Scheduled middleweight bout.

[madsenshooter]

Middleweight bout coming soon. Krag arena, date to be set by the weather and time off work! Introducing the contestants from left to right, the Eagan MX3-30AR, a tapered boolit design by John Ardito. He weighs in at 170.2gr, the heavyweight of the group. In the center is the Belding and Mull 311169 a very old design affectionately known as the "Squibb" boolit, weighing in at 164.9gr. Finally, the new kid on the block designed by Ed Harris, the Lee CTL312-1602R. He weighs in at 157.2gr, the lightweight in the bout. To make things as equal as possible in this 3 boolit competition, all are gas checked, cast with the same 24bhn alloy, sized to .311", lubed with the same Carnuaba Red lube, and will be fired with the same charge of 20gr of Blue Dot. All are seated to touch the rifling and will still function through the magazine. All will be fired from the same scoped Krag, I've nearly got the old Miller Kodiak Dreamount affixed, and I'll be using a Lyman Alaskan boosted to 8 power. PICS of the arena forthcoming. Anyone care to pick the winner?
:Fire:

[ktw]

I always put my money on the scrappy, low rent, long-shot, underdog. I pick the Lee.

-ktw

[35 Whelen]

The Eagan will never work under any circumstances. PM me for an address and I'll see to it that it is disposed of in a proper and safe manner.
35W

[madsenshooter]

Thank you for your participation gents. ktw, the Lee is the only one I've thus far shot out of my 92/96. With a 5 grain lower charge it put 2 within an inch (all I had loaded at that time). Whelen, it isn't a genuine Eagan, I bought the cherry off ebay and Bernie Rowles cut the mold for me, it sure fits the throat of my K31 nicely and I predict some itty bitty groups with the combo in the future! At some point, I may see if NEI will make some more molds with it. There are two loads of the B&M in the bout. The front band of the one pictured fits in a forcing cone of sorts that Krag rifles have, a .310" portion devoid of rifling, I bumped the front band a bit on another group that allows me to get the nose to touch the rifling but the load is then borderline for magazine function. I think it will do just as well in the cone, the jump is perhaps 1/16", not really a jump, it's supported by the smooth bore.

[Jeffreytooker]

The Eagan will never work under any circumstances. PM me for an address and I'll see to it that it is disposed of in a proper and safe manner.
35W

Whelen:

I bought a 3-30 Ardito from a fellow several years ago. Six months later he wanted to buy it back. Needless to say I still have the mould. I thank you for your kind disposal offer. I think I will keep mine.

Jeffrey Tooker

[Tristan]

I'll go with the Ardito - the heavy of the group. The krag was originally designed with a heavy bullet in mind.

- Tristan

[DanM]

I like the Lee 160-2R in my 24" Krag sporter. The alloy I use is similar in hardness to yours, and I size to .310" for a tight fit in the throat, and seat to engrave the lands. My load is fairly warm using IMR4350 and compressed COW fill for 2050fps. I just loaded up 100 last weekend, and am looking forward to shooting them soon. This Krag is also very accurate with the Lee 120 soupcan fueled with 20grs A2400 for 2000fps. They feed well if seated out to expose both lube grooves. That is a fun plinker and small game load.

[dromia]

I went for the Eagan just because its the heavier boolit. I find the heaviest are usualy the best for first tries all other things being equal.

[Buckshot]

I went for the Eagan just because its the heavier boolit. I find the heaviest are usualy the best for first tries all other things being equal.

..............."Ditto"

.................Buckshot

[madsenshooter]

Krag arena is a step closer to being done, got the barrel drilled and tapped. I put a Lyman dovetail on it, using one of the original rear sight holes, d&t'd the other hole. Today I have to find the Lyman Tru-Lock 7/8" rings that I put away somewhere. I discovered that they fit and function on this old Miller Kodiak mount. Also put a low scope safety on, getting closer. I see I'm getting lot of lookers, but few venturing to pick a winner. I'll try real hard to eliminate as much human error as possible.

[DanM]

Don't forget to post pictures of your finished project....

[madsenshooter]

Not really, but some folks have likened the Miller Kodiak Dreamount to said bridge. I think it's more a case of the proverbial "Running gears of a katydid" come to life. It may not be pretty, but it's functional. Function before form with me, except for my women!

