Krag Collectors Association Forum

I've been crimping all along... including before I started using the 250 Magnums. Never really had a problem with it. Just enough crimp to prevent telescoping.

How many times are you guys able to reload your Remington cases? (Using 220 gr RN and about 39-40 grs of IMR4350.) I was at a gun shop a few weeks ago and one of the guys who happened to like Krags said only two reloads past the original ammo harvest shot. That means a total of only three firings. I found that discouraging since the brass and ammo is so hard to find.

'BM1455' - That gentleman's experience, (2 reload case life), sounds like the exception rather than the rule for Krags.

IMHO - There must be something fundamentally wrong with his chamber dimensions, resizing Die, or techniques.

Most KCA members report their Krags to be gentle on Brass. There is a lot to be said for partial neck-sizing, routinely annealing case necks, and checking fired cases during shooting sessions.

I once owned a British Short Magazine Lee-Enfield, Mk-III, that was a destroyer of .303 Brass. It had a New BSA barrel on it! However, the chamber was sloppy for War & Crud and not designed for reloaders. My cases were showing complete head-separations on the second loading. I was using a simple 'Lee-Loader', which only neck-sized. The rifle ruined all my new Winchester brass, but, made me appreciate rimmed cartridge cases! (BTW - The .303 loads were quite mild and accurate).

As long as you follow good reloading practices, you should be good for multiple reloads. I am well into double digits on some of my Remington brass (I started reloading 30-40 with a LEE hand loader around 1984)! Anneal your brass... and DON'T try to squeeze every last ounce of velocity... and you should have years of use out of your brass. I shoot in at least one CMP vintage match per month, and I pull from a pool of around 150 cases. The biggest problem I'm experiencing is cracks in the mouth of the case necks, or in the neck side wall, at which point the case goes into the trash! Inspect your brass carefully before loading... and as others have said, be gentle.

;D Paul

Thanks guys. I had a feeling he was being overly cautious with the two reloads thing. I was planning on making my 220 gr about the same as the original loads so the sights worked well. Working my way towards 40 grs of IMR4350. Will test my .39 grn loads today if I have time.