Bp cartridge shooting ought to pay more

[GOPHER SLAYER]

A few years ago I bought a heavy barreled [very heavy] rifle built on the FBW Action and chambered for the 40 Krag. That is supposed to be the old 40-60 Maynard case. Sounded easy and the barrel although heavy is a work of art made by Bo Clerke who was a real craftsman. My idea was to use the rifle for black powder shooting. Along with the rifle I got three bullet molds and a 20 power Lyman STS scope. What problem could there be? All you had to do was expand some 30-40 Krag cases, or 303 British if you can't find Krag cases. The 303 is 2.222 in length and the Krag is 2.314. Was I in for a surprise. To began with, you can rarely find the Krag case and when you do they are two bucks apiece. I have some Krag cases and no two of them are the same length and no where near 2.314 in length. The same can be said for the 303 British cases. I am about to toss the whole business down the well.

[Don McDowell]

https://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/category/categoryId/764?
That should solve the 30-40 Krag problem.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Thanks Don, I will call them tomorrow.

[Gunlaker]

Is the rifle set up for breech seating? If so it won't matter if the cases are a little short.

Chris.

[Chill Wills]

My guess is that you are not using this for NRA silhouette but for other match or non- match shooting.
As you may know, the 40-60 Maynard case length is 2.2" but you might want to check your chamber before doing any trimming.

The 40-60 Maynard is a favorite BP cartridge of mine. A very smart round indeed. I am in Raton, NM at the BPCR nationals and will be shooting my 40-60 Monday in the scope silhouette nationals.

I have made hundreds and hundreds of cases from Krag. The best way, bar none, for me is any primer, 5gr fast pistol powder like B"eye, 231, Red dot or Clays, and the remainder of the case filled with corn meal with a golf wax or bullet lube, (or some such) plug in the mouth. Fire them in any safe direction and they will be ready to trim and load with bullets for a first firing at targets.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Thanks Chill for your reply to my problem. I gave up breach seating many years ago. I won't go into all the reasons. For expanding cases I use the same method you do. I anneal the Krag or 303 case, prime it, drop in 11 grains of unique, fill the case with cornmeal and plug with a paper wad. Most of them expand well enough on the first try, if they don't they get a second helping. My problem is the fact that few of the cases whether they are Krag or 303 seem to be the same length. According to Cartridges Of The World the K rag is supposed to be 2.314 and the 303 is 2.22. I have not found one yet that measured up to specs. The last time I shot black powder it did not go well. I tried to shoot some .40 caliber bullets that were lubed with a smokeless lube. Lesson learned. I do like the 40 60 Maynard case and I hope I can get it to work for me. I have a rolling block in 40-65 and those cases present no problem in sizing but I actually like the Maynard case better. I also have two 38-55 that I have used in matches. Our problem is the lack of matches to shoot in. My wife and I took off for Raton in 1995 but our '88 Ford Taurus blew it's tranny 11 miles west of Needles and that was that.

[Chill Wills]

I got about 500 Graph 30-40 Krag cases a few months ago. Just because the other were price. If you need a few or a few hundred I would send you some at the price I paid Graph. I have two lifetimes supply.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Thank you Chill for the kind offer. I am glad for you that made the trip to Raton, I would love to be there. Let us know how you did, good or not so good, we would still like to know and pictures would be great. I would really like to see pictures of your 40 Krag rifle.

[Hiwall55]

I just got done forming 100 30/40 Krag cases to 40/60 Maynard .I use 9 gr. Of bullseye and fill the rest up with cornmeal, but first trim them to 2.265, they will form to 2.235 to 2.240 and won't be much to trim.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Hi-wall55, do you shoot black powder in the Maynard case, if so how much can you get in the case? I have a copy of the black powder hand book written by Mike Venturino & Steve Garbe and in the book it states that Steve used the Maynard case formed from the 30-40 Krag case. It also states that the case length is 2.20. If the Krag case is trimmed that much, why not just use the 303 British case since they are much easier to find and much cheaper? The Krag case is 2.314 and the 303 is 2.22. The handbook also states that Steve gets 52.5 Grains of black powder in the expanded Krag case and still has room for a 405 grain bullet. Seems like a tight squeeze to me. I just went out to my loading shop and found that the trimmed Krag case will easily hold 52.5 grains of FF with lots of room left over for a big bullet.

[Chill Wills]

The handbook also states that Steve gets 52.5 Grains of black powder in the expanded Krag case and still has room for a 405 grain bullet. Seems like a tight squeeze to me. I just went out to my loading shop and found that the trimmed Krag case will easily hold 52.5 grains of FF with lots of room left over for a big bullet.

Yes, as you see, it is roomier than one would guess. My load with a 430gr bore rider seated .450" in the case is 58gr Swiss uncompressed. But with a tapered Paul Jones Mini-Groove (aka Money Bullet) The accuracy load is 61.5grs uncompressed of the same powder.

My chamber is a little long but with in the "leeway" spec. of the described NRA rules. Still, the 2.2" long case will hold enough powder to be a very effective round.
The Scope championship will be tomorrow and Wednesday. Me and the 40-60 Maynard will start on Rams.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Thanks Chill. I would like to ask more question later. Glen