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ok if you say so ...

Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2023 9:53 pm
by carbon outlaw
I was just getting ready to do some reloading....
the first load in my reloading manual is for 100 grain round nose sp ...
I dident know they made such a thing ...
Max load you get 3070 feet per second .... OK ...

Re: ok if you say so ...

Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2023 10:12 pm
by FredC
My dad loaded those 100 grain plinkers for the local small white tails. In 30-06 he used 20 grains of Unique. He said the rifle barely recoiled and the muzzle blast was a subdued "crack". He liked it. Butlersrangers has used the 110 grain round nose in his faux carbines and gotten surprisingly good accuracy. I have no clue what powder or weight of charge he used. I think his Krags did not feed with it, so he had to load them singly. I am sure he will be along with more details.

If you want to try Unique in a Krag the charge would probably be closer to 16 grains. If you have access to one of Phil Sharpe's books he would have a reasonable recommendation.

Re: ok if you say so ...

Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2023 12:06 pm
by ebruce
Just a thought. Google an article entitled "The Load," written by C. E. Harris. Tremendously helpful for reduced loads in a variety of calibers including, of course, the .30-40 Krag. Sincerely. bruce.

Re: ok if you say so ...

Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2023 12:55 pm
by psteinmayer
FWIW, I shot at a local match (Kalamazoo, MI) on the 27th, and a friend of mine was there with his 1896. I witnessed him shoot a 100-5X in slow prone with an insanely small grouping! His load? he shoots a 110 grain RN bullet with IMR 3031 (I'm not sure what the powder load is). Here's the kicker - he's left handed too! Amazing accuracy is possible with a Krag and a light bullet! By the way, he also shoots in the high 90s for both Rapid AND Off Hand too!!!

Now that said, I did try a 155 gr RN, but my 1898 didn't like them much and I abandoned looking for a different bullet and went back to my trusty 220 gr RN/40.0 grains of 4350 load. Still, if I had the time and money to research it a little more, I would be looking for ways to squeeze a little more performance out of my Krag!!!

Re: ok if you say so ...

Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2023 1:18 pm
by Dick Hosmer
ebruce wrote: Wed Jun 07, 2023 12:06 pm Just a thought. Google an article entitled "The Load," written by C. E. Harris. Tremendously helpful for reduced loads in a variety of calibers including, of course, the .30-40 Krag. Sincerely. bruce.
Interesting article - copied and filed for future use. Thanks!

Re: ok if you say so ...

Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2023 2:16 pm
by FredC
CarbonOutlaw. I am a little dense sometimes. Looked at your post and the thread title. I am now guessing you were not looking at loading these lightweight rounds yourself but expressing surprise they were even in the manual.

Not sure if I would ever load those high velocity rounds for myself. I do not see any need and would worry that those loads would be hard on the first couple of inches of rifling. That said, reduced velocity rounds do serve many useful purposes. Bruce's reference article mentions several. Small game was mentioned by me. Thinking about it I actually killed a couple of pigs with the same load my dad used. When you have killed over 200 pigs some of the details get forgotten.

Back when they were building 22 Krags, it would have been easier to have done some plinker 30/40 loads instead of rifle conversions. If they had done that then the collectable conversions would not exist today, so maybe it is good thing they did not.

Re: ok if you say so ...

Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2023 7:03 am
by butlersrangers
FredC: In the early 1900's, Frankford Arsenal made some .30 caliber 'gallery practice' ammo for the Krag. The first rounds used a lead round ball. A 107 grain conical shaped lead bullet came soon after.

Reloading kits and bullet molds were manufactured and available to National Guard Units, which allowed manufacture of short range .30 caliber GP ammunition.

The success and economy of .22 caliber rifles, for GP use, kind of killed off the demand for .30 caliber Gallery Practice equipment.

Here is a link, to the text of a 1904 article by Dr. Walter Hudson, that discusses a lot about indoor rifle practice:

http://ps-2.kev009.com/ohland/Cast_Bull ... _Krag.html

Re: ok if you say so ...

Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2023 7:19 am
by butlersrangers
I experimented with the .30 caliber 100 grain 1/2 jacket & 110 grain jacketed projectiles, in the .30-40 Krag,
mainly because someone gave me a few boxes of projectiles and some IMR-4198 powder.

Looking for a use for these supplies, I ran across Speer Reloading Data that used 'reduced charges' in the .30-40 Krag.
I just wanted tame & accurate plinking ammo that moved around 2,000 fps.
Single loading rounds because of their short length was no problem.