Krage Scout Scope.

A couple of years ago I put a long Kraghouse scout base on my 1899 Carbine sporter because my 77 year old eyes are going wonky. I finally got a Vortex Crossfire 2-7X scope and mounted it with Weaver high see thru rings but couldn't zero it at all! Dejected I almost gave up but switched out the rings last week to Weaver Low mounts and wonder of wonders !! Shazam! I was able to zero the scope in less than 5 rounds. The low rings are a bit too low so I might need to get some medium height rings.

Instead of the Redding aperture sights, which was why I bought this Krag in the first place ~30 years ago, the scope allows me to sight to the point of impact at 100 instead of 3" high I needed to do with the aperture sight. Yesterday I was able to put 5 rounds in under an inch at 50 yards and could better after some practice, I think.

In '21 I had cancer surgery that screwed me up for over a year+ and I just quit shooting, casting and reloading while my strength improved. Finally I'm back on the range and going to cast some 314299's in my new mold. I've got 50-60 lbs+ of wheel weight lead and lots of powder I squirreled away so I'm set for a good while.

I've been shooting Lee 312-165-2R's in the Krag and 309-200-R's with 4198 and 2400 but I will be experimenting with 2015 and RL10x to see what happens. I got these powders during the great Powder/Primer Panic when you had to buy what was available not what you wanted. But after sourcing data on them they seem to be okay for Hi Vel cast (2000 fps)at modest pressures. If not they are good for .223 J-words, which fits my 1885 Browning Lo Wall.

Any how, if you shoot a Krag, chime in and let me know what seems good in your Krag.

I reloaded my shot loads from last Wed's range session and use my Lee .303 Brit collet sizing die on my .30 US. The neat thing is the 30-40 case is a little longer that the .303 and this leaves a small unsized lip on the case which lets the gas check fit on the case to guide the boolet right into the case with no scuffing.

The .303 Collet die does make the case necks .309" inside, I size my .30's to .310/11 so neck tension is not super tight, but works out fine.

Was out today and shot up some test loads in the Krag.
I got some powder coated cast 124 gr PB .32-20 boolets from Brazos a while ago and loaded some up with 4-8 gr 700x to see how they shot. 7-8 gr 700x shot at about 1400 fps and grouped pretty well at 50 yards. I did resize them from .312 to .310 and it was easy. This make for cheap and cheerful shooting/plinking.

I also shot some Lee 309-200-R with aluminum gas checks and 30&32 gr of RL10x and AA2015 BR. I got right at 2000fps which was about the limit of my recoil sensitivity! I think I'll leave this off the list of loads to do again.

I finished off my range time with 10 rounds of my favorite load, 165 gr Lee 312-165-2R and 25.0 gr H-4198. This is a much more comfortable load to shoot and x ring accurate at 50 yards. About 1900 fps and with the Lee boolet just about matches the old 220 gr military loading for trajectory.

The scope worked well and I'm very pleased with it now that I got the ring problem sorted out. I just need to scrounge up some mid height rings as the low rings are too low and makes it hard to get my eye low enough.

I'm glad that you're back on track with your Krag. I have some AA2015 to try eventually. I'm using IMR4198 at present with 193gr Hunters Specialties cast and IMR 4350 with the Privi 165gr btsp for longer range targets.
I'll need to remove the hood from the front sight(model 70) for hunting. I also have the Redfield 102K rear sight on my Krag.

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I'm a fan of the scout set up and have 2x pistol scopes mounted that way on a M94 356 Win and 1894C. Thought about it for the Krag 20" sporter but RB loads are on out to about 30-40 yds with same sight setting as hunting loads and don't want to lose that small game option. I had a Criterion barrel put on it a couple years ago but have not done much testing with components the way they are. A couple loads that shot pretty well are: 311041 17.0 IMR 4227 but doesn't feed well - might have to play with OAL. For a hunting load I have the 309-200-1R over 35.0 H4895 at 2100fps - could probably shrink the groups a bit with some tweaking but fine for now. Current plinking load is similar to OP's with a Lee 311-100-2R at .310 unsized and tumbled in 45-45-10 over 5.0 700X for 1200fps.

