Finally found my Krag

[ssgross]

Many thanks for the very detailed information butlerangers and Jon. I will take a look at poyer along with your info to see if I can confirm that my feed parts are correct.
I loaded 180 SP with 34.2 gr of IMR 4064 to get on paper and get some fouling shots through. My 10th edition Hornady manual reports ~2000 FPS. After playing with the windage at 25 yds, this rifle put 5 shots in overlapping holes!
This same load was all over the place at 100 yds.
I then switched to 220 RN, and shot multiple 5 shot groups at 100 yds with each of the loads
29.3gr IMR4064 (~1600 FPS)
31.0 (~1700 FPS)
32.7 (~1800 FPS)
34.4 (~1900 FPS) - max load in Hornady manual.
The original army load is reported at 2000 FPS, and my Lyman 50th gives a max load with IMR4064 at 39.5gr, ~2120 and 39,000 CUP. So my max load in this string was loaded to
36.5 IMR4064, hopefully at ~2000FPS or a little under.
I find on average the Lyman start and max loads for same projectile and powder to be much hotter than any other manual I've looked at. Most of their data though was collected from a universal receiver and a test barrel.
32.7gr IMR4064 was a clear winner
29.3gr and 31.0gr were about 50% worse, and 34.4/36.5 opened up, with the latter spraying the page. My setup was a front tripod rest and a rear bag off a bench at my local indoor range, which has 100yd lanes.
Attachment 111087Attachment 111088
Some of the flyers were my fault - getting used to the drag on the trigger - it's smooth, but a lot of drag before it breaks - and the sights. In the first group above, I called the 5th shot when the trigger broke much earlier than I expected. I got into a nice rhythm letting the rifle settle up with a bottom hold during the long take-up.
The open sight, set all the way down, was way high - off the page on every load but the 29.3gr. I was bottom hold, with the front sight post level with the top of the rear sight. Perhaps I needed to just let the front sight "peek" in the bottom of the notch.
The peep sight is harder to use than the 1903. I could see my aiming black with a bright point from the orange dot clear as day, until I tried to look at it through the peep and all I would see was the white page. I found that leaving my other eye half open made the black and the orange dot show clear through the peep, and my groups.
I took the day off and spent half the day shooting ~150 rounds. I finished the day using up all the 180SP's getting a feel for how the rifle would behave in my hands in a vintage match course of fire. I found that shooting offhand with the peep sight impossible, and the long drag on the trigger makes it more difficult than it should be with the open sight. It feels very similar to other front-heavy long barreled rifles, perhaps closest comparison would be a Mosin 91/30. My Mosin has a very early clean trigger and shooting offhand with the open sight is easy peasy to get in a rhythm.
I did work on the Krag's trigger. It was very gritty after I first cleaned it. I then used a fine brass wire wheel on my dremmel to clean it, and all the grit went away leaving a nice long, smooth pull.
My final steps on this one is to investigate my parts are correct (side plate, follower arm, etc.) using the very generous information you all have given me - perhaps get a new trigger or sear to play with stoning and improving that, and finish cleaning out the grime from the stock.
I did find on Sun. night when getting my gear together that the bolt stuck a bit on opening. So I cleaned the lugs in the receiver really well, which didn't do much cause I already had done a good job. Some of the patina on the bolt housing was rough, so I used my fine brass wheel on very low speed to clean it...I left the patina on the bolt handle and knob. After a very light coat of RIG, it moves like an egg fried in bacon grease - choose your own favorite analogy - and looks beautiful sliding in the action. I'll say thanks one more time with some pictures after I clean up the stock and other miscellany.
EDIT: I removed third target picture since I mis-wrote the powder type in the label. It was 30.0gr IMR4064, but I wrote IMR4895 on the target.