30-40 Krag in Winchester (Miroku) M1895

Forgive me if I am in the wrong area. I recently purchased this rifle more for the cartridge than the rifle. I have multiple boxes of factory ammunition. I would rather shoot cast bullets at less velocity and less recoil. I purchased a Lyman mould #311-284DV. It throws a 220 grain gas check bullet. I have cast the bullets and have lubricated them, sized and added gas checks. It is decision time! I have fired reduced loads in my 303 British rifles with cast bullets but I would like some direction with the 30-40 Krag. I have on hand 2400 and SR4759 in my reloading supplies. Ideas would be appreciated. I will mostly be firing at 50 and 100 yards with open sights. I am 76 years of age and shoot with my long time friends who are similarly aged! David

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Originally Posted by Dante

Forgive me if I am in the wrong area. I recently purchased this rifle more for the cartridge than the rifle. I have multiple boxes of factory ammunition. I would rather shoot cast bullets at less velocity and less recoil. I purchased a Lyman mould #311-284DV. It throws a 220 grain gas check bullet. I have cast the bullets and have lubricated them, sized and added gas checks. It is decision time! I have fired reduced loads in my 303 British rifles with cast bullets but I would like some direction with the 30-40 Krag. I have on hand 2400 and SR4759 in my reloading supplies. Ideas would be appreciated. I will mostly be firing at 50 and 100 yards with open sights. I am 76 years of age and shoot with my long time friends who are similarly aged! David

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The 303 and 30-40 are so close I'm positive your loads for the 303 will work in the 30-40. Give it a try see what you get.

Seat the 311284 out as long as it will chamber and feed. Start at 14.0gr of 2400, increasing in 0.5gr increments until you get the performance you want. Somewhere between 14.0gr 2400 and around 17.0gr 2400 would work fine for your purposes. If say for example 14.5gr and 15.0gr 2400 shoot the same and nice, you might consider trying 14.6, 14.7, 14.8, 14.9 to fine tune your load. I'd recommend sizing .311, but try .310 also if you have that sizing die.

I also prefer "less velocity and less recoil" and load my 30-40's such as I recommended above. I've not used SR4759, but go through 2400 by the pounds in my 30-06, 308, 30-40, 7.5 Swiss, 6.5 Swede, and 8x58R Danish. I'm 75 and also shoot with my long time friends, having outlasted some of them and helping the widows dispose of their casting and reloading equipment and supplies.

Thanks to TD1886 and WholeBunches. I had been interested in a military 30-40 Krag for many years now but they are very scarce in Canada and mostly are cut down from military configuration and have messy bores. I did manage to find a Norwegian Krag but it is in 6.5x55. I hoped that those who were more knowledgeable with the 30-40 would help and you did. The cast bullet I use for the 303 British is 180 grains while the one for the 30-40 is 220. I thought there might be a bigger difference but the loads are similar so I will forge ahead. I will load with my 2400 and see about accuracy. Dave

I use 21 gr of SR-4759 behind any gaschecked cast boolit from 150-220 gr in my .30-40 Krag action rebarreled with a 12”-twist Douglas barrel. With weighed boolits and powder charges it’s surprisingly accurate out to 500 meters or so.

I think COL Whelen mentioned this load in his handloading book Why Not Load Your Own?

I have had one of the Browning 1895s in 30/40 for literally decades. With cast from 168 to 210grains it really likes 2400.

i shoot an old Winny 1895 flat side from 1896... does real well with a 215gr LFN and 20gr of 2400...

Another vote for 2400. That said I found that Bullseye is dandy for subsonic loads in the .30-40.

I recently lucked into an old Krag, and it's a new shooting adventure for sure.

I've had great results so far with the RCBS 30-180 bullet and 18.2 grains (little dandy rotor #24) of 4227.
Sights set at 350 yards centers impact at 100 yards.

This might give you a starting point for your 1895.

Thanks for all the help. I am loaded for my next range visit with my 30-40. I am also trying IMR4895 in my 6.5x55 Krag under a Lyman 266469 with gas check. It seems to be excellent.

I had one of the 1895 reproduction carbines for quite a while and never used anything but cast bullets in it. I had very good results with the Lyman #314299 cast in ww alloy and sized to .310"or .311". 20 grs. 5744 (MV=1639) and 18 grs. SR4759 (MV= 1562) gave very good accuracy. I sold this gun ; I'm just not much for lever-actions.

Dante
I'm a newbie to the R&D of 30-40 cartridge
myself, and aquired my first ever Krag rifle about a month ago. Being in the R&D of the
30-40 cartridge, you may want to slug your bore to make sure you will be sizing to fit properly and using the right size die. Remember, fit is KING. My Lyman 311284 mould drop boolits about .001 smaller than I prefer. But still testing. My mould blocks also are misaligned by .0015. I size at .310. All the best in your endeavor.

You have my dream rifle, Dante.
I shoot a 1901 Krag Carbine, sporterized a lot. I, and it, likes the Lyman 31429 sized .310 with 2400 or 4198. I shoot mostly 4198 as 2400 is hard to find. To reduce recoil, I'm 77 and weak now, I use the Lee .312-165-2R-TL over 20-25 grains of H/IMR-4198. This gets over 1800 FPS and does not knock my teeth loose. This boolet has the rounded ogive to fit the Krag throat,has a good BC. and sized .310 works as well as anything. The 165 and 25 grains of 4198 gave me an X ring sized group of 15 rounds at 100 yards, using my aperture sights.

Lately I've been experimenting with a Brazzos Boolet .312-120 grain plinker load using 7.6 to 10 grains of 700X, cause I have a lot left from my trap shooting days. 7.6 grains gives me ~1400 fps 32-20 level load that feels like .22 LR to shoot. These boolets come cast and coated with HY-Teck coating for ~$40 for ~840 boolets, 8 Lbs of them. I'm getting around 2" groups at 50 yards with them but I think they will do better after load development, maybe Unique. I have another 50 loaded to try but haven't gotten to the range yet.

For the Krag the Lee 312-165-2R is perfect and doesn't waste lead for shooting paper. Enjoy your High Wall it is a great rifle!