum in years past give good idea of where and shape of failing metal.

These bolts were for sale on eBay and GunBroker, so nothing is known about the loads involved or process of bolt failure.

It does not appear to have been a catastrophic event.

As bad as that large photo looks with the sheard off lug the guide rib and bolt handle are both intact. It shows the coarse grain structure under the case that you would expect. The case does not have as fine a grain as I would expect. Not sure what that means Maybe my expectations are off.

Br, can you provide the links to those photos? It would be interesting to know the context, whether they happened to a member here or maybe the photos are of old bolts and go back to SA failure experiments. Links are easy right above the first word in my text and next to "by FredC" is that little icon, right click on it and "copy link" then paste it into a post.
viewtopic.php?p=42904#p42904

Fred, I tried to make it clear.
I copied these photos of items that I saw for sale on eBay and GunBroker, years ago.

There was no context available back then. There is no link possible, now.

I have never handled a Krag bolt with such obvious cracks. I posted these pictures for instructional purposes.

(I have seen a few bolts that have a bit of a 'wrinkle' on the surface 'skin'. The 'wrinkle' kind of follows the line shown in these cracked bolts).
It's possible that something is going on under the surface?

Cracked bolts are nothing new. Cracked bolts and increased barrel fouling are what led to the abandonment of the 2200 fps load when the Krag was still in service. There must have been hundreds of them over the years.