KRAG BRASS

[BM1455]

OK. Thanks parashooter. I appreciate the help.
I have tried to reply to your information in this threads about 10 times but my chrome browser keeps crashing. I have a few more questions about this but I am giving up for now. Tired of typing questions over and over again only to have the browser crash....

[BM1455]

I will be interested to hear how others who get this brass find it compares to the Winchester and Remington that we have had for a long time. How much others are finding they change their pet loads to accommodate for the differences in the brass.
I ran 50 cases through the FL dies today just to get some ready. Bumped the necks back just a hair to the longest end of my Wilson gauge. After taking some time to measure and observe I think the main difference between the gauge and my Lee dies and the cases that come from Grafs may just be the shape/angle of the cone of the shoulder?

BTE: Every bag of 50 came with an extra case. So, I got 51 per bag. Your mileage may vary.

[bote]

Got a phone call from Buffalo Arms while I was travelling on 12/22. I had placed an order for 200 Krag Remington cases back in April that was backordered. They said they now had Jamison/Captec cases in stock but they were more expensive than the Remington. The Remingtons were .67 and the others were .84. Told them to go ahead and ship them. They said they would send a confirming email which I never got. Just checked my account online and the order shows up as backordered-but with the new part number and the higher price.

I got a couple hundred cases from Graff but I plan to keep using my .303 Brits for the time being. Got the pockets and flash holes just like I like them; and trimmed just like pretty maids all in a row. ::) (Yeah you even have to trim the short cases so they are all the same)

[FredC]

I was under the impression Grafs was out of 30/40 brass. I ordered something else from them yesterday and before checking out I looked for the 30/40 brass. It was still in stock so I ordered 100 cases for meaness. I will neck one up to 35/40 and compare the water capacity to my new Remington brass I bought a few years ago. Let you know what I find in a couple of weeks.

[madsenshooter]

Received my 200 today. Just a quick look at a few of the cases.
They say Graf / 30-40 Krag on them.
They do not look like Remington or Winchester cases.
I threw them into my Wilson case gauge and found that they were a little bit long in the shoulder. Since you should run them through the resize dies anyways as the necks are not perfectly round due to packaging, this gives you an opportunity to bump the shoulder back into speck. Contrast this to some old Winchester un-fired cases I have where they are quite a bit short in the case gauge right from the factory. No way to bump those forward so you just fire form those when you shoot them. So this stuff from Grafs should cause less stretching in the case head area than the Winchester or Remington brass when you fire it for the first time. (I have noticed that my Remington fired brass gets a little distortion in this area at the first firing. The Winchester brass does not show this as much but I have to think it is stretching there a bit too since it gauges a bit short.) So, maybe a good thing? Less wear on that part of the case with the Graf cases?
Comments?

Replying to my own post here.
A little more quick comparison of the Graf cases to Remington and Winchester cases I have here. I weighed one of each. I resized and bumped the shoulder on the Grafs back to where it should be and ran it through my Wilson gauge. It was now fine.
As for weights: The Remington was twice fired and trimmed so it could be slightly lighter than it would have been new. The Winchester was new and never fired. All were re-sized and trimmed to re-trim length of 2.304" for equal comparison.
Remington = 158.2 grns.
Winchester = 172.3 grns.
Graf = 182.7 grns.

PRVI .303 blanks resized and trimmed to Krag max length weigh around 176.5gr.

[FredC]

I just took the time to compare some of the Graf's Brass.

#1 photo Headspace Graf's .058 to .061 to .063 Remington
SAAMI tolerance .064 to .054
Measurements were made with this gauge:

#2 Photo Case head cross section compared with old once fired Winchester case. Winchester case is on the left, the Graf's case definitely has thicker walls at one point it was .039 compared to the Win .030

#3 photo
Shoulder length on optical comparator, unfired Remington on the left unfired Graf's on right. The Graf's is definitely longer.

[Stretch32]

I just loaded up about 50 pieces of new Graf and Sons Krag brass this weekend to see how it worked. I ran it through a Lee full length sizing die and it chambers fairly easily in my one '92/96 rifle. It does appear that the base, while apparently in tolerance as indicated above, is slightly thicker than some of the other Winchester and Remington brass I have been using. I'll caveat that with the Remington and Winchester brass I use is pretty old and may be somewhat worn on the base from multiple uses.

Stretch

[FredC]

My measurements and observations are just that. I have not loaded a case yet. Time will tell how these hold up and work, but right now I am thankful that someone listened to our requests for brass.
The Remington brass I measured is a couple of years old and from what is apparently the last batch of unprimed brass sold. It was a couple of thousands larger in rim thickness. The diameter of the brass just forward of the rim on the Graf brass is about .002 larger than new Remington brass. The Graf brass is right on the size specified by SAAMI.
Just looked up the head space tolerance and rim tolerance for 30/40s the rim tolerance is .010 and the headspace tolerance is .007. So with a minimum rim and maximum headspace the rim will have .017 real play, going the other way with a maximum rim and minimum headspace the rim will be metal on metal with no play. Amazing! Having the rim thickness near maximum on the brass gives you a little edge if you have a maximum or slightly over head space on your rifle.

[psteinmayer]

What it all boils down to for me is that we now have a source of (seemingly) good quality brass that will hold up to the demands of multiple loadings. Let's hope that this is profitable enough for Graf & Sons to continue offering it for many years to come!!!

[Tanstafl]

just ran an order for Krag brass at Buffalo Arms website....
-
went up to checkout and it still indicated "item in stock".
-
for what it's worth
-