1898 Springfield Krag Loads

[concretus]

Hello,
I recently purchased an 1898 Krag carbine. It not a “real” carbine; the S/N is 92xxx,with a 1902 rear sight. It has the 1903 front sight, rear swivel and front swiveled band. It had a faint 1898 on the cartouche and whoever owned it before me relieved some wood around the wrist and made it narrower. Bore is very good, slugged at .308”… I understand this is not a “collector” so I thought with a receiver sight and right load, it would make a good hunter in the mountains of Virginia.
I have an 1898 long rifle with a 1901 cartouche date but it slugged out at .310” so I use .311 Sierra 174 MK… Great, accurate soft shooter; won a 200yd ordnance match with it.
I have the usual suspect when it comes to compatible .30 caliber powders (except IMR-4350) medium/ medium slow and most bullets. I would consider bullet weight of 150gr -180gr range though I think I’m leaning towards 180gr. Are you having better luck neck or full length sizing? Do you set the overal length to factory specs or to magazine fit? If anyone would like to share any load data it would greatly appreciated. Thanks

[browningautorifle]

Jon Norstog for one has done lots of hunting with Krag in 30-40 and his load data might help. Mine is less than stellar so no point in sharing much... https://www.milsurps.com/showthread....+hunting+loads

[concretus]

Jon Norstog for one has done lots of hunting with Krag in 30-40 and his load data might help. Mine is less than stellar so no point in sharing much... https://www.milsurps.com/showthread....+hunting+loads

Thanks it was very informative but the slowest powder I have is Varget and RL-15…

[oldfoneguy]

With the shorter barrel I wouldn't be so concerned about using a slower powder. You would do very well with a 180gr bullet and a 4895 or a 4064 powder.. I have a 1903 rifle with the 1901 sight. Having a 30" barrel the slower powder does it justice. It gave this result with IMR 4350 pushing Hornady 180gr flat base Spitzers between 2100 and 2200fps on the orange dot. The green dot is Nosler 180gr Silvertips same powder and charge weight but giving another 100 fps and slightly better accuracy.

[MAC702]

I would consider bullet weight of 150gr -180gr range though I think I’m leaning towards 180gr.

One thing I've found is that I will have failures to feed with some spitzer bullets. The feed from the magazine was made with the big round nose as the modern bullet shape. Sometimes the spitzer will dig in and jam up.

[browningautorifle]

I will have failures to feed with some spitzer bullets.

I too had that often, or issues. There was a thread here including that and it was suggested that our magazine is actually at fault... Here's the thread... https://www.milsurps.com/showthread....116#post483116