Krag Collectors Association Forum

So in the UK Kynoch used to sell .30-40 Krag as .30 Purdey Flanged. I believe this was mostly used in double rifles not Krags. Has anyone ever tried shooting it in a US Krag I was wondering if it was safe to do so as the bullets are 150gr soft points so obviously quite different from what the rifle was designed for.

First welcome to the KCA.

Personally I have never heard of .30 Purdey Flanged. Some Krags feed 30/40 ammo with 150 grain bullets well from what I have heard on this forum. An odd thing is many shoot surprisingly well when loaded with 110 grain round nose bullets. Ony thing with the 110 grain bullets they have to be loaded singly, not from the magazine.
Is Kynoch still in business? If so, can they provide drawings of their .30 Purdey flanged or verify that the cartridge is identical? Some members here have used 303 brass with 30 caliber bullets in times of brass shortages. The brass is slightly shorter in the neck but works. How close is this Purdey to 303?

Hmmmm....... a British double chambered in 30/40 what is not to like about that idea! I missed a chance to buy a break open rifle in 30/40 when I was young and still regret that. A double in 30/40 WOWSERS!

I think the Second Amendment, to The U.S. Constitution, protects a Citizen's Right to a 'well regulated' double-rifle!

Mr. Biden, don't mess with my rifle battery!

'sfwh' - I had not heard of the ".30 Purdey Flanged" cartridge before.
It would be fun to have that caliber marking engraved on the barrel of a nice Krag or a Model 1895 Winchester lever-action 'sporter'.

BTW - Do you live in the U.K.?

'Old Chap', when using a double-rifle, it is important that the owner know and stay with the load, (bullet weight, style and velocity), that the maker 'regulated' the barrels for, (at a specified 'sighted distance'), so that both barrels will shoot to the same point of aim.
It's good to buy your ammunition from the maker of your hunting arm.
The shoppe quite knows their business and can equip you for the task at hand.
Possibly, you require a Stalking Rifle for Red Deer in the Scottish Highlands at distances of 150 to 200 yards?

During the Spanish War, the U.S. Government contracted with Kynoch to make some .30 Army (30-40) Service Cartridges, due to inadequate domestic supplies of ammunition.

The Kynoch rounds were loaded with 'cordite' propellant and 220 grain 'jacketed' projectiles. They were 'head-stamped' with a letter "K" and number "99".
IIRC - The cordite rounds were rough on the barrel steel, used by Springfield Armory, causing erosion problems.
But at that time, everything was causing problems with U.S. Krag barrels!

I have a friend, a rancher way, way out west, who spent a lot of $$ on double rifles and had a lot of British reference books & catalogs. I read the books & catalogs. He never had a double in such a dinky caliber as .30 Purdey. IIRC, the advertised velocity of .30 Purdey cartridges was higher than I thought a reasonable for a Krag.

All the British doubles I've seen had open sights and weren't shot at distances much more than 100 yards. I've seen & fired German-made doubles with pop-up tang sights, but they were generally regarded as "eye-gougers". Many of the British firms made rifles with true falling block single shot actions, not just Martini actions. If you find a .30 Purdey rifle, it would probably be on such a rifle and would be much stronger than a Krag.

The .30 Purdey - 'flanged' cartridge is shown in my 1965 copy of Frank C. Barnes' book, "Cartridges of the World".

Although many of the case dimensions given by Barnes are identical for .30-40 and the Purdey cartridge-case, it does appear the .30 Purdey 'flanged' case (length 2.360") is .052 inches longer than the U.S. Krag case (2.314").

Also, the .30 Purdey 'flanged' Nitro cartridge may be loaded a bit 'hot' for the U.S. Krag action.

Attached are photos of Barnes' book entry and a Kynoch .30-40 cartridge and head-stamp from 1899. The "K" is for Kynoch and the "C" is for Cordite.

sfwh,
Looks like we had some fun on this exercise. The bottom line is the 30 Purdey was loaded too hot for Krags. The extra length was done to prevent mishaps. If anyone forced the bolt to close on an original cartridge in a Krag he would probably blow up the gun if he pulled the trigger with the extra pressure of the case mouth crimp locking the bullet in. If a person had a pile of these 30 P cartridges they probably would be too valuable to pull apart and convert to Krag use. If a person had a 30 Purdey double rifle and original ammo was hard to get, using Krag ammo loaded to the hotter 30 P loading would be OK as long as the user did not have a Krag that they could accidentally be used in. There are a few rifles available over here that one could safely load 30/40 cases to 308 pressures. Again, precautions needed so they are not accidentally fired in an original Krag.

Back in the 90s I found George Nonte's book on case conversions at my local university's library. I noticed the dimensions the 30-40 and Purdey shared. I think one can get a 150gr going 2700fps out of a Krag w/o too much pressure, with the right powder, somewhere in the 4350 burn rate, but not as slow as 4831. I still have some Hornady FMJBTs loaded that are likely going that fast. They did pretty good in a 88rd highpower match I shot in. I got too shaky in the prone stage and had to stop firing though.