Using an old Lee Loader for Krag 30-40 ammunition

[DonP]

New member here, Hi guys. :)

I have what I "think" is an 1899 carbine (?) with a factory installed peep sight on it. I say "think" because it's a fairly new gun to me and I haven't been able to do much research on it yet. It took me almost as long to find brass to reload as it did to find the rifle.

I picked up an old (1963) Lee Loader for Krag 30-40 on E-Bay a few weeks ago. The ones you use a mallet to load with? I have a nice bench set up with a couple of nice turret presses, but I like something about the literal "hands on" nature of the Lee Loader.

I've loaded some very accurate and consistent 30-06 with the Loaders in the past and couldn't pass up the Krag set when I spotted it.

The new (and relatively cheap) scale I recently got to check my powder weights is accurate to 2 decimal places in grains, so they are all accurate to .02gn + or -. Can't wait to see how she shoots with them.

Just finished loading 50 rounds with a 180 Grain Hornady jacketed round nose, over 38 grains of IMR4064. That should give me around 2000fps on the Chrono.

I'm going to do another 50 rounds later this week, probably with a 220 Grain Hornady Jacketed round nose, over 36 grains of 4064, or I might split the load and do 25 of 4064 and 25 with IMR4895. Just to see which flavor it likes better.

I'm keeping the loads low, not quite minimums for obvious safety reasons.

Other than the usual reloading manuals, any suggestions on other sources for different recipes, using more commonly available bullets?

[Culpeper]

Welcome to the forum. The smart guys will be along in a bit.

Could you put up a pic or two of your I-think-carbine. I had one that fooled me years ago. Turned out to be a cut down 1898 rifle with a heavily stamped messed up model and serial number.

Then there is Glen E. Fryxell over at LASC if you want to try lead bullets.

http://www.lasc.us/FryxellCB30-40krag.htm

from down ol' Kenya way,

culpeper

[psteinmayer]

I started reloading for my Krags with a LEE Handloader way back in the early 1980s. I still have it, although I don't use it anymore (just takes too long to load 50 or so in a sitting).