Hunting season, almost forgot how to handload.....25 Krag Ackley

I put the 30-40 brass through a 6.5 Krag sizer and shove the shoulder back so it just chambers. I can't get the 30-40 brass into the 25 Krag Ackley sizer or the shoulder will collapse. The necks of sizers always being extra small, the next size up, 6.5 is small enough for neck tension on a 257 bullet.

I drilled a hole through 3/8" Aluminum and countersunk it until the brass neck can poke through and out the other side by 0.015".

I filed the brass mouth flush with a fine file with a rabbit symbol.

I turn the brass while dragging the edge of the neck on the file, like sharpening a drafting pencil.

I run the brass through a 25-06 Lee collet neck die. That only acts on the top third of the neck, but does almost nothing, except to the inner burrs from filing. Chamfer and prime.

Hi Clark, it's been a while. I've always enjoyed reading about your exploits and would love to see a pic of your rifle.
I had a thought about forming your cases. Would a 257 Roberts die work to neck it down and set the shoulder length?
I have a 309 JDJ barrel for my Contender and to form cases, you run 444 Marlin brass into a 308 Win sizing die partway until it will just chamber, then fireform and load as normal with the 309 dies. I guess the minimal body taper and sharp shoulder angle is too abrupt to just use the 309 dies to form cases. So maybe the tapered body and more gradual shoulder angle of the 257 die could be usefull. I know the base diameter is different and wouldn't support the body all the way up, but maybe it would be close enough. I used a cut down 300 Savage die to neck down 38 special brass for my 30 Erin cartridge and it worked great until I found that the 7.62x25 was much closer to what I had.
Anyway, take care and it's good to have run across you again.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/atta...1&d=1567397323
Lar, thanks for the kind words.
I have hijacked a Krag rifle build thread in the gunsmithing section:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/atta...1&d=1567397323

I tried the 257 Roberts Lee collet neck die on 25KA brass, but I had to make spacer bushing [fat washer]. The neck runout from a 25-06 Lee collet was better and needed no spacer around the base of the brass.

My Forster honed out 257 Roberts Ackley sizer die has a neck size of 0.284".
The Hollywood 6.5 Krag sizer die has a neck size of 0.288", which is better.

I have ~300 dies on a spreadsheet with a column of neck size, that I measured with pin gauges.
I would never have thought of using some old obscure die I collected off ebay, had it not been for that spreadsheet.
I may be losing memory, but my computer is still working.

In 1988 I got a temporary job to calculate the electrical and temperature stresses on 3000 components in the German fighter plane toronado power supply. They put an IBM 486 computer in front of me. I had not touched a keyboard since typing class in high school in 1969. I did it with a Lotus 123 spreadsheet with math buried in each cell. The next job I got they put a Spark workstation in front of me. That was hooked up to the internet. In 1994 there were no gun forums on www. But on usenet there was rec.guns. I had 3 guns; 22 rifle, 12 ga shotgun, and 30-06 rifle, just like my father did. But being on gun forums for 25 years has brought me to owning a lathe and building a 25 Krag Ackley and having a spreadsheet of dies.

I posted here how I make mine. It is a multi step process and does need annealing before firing in the chamber. Expanding that case to an almost straight case to a 40degree shoulder is huge. It is not just neck reduction. After you reduce the neck you have done less than half of the change. I reduce the neck in two steps, 7mm and then .25. I then anneal the neck/shoulder. I expand the case with a full case of 872 powder and a bullet. I bought a bunch of second bullets and use them. It's one use of my 872 powder.

Making 25 Krag would not be much different than making 6.5x53R Dutch Mannlicher from .303 Brit brass.
I have posted that process several times.

I fired 3 cases with bullets. The first had a tiny split on the shoulder. The dried spillage ceramic bore cote residue in the chamber got more cleaned out with each shot in the new barrel. This is the last time I use Bore Coat and not swab out the chamber before it dries.