Last year opening day had a spike at 40yds and would like to have seen how the 309-200-1R did at 2100 but passed. My son shot it three days later about a 1/2 mile away for his first deer so that worked out well. Maybe get another chance this year.

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Originally Posted by Texas by God

I'm glad that you're back on track with your Krag. I have some AA2015 to try eventually. I'm using IMR4198 at present with 193gr Hunters Specialties cast and IMR 4350 with the Privi 165gr btsp for longer range targets.
I'll need to remove the hood from the front sight(model 70) for hunting. I also have the Redfield 102K rear sight on my Krag.

Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk

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Not much data out there on AA2015 but It seems to be close to 3031 so should be versatile. I'm going to be testing it and RL10X in my .223 Ruger 77MKII in the next week of so.

AA2015 burned well in the Krag despite the low charges I used. The loads I tried came right in at the speeds of the Loading manual data I had found.

I had my scope mounted as far back as the mounts alowed and found it interfered withthe Krag's ejection, so I moved it as far forward as possible and I thing that will work better for eye relief and not screw up the ejection.

I like Krags. I'm 80, and for me the peep sights still work well. I can still shoot a decent group with the original sights of various types if taking a lot of time target shooting, but they need too much time and concentration to use in the woods. I've always been pretty conventional in my Krag reloads, and mostly use IMR 4895, and bullets in the 180 gr. to 220 gr. range. If cast, I use gas checks. As you have learned, Krags don't lend themselves particularly well to being scoped. Either you drill several large holes in the left side of the receiver for a side mount, or use the scout scope option mounted where the issue rear sight is located. The scout scope takes some getting used to, and sort of changes the balance of the rifle.

DG

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Originally Posted by Der Gebirgsjager

I like Krags. I'm 80, and for me the peep sights still work well. I can still shoot a decent group with the original sights of various types if taking a lot of time target shooting, but they need too much time and concentration to use in the woods. I've always been pretty conventional in my Krag reloads, and mostly use IMR 4895, and bullets in the 180 gr. to 220 gr. range. If cast, I use gas checks. As you have learned, Krags don't lend themselves particularly well to being scoped. Either you drill several large holes in the left side of the receiver for a side mount, or use the scout scope option mounted where the issue rear sight is located. The scout scope takes some getting used to, and sort of changes the balance of the rifle.

DG

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I agree with you that the balance is changed, but at 77 I had trouble using the aperture sight, Last go round I had to remove the target aperture and use the screw hole to see the target well. Interestingly it didn't make much difference in the accuracy? Still was grouping well within the X ring at 75 yards.

About the larger aperture-- true, a larger hole doesn't seem to effect accuracy that much. Witness the ghost ring sights and their successful use. The eye will tend to focus on the center of the hole regardless of size. An old pistol shooter trick for those with aging eyesight is to stick a page reinforce (those little round things that look like a donut) on the eyeglasses.

Please don't think that I'm criticizing your addition of a scope. We all must do that which achieves the desired results. Your rifle, your decision. I had cataract surgery on both eyes about 10 years ago, and overall it has held up well.

DG

No problem. I chose to scope the Krag just because I wanted to try it out. I'll use the irons too, but right now I'm having eye problems due to having radiation treatments a couple of years ago. When first put the scope rail on I used a Weaver K10 that was long enough to reach all the way back, but the scope is OLD and wasn't clear enough. I tried a 2X pistol scope but the eye relief was too long and made it hard to use. Now with the Vortex I'm just messing about to see how much accuracy, or not I can achieve over the Aperture sights. Next range session I'll get it out to 100 yards for the first time with ammo I trust.