Krag speedloader done.

[Baltimore Ed]

Been finishing up my krag speedloader lately. It's not too pretty I'm afraid but the next version will be prettier. I had to add a spacer inside to orient the five .30-40s to lean them toward the open end. I also added the steel tab on the front end to keep it from going too far into the loading gate.  Added the suede pieces to give it some grip. I tried it out today and it actually worked. Open the gate, insert the loader, depress the spring loaded lever to release the bullets, remove the unit and close the gate. Engage hostiles. Gravity works all the time. It might even be faster than a stripper clip as they have to be aligned into a clip guide. A Krag gate is a whole lot bigger. Hopefully I'll get to use it this month.

[Drydock]

Can't use it for a GAF match, but dang!

[Forty Rod]

My .30 Krag is a '95 Browning.  I'd sure like a speed loader for it.

Spaininnaass to load.  I'd even settle for some stripper clips and a Russian guide.

[Baltimore Ed]

Thanks for the utube link, Drydock. Those Mad Minute matches are pretty neat. I'd watched some videos of them when I first started messing with my speedloader build. The NRA target matches are just the opposite, 10 minutes for 10 shots. I think the Mad Minute would be more fun. Are you even allowed to use stripper clips for a GAF match?

[Drydock]

You use the rifle as designed: if it was designed to use clips, you use them. The Krag was designed to use loose ammunition.  However, I just set fast time at 2 matchs, one using a Krag, the other using an 1895 Winchester.  The ability to top off the Krag between shooting positions, as well as the ease of loading, makes it as fast if not faster than clip loaders.  The double row Mills Belt helps a lot.  In fact it's absolutely vital, as it allows you to grab handfuls of cartridges, as opposed to one or two from a single row belt.

Last years Expansion match saw the top 2 finishers using Krags, beating a bunch of clip loading 1903's.

The Winchester?  Dumb luck, dummy rounds and practice, practice, practice . . . again, the double row belt is vital.

Well down the 1st page of "Care and Feeding of the Krag" there is an entry on how to speed load a Krag.

[Pitspitr]

From a thread about shooting my Krag at the Cornhusker state games.

Oh, I shot really poorly, but by the same token the other guys were really good. This type of match at 200 yds is about all that the other guys shooting ever shoot. (I think they were all members of the host club)

The amusing part was that the other shooters, knowing that I was new to the discipline, all expressed sympathy for me when they realized that I was shooting my Krag. They told me that there was no way I would be able to get all the shots off in time as some of them had tried it and I wouldn't be able to do it. After we got through with the rapid fire string the guy next to me grinned at me and asked, "So, how many did you get off?" I told him, "I finished before you. I actually should have slowed down a little." He was shocked.  

Between my speed and my uniform, I got to tell a lot of them about the GAF.  

The double row Mills belt was all I needed to load faster than them.