Care and feeding of the Krag

Drydock · February 20, 2015, 03:14:25 PM

As has been said, the .30 US is not a hard round to load. And if ever a bottleneck case was made for cast bullets, it's this one.

There are those who will say the Krag will not feed Spitzers. This is flat wrong. The Krag will not feed SHORT spitzers. If the OAL is within spec, the shape of the nose means next to nothing. Flat, pointed, round, hollow point, the Krag will eat them all, as long as OAL is maintained.

For a military load that shoots to the sights, the search begins and ends with IMR 4350. 40 grains under a 220 Jacketed RN duplicates the pressures, velocity's, and numbers on the rim of the original. As good a target or open sight hunting load as you will find for any Krag. Lighter bullets can be used, and other powders, but this is the one if you want to know what Teddy Roosevelts shoulder felt like.

For close in steel plate shooting, any lead bullet 180 or more grains is fine, over a 3/4 case of Trail Boss. Set the sight between 4 and 6 and you'll be right on target from 100 yds in. See the Trail Boss KISS topic above.

Krags can vary in bore dimensions, Mine are both just under .309. But they can go larger, though I've yet to slug one over .310. Not saying they're not out there though. Check yours and plan accordingly. Mostly I think its 100 years of wear. My M1898 Infantry is pretty much worn out, so I've got a brand new CMP Krag barrel waiting to go into it one of these days. These barrels are a great deal IMHO, and any worn out Krag can be transformed by one.

https://estore.thecmp.org/?cat=BAR

CPL Jayhawker Jake · February 20, 2015, 07:29:54 PM

THANK YOU DRYDOCK!!!!

I know I'm probably a good reason why the uniform thread got derailed, sorry about that. Thanks again for the load info.

Drydock · February 20, 2015, 07:52:38 PM

You need one of these now Corporal!

http://www.ssfirearms.com/proddetail.asp?prod=L54

CPL Jayhawker Jake · February 20, 2015, 09:43:09 PM

Quote from: Drydock on February 20, 2015, 07:52:38 PM
You need one of these now Corporal!

http://www.ssfirearms.com/proddetail.asp?prod=L54

Yes I do. Between this and the links in the Uniform thread, I know where a decent chunk of my next paycheck will be going.

Pay Dirt Norvelle · February 20, 2015, 10:39:22 PM

I managed to get an original belt on e-bay. I was very lucky as it was in great shape and cost me only $60.00

Drydock · February 21, 2015, 09:34:52 PM

A nice video of a Skirmish Run.

Pay Dirt Norvelle · February 21, 2015, 11:03:29 PM

I noticed in one of the previous posts that if you shoot the Krag with the bayonet, just to make sure it is completely latched. I have a nice bayonet for my Krag , but I just can not get it to latch all of the way. Is there a trick to doing this as I don't want to do any grinding, etc.

Niederlander · February 22, 2015, 07:10:40 AM

Don't grind on it! I guarantee if it won't latch it's got petrified grease or rust somewhere it shouldn't be. It happens all the time as that channel that slides on to the bayonet lug is difficult to clean. Soak that area with WD-40 to soften that stuff up, and then carefully use a sharp pointed tool to scrape that stuff out. All the corners in that slot are sharp and square, so if they don't look that way, it's full of crud. Look especially at the forward end of it. Hope that helps!

Pitspitr · February 22, 2015, 08:51:50 AM

Quote from: Drydock on February 21, 2015, 09:34:52 PM
A nice video of a Skirmish Run.

Gosh, its a shame you couldn't find video of somebody good.

Drydock · February 22, 2015, 08:54:32 AM

Well doggone it, no one ever takes anv video of me!

Someone good you say?

Drydock · February 22, 2015, 09:21:34 AM

Not a GAF Skirmish, but ol Hickock is always a fun watch. He keeps that Krag topped off, but he needs a Mills belt, dammit!

I want to do a Skirmish out at our farm someday, using 2 liters as targets. They react so well!

Pitspitr · February 23, 2015, 08:39:20 AM

Quote from: Drydock on February 22, 2015, 08:54:32 AM
Well doggone it, no one ever takes anv video of me!

Someone good you say?

Yep Charles definitely qualifies as good

CPL Jayhawker Jake · February 23, 2015, 05:11:24 PM

Thanks a lot guys. After watching those videos, I had to go order dies and cast bullets so I can go blast with my Krag. What do you people have against my wallet?

Seriously though, all I need to do is find some Trail Boss and I can start working up a good plinking/CAS load for the Krag.

Drydock · February 23, 2015, 06:14:17 PM

Oh, we are REAL GOOD at spending your money fer ya!

pony express · February 23, 2015, 06:32:11 PM

Jake, if you can't find Trailboss, you can use Unique, red dot, green dot, and similar pistol/shotgun powders. Big advantage of Trailboss is you can't double charge it-it just won't fit. When I use the others, I make a check stick from a pencil or dowel, to be sure.(I still don't do progressive, form me it's single stage with loading blocks.0

CPL Jayhawker Jake · February 24, 2015, 05:06:30 PM

Quote from: pony express on February 23, 2015, 06:32:11 PM
Jake, if you can't find Trailboss, you can use Unique, red dot, green dot, and similar pistol/shotgun powders. Big advantage of Trailboss is you can't double charge it-it just won't fit. When I use the others, I make a check stick from a pencil or dowel, to be sure.(I still don't do progressive, form me it's single stage with loading blocks.0

There's a local shop I go to that has had most powders in stock the last month or two, so I'm hoping they'll have TB. If not, I do remember seeing the other powders you mentioned, so I'll have back up options.

pony express · February 24, 2015, 06:07:12 PM

Here's a basic article about cast bullets in military calibers, old article but good, although there's lots of new powders on the market since it was written:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?13425-Cast-Bullet-Loads-for-Military-Rifles-Article&s=e76dabcdf8197e919ed57de36315a253

Most appropriate for our shooting would be the "100 yard" loads listed, although the 16gr 2400 would work for the "long" range side matches we sometimes do. But I doubt loads with 2400 could be slowed down to meet regular match velocities.

CPL Jayhawker Jake · February 28, 2015, 05:04:26 PM

Found the Trail Boss, and my Midway order of Krag dies and 200gr Oregon Trail cast bullets arrived, and now I've got 20rds loaded up for testing. Trying 11gr-12.5gr of Trail Boss in half-grain increase, 5 round batches, as well as slightly stouter .30-06 loads using the same bullet. Now if I could just get the weather to cooperate, and I can go test these loads out. Right now, I'm looking at 6 inches of snow, with more coming down.

Hopefully tomorrow I can test 'em, and let y'all know if I blew up my Krag or not. $:-\$

pony express · February 28, 2015, 07:00:02 PM

I use 11.5 gr in mine, but I've never done any serious load development, but it's plenty good for what we do. No real need to go hotter on the '06, I use the same charge in it, as well as for the 8X50RLebel. Only full size milsurp that it hasn't worked for me at 11.5 is a GEW98, bullets tumbled. But it worked fine in the GEW88, go figure.

CPL Jayhawker Jake · March 01, 2015, 08:27:52 PM

Weather cooperated today, and I hand the chance to test out the loads. I've narrowed it down to two potential .30-06 loads, and will hopefully get it finalized tomorrow. Had a bit of trouble with the .30-40 Krag loads, as I set my sight at "600", and then proceeded to shoot over my targets! Fortunately, I figured out the problem quickly enough, but that still leaves me with three loads to retest tomorrow. Oh, well. Not going to complain about "having" to go out and shoot, even if they are "mouse-fart" loads.