A few years ago I bough a bunch of Bitterroot Valley .30-40 Krag for my M1898, which I had really liked because it was accurate and cheep. About a week ago I decided I want to enter a Service Rifle competition next month with the rifle. Unfortunately my stash of ammo has begun to dwindle, and it does not appear that they make .30-40 Krag any more (at least I can not find any websites that still sell it). Fortunately I do reload now so I'd just have to get some dies which lead me to some questions. Now I typically use Lee dies, but doing some reading according to some people, there is an issue with the Lee.30-40 Krag dies that they don't seat spitzer bullets Can any one confirm that, and what dies will load spitzer bullets for .30-40 Krag? (I realize that the original military rounds were 220 gr. round nose bullets and that is what the sights on my are designed for, but I like being to try to keep the number of different types of bullets I need to a minimum as .30-06, .308, and 7.5 French are also all .308 bullets. Also I like the idea of stretching out the rifle's range a bit without having to load it any hotter) 

In keeping with the spirit of the rifle and competition...I would load a bullet close to t he original loading.

 

And your sights will work too.

If you really wanna go "Old School" (sorry Frank, lol), try loading them with 40 grains of real black powder, for which they were originally designed......

 

Seriously though, Frank is right.  And keep in mind that going off the reservation bullet-wise and seating depth issues could cause pressure problems.  Stick with the manual on this one!

 

And your sights will work too!

If you really wanna go "Old School" (sorry Frank, lol), try loading them with 40 grains of real black powder, for which they were originally designed......

 

Seriously though, Frank is right.  And keep in mind that going off the reservation bullet