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I was given a large amount of very old Krag rounds. From 1900 to 1918. All have cupro nickel 220 gr bullets. The ones from 1907 are starting to split at the necks.
I ran a magnet over all of them and one stuck to the magnet. That one that did was marked "F"at 12:00,"00" at 3:oo and "7" at 9:00. Probably steel core? Probably does not mean anything but I thought it was interesting.
Won't be firing any of them....
Frankfurt Arsenal in 1900? The steel core thing I don't know. I wouldn't have thought they would have been doing that so early. The cracks are just lost life in the brass. Just old is all.
One thing I forgot to mention was that you could see a number of small marks on where the bullet enters the case. If it were a coin the marks would be called riling....
That's the crimping cannelure. Not unusual. The bullet size sounds standard too.
Too bad you have only one, that rules out sectioning it to see. I've not seen or heard of any steel core US made 30-40 rounds but one never knows. There was steel core bullets around back then but AFAIK they were only used in the large bore British sporting calibers for shooting dangerous game. Also, according to Major H. Hesketh-Pritchard they were quite effective at poking new holes in German loophole plates (and the sniper behind it) during the Great War.
Could be a mild steel jacket with a cupro-nickle plating. See page 113 of Phil Sharpe's, "Complete Guide to Handloading". He there relates that out of a sealed box of 20 rounds, made in 1901 by Winchester, 16 had cupro-nickel jackets and 4 had steel jackets coated with cupro-nickle, which would of course, attract a magnet. He also states that Frankford Arsenal made 129,000,000 Krag cartridges with steel jacketed between 1894 and 1900. They were thinly plated with cupro-nickle, and most had tinned cases.