Getting the parked Krag sighted in

[madsenshooter]

Here's the load that won, 41.2gr of IMR4007SSC. Nine shots, the shot out of the black was before I made a slight sight adjustment. 1.9" tall x 1.7 wide, would have held the 10 ring of the SR-1 if I had the sight set right. I shot quicker than I usually do, there were others waiting on the range. Knew I should have got there earlier. The SPP210 load that did so well the other day had some odd high fliers using the lighter cases. I actually have more of that powder, but I want to use the 4007 up. Five of the nine, the higher ones, were in a cluster .895 tall x .825 wide. I won't be able to blame the rifle or load since the combination will hold the 10 ring. Anything other than 10s or Xs will be operator error.

[MAG-63]

Nice shooting! I need to really work on dialing-in my Krag carbine. I've only tried a couple of loads using IMR 4350 and some 150gr M2 ball that I load for the 1903A3. I'm sure a heavier bullet will be better. I really need to do a Cerrosafe casting of the chamber and slug the bore to see what I'm dealing with. Any suggestions on loads and bullets? Most of my rifle reloading has been with IMR 4350 4895.

[jon_norstog]

"Shooting faster than usual" - a lot of the milsurps I've owned got really accurate once the barrel heated up. Particularly true of long Mausers like the G98. Those five in a cluster may be your last five shots.

jn

[madsenshooter]

I can't say Jon, I wasn't taking the time to look through the spotting scope between shots, only spotted the first one. I did note, as you said, that the hot barrel helps grouping. Used to get a little peeved when the cast bullet benchrest shooters would take breaks that allowed my barrel to cool. I'd have to burn up more ammo as sighters to get it hot again before shooting my string for score.

MAG 63, closest thing to a carbine I have is 24" barreled cut off 92/96. I've noticed that my two long rifles seem to like loads where the exit pressure would be around 5000fps. More than one way to get there, either something fast burning like the SPP210 above, or a slow burner that doesn't get up to a very high chamber pressure. The groups with the 4007 load have gotten progressively smaller as the powder charge went down. I started with 44.4gr, extrapolated from .303 British data, wound up a couple grains below start charges for the .308. Chamber pressure should be somewhere around 37,000psi and should drop down to around 7000psi before bullet exit, I'm guessing. Not much help to you I'm afraid.

[psteinmayer]

Nice shooting! I need to really work on dialing-in my Krag carbine. I've only tried a couple of loads using IMR 4350 and some 150gr M2 ball that I load for the 1903A3. I'm sure a heavier bullet will be better. I really need to do a Cerrosafe casting of the chamber and slug the bore to see what I'm dealing with. Any suggestions on loads and bullets? Most of my rifle reloading has been with IMR 4350 4895.

4350 is usually a good bet in a Krag. 220 grain bullet is also the norm... Is it a true carbine or a cutdown? In a shorter barrel, you could shoot a lighter bullet along with a faster powder like IMR 4064.

These days, for my 1898 Rifle, I only shoot 220 gr Hornady jacketed round nose bullets over 40.0 grains of IMR 4350. However, in my cutdown sporter (24 inch barrel), I shoot 165 gr Hornady boat-tailed Jacketed spire point bullets over 38.6 grains of IMR 4064. With the shorter barrel, the faster moving bullet doesn't need the lengthy burn of a slower powder.

[Mark Daiute]

Bob- I'm 99% sure I have my CP load. 49 Grains of 5010 under the 311284 cast from wheel weights and air cooled, sized to .311. From the bench I put 9 of them in the 10 ring (at 200 yards) yesterday with one flier. The same good results followed me to prone and offhand. The downside was some primer issues which may have something to do with seating depth of the boolit. I had set the calipers to 2.989 instead of 3.089.

I'm gonna neck size the brass, set the boolits to the proper length and if I get the same results I'm good to go. Otherwise I'll be dropping back to my old standby the 314299 over 16.5 of 4759.

[madsenshooter]

Your caliper faux pas reminds me of myself. Yesterday I started to load my rapid fire rounds, got four of them done, looked at the scale, it was set for 31.2gr not 41.2gr. I'd previously loaded all my slow fire rounds 10gr short! I would have really been scratching my head at the match as I would probably have had to put the slider up around 5-6 hundred yards to get on the target! I used a 7.5x55 Lee Collet Die with a washer under it to size the neck of my slow fire rounds, only sizes about 2/3 of the neck. But, I found my chamber is large enough that the shoulder swell sometimes doesn't want to pass between side plate and receiver. I had one of the collet die sized rounds hang up between plate and receiver with a couple rounds below it. Opening and closing the gate cleared it, but fit is a bit too close for comfort. So the rapid fire rounds got full length sized with the die adjusted to just touch the shoulder angle. Shoulder diameter of the collet die sized rounds is .420" vs .4155 for one full length sized in an old Hollywood Gun Shop die that's close to being a small base die. I don't know how you neck size, but might be something for you to keep an eye on, we wants no jam-ups this year!

I don't know what your primer issues were, but there's no way you're going to get an overload with 5010, no matter what the primer says. Sometimes bullets seated into the rifling, and I know NOE's 311284 is close to, if not already into the rifling, take a bit more pressure to get movement started. They refer to it as start pressure on castboolits. Primers are just not a good indicator of overall chamber pressure, unless they're really out of sorts. Maybe someone with quickload can run the load for you to ease your mind. 59.6gr of it or an equally slow burner (870, 8700, 50BMG, etc.) under the same bullet in the 06 would only produce 25-28Kpsi, and 2000fps according to a quickload sheet parashooter put up in the Garand forum. I shot a WLRM with no powder or bullet once, just a stuck in the neck gascheck and it came out pretty flat! I think they vary by manufacturer and even by lot.

[madsenshooter]

All done re-reloading. Weighed all the finished rounds. The 25 slowfire rounds have a max spread of 4gr, the 10 rapid fire rounds a spread of 1.2gr. I'm as ready as I'm going to get.

[jon_norstog]

Good luck!

jn

[psteinmayer]

I have a feeling that Bob and Mark are going to clean my clock at Perry! Ahhh Well.... Guess, I'll just try to medal this year!