The way I did it, there's only one hole to drill and tap, and it's not in the receiver. For those of you not familiar with the mount, basically, it's a leaf spring fastened to a dovetail at the front, out on the barrel, and the rear mount has little hardened feet that sit on the receiver under the tension of that spring. One could mount it to about any rifle with a dovetailed rear sight, or in some cases barrel bands were made with the attaching dovetail on them. I have one for the Springfield, need one for a Krag sporter I'm working on. I need a machinist friend! The advantages to the Miller, vs say, the S&K mount, which is a no gunsmithing mount, is that the scope is on center rather than offset to the left. You have to do some inletting of the stock for the ring that goes around the receiver with the S&K, and once installed, unless you have a model 1892 handguard, your rifle has to go topless!

The Miller is easily removed, lift the rear of the scope off the receiver, rotate the whole assembly 90 degrees and remove it from its dovetail. The screw on dovetail requires two screws to be taken out, and the original rear sight can be put back on with not further disasembly of the rifle. I'll get some more detailed pics when the weather is better, temp fell 20 degrees between midnight and 7am.

The scope is a wartime production Alaskan that someone put a Lischert booster on. I thought they were all 8 power, but things don't look quite as big as they do through a Bushnell scope turned up to 8 power. The scope has a USMC on the cap, and an ocular bell with a federal stock #. The bluing is darker than any Alaskan I've seen, maybe some armorer worked on it at one time.

OK, this is getting long, I'll end with a question. As you can see, my repro handguard is lighter, and less red than my stock, do you think adding a little walnut stain to some cherry would give it a better look?

:bigsmyl2:

[DanM]

Can't you find a wierd scope mount? :roll: Good looking rifle BTW. Certainly good enough to try darkening the handgauard for a matching look. What about the empties whacking the scope?

[madsenshooter]

Well, I won't be doing any rapid fire with the scope mounted, I guess I'll just eject them easy, maybe pull hard on a couple and see what happens. Aww rats butt! I just debulletted a load of 57gr of DP85, a fine ball powder. Well, cleanup time, all those little balls ought to keep things rollin for awhile!

[DanM]

[QUOTE= Aww rats butt! I just debulletted a load of 57gr of DP85, a fine ball powder. Well, cleanup time, all those little balls ought to keep things rollin for awhile![/QUOTE]

One of the many reasons to have compressed air in the gunroom. BTDT....

[runfiverun]

if that eagan don't work.
go head and put some powder under it.

[madsenshooter]

You mean some of the stuff I just cleaned out of my action? I know it works great in my K31, got a couple other cherries too, one for the MX3-30G and the MX3-30US. I have a few 30G clone molds made to sell, the nose is too long for magazine length once I get it anywhere near the rifling in my Krag. It should make a good heavy K31 bullet. Base is about even with the rear of the shoulder when throated up.

[madsenshooter]

It appears there's a problem with my front attachment point. I've been trying to get the scope roughly sighted in. I keep moving the reticle, and since it isn't a perma-center I can see that it is moving, but the boolits keep hitting in the same area, high and left. The competition may be shot with the 1901 sight, I'll think about that. In the mean time, I'll pay a visit to my local machinist and get a proper front attaching point made.

[madsenshooter]

At last, everything has come together! I found a fellow selling a scout mount for the Krag rifle on ebay, he only had 6, and I got 2 for $24ea. I've attached some pics. He'll be selling them soon, should have his website up around the 1st of April. It goes right on my Krag, just take the rear sight off by removing the two screws, put the mount on in its place. For those of you with 1901 sights and no extra screws, the guy is even having the odd thread Krag screws made! I can say that your scope will go on without any modification with the 1901 handguard, not sure yet about others. He is also selling ammo loaded with the Hornady 150gr boattail @2300fps that busts the myth of short bullets not being accurate in the Krag. So the middle weight bout will go on soon, much too windy today though. After April 1st, www.kraghaus.com

[madsenshooter]

Finally got around to shooting this, really was no winner, all were patterns, but the B&M had the smallest pattern @ about 2". That surprised me, even though I picked the B&M in the poll, I really expected more out of the Eagan. It appears that I'm not going to get acceptable accuracy out of BD at the 2000fps level. I tried 4895 with the Lee, and it reduced the pattern some, still nothing to write home about, so I wrote it here! With Camp Perry coming in a couple months the boolits are going on the shelf and I'm working on a jacketed load, don't have many primers to play with.

[leadman]

If you have any IMR4759 you might try it. Shoots real good in my Krag. 15grs. 4759, 170gr. 311291.

[madsenshooter]

Got some 4227. which is about the same burn rate. In fact I've used slightly more, 17.5gr, behind the Lee, and it shot pretty good. The alloy I've concocted which is pretty much a babbitt, is holding up well to the higher velocities, no sign of leading. It is tempting to try a balls out load with a case full of DP-85 under the B&M or the Eagan and see what happens. I think the tumble lube Lee would be a little shy on lube.