Using .303 Brit brass in a Krag?
Long time lurker, first time poster.
Low these many years ago I picked up a 1901 sporterized Carbine in a pawn shop. Actually the reason I bought it was for the Redfield aperture sight, because I'm a fan of M1/M14 and I thought it was cool. And for $75 it was cheap enough. Upon getting it home and fully inspecting it, I found that the stock was glassed and the action had severe rust damage below the magazine, probably due to poor storage. The bore was a sewer pipe and copper fouled up the kazoo! I wore out two or three bronze brushes and and a quart of Hoppes getting it cleaned enough to shoot.So I bought some Remington 180gr rounds and went to the range.
That was when I found it was a kicker. Now I had fired many thousands of M1 and M14 rounds when I was in Army so I knew what a full sized rifle could do to a shoulder. However while not too light a full bore 30-40 round is plenty to deal with in the carbine. What with the cost of factory 30-40 and the lure of other guns, I put it away for many years, loading my 20 rounds with 150 gr + H4895 occasionally.
About 20 years later I joined a local rifle club and began to shoot regularly, Mostly pistol and my 1917 Eddistone sporter. I had bought it for $18 from a pawnshop and got the head space adjusted at a gunshop for $25 and felt as a broke *** vet I had a pretty good deal. It shot like a 1917( good and true) and was heavy enough to soak up the 30-06 recoil pretty well.
The rifle club had a lead bullet silhouette shoot once a month and with the help of a couple of members I was introduced to lead bullets, got back into off hand shooting and got 50 rounds of ?Xfired 30-40 brass.
I bought .30 cal moulds and 10 pound pot and started casting, throwing lead down range at 25-200 yard animals. I found 100 rounds of Winchester 30-40 on Midway and was doing pretty well but the barrel of the Krag I felt was not doing as well as I thought it should that is when I found that CMP had new barrels by Criterion for sale and I could get a new barrel! Hooray, except I had to shoot a CMP match to qualify to buy from CMP. I talked my way into shooting my Krag, which was my only iron sighed rifle, and a few CMP matches which the Krag kept me out of the bottom of the class and got my cert for CMP and a new barrel.
So here I have a fresh modern .308 barrel and fresh bluing and new fibre optic front sight and Picitinny scout rail I was out to make Krag history! Except the new barrel was just about as accurate as the old sewer pipe, but copper and lead fouled less and seemed to improve with more rounds fired.
Along comes 2014 and reloading supplies were hard to find and I just gave up! I shot up my primers and powders and plinked with my 22s when I could find ammo for them. But stopped shooting much at all.
I had heard that .303 british could be used in the Krag easily but coudn't find any in the shops. I did get 10 .303 cases from the range officer and tried them and they seemed to work Okay. I ended up giving them to a guy at the range who had an old beat up Krag he inherited from his uncle who was South African and told him he had used .303 brass in lieu 30-40 unobtainium. THe guy wasn't going to shoot it much and thought it would sell his story about the old Krag.
Since .303 is a lot easier to get than 30-40 I was thinking about just buying some .303 and using it, no case trimming needed Hooray!
Lee has a collet neck size die for the 303 and that should save even more trimming and case prep.
So what do you Krag shooters think? Good idea or should I wait around for the odd availability of 30-40 brass?
I have found that the 314299 is the excellent bullet with the Lee 312-165 2R a good substitute for lower weight but good accuracy. I think due to the nose shape. My preferred powder is 4198 for lead and H-414 for J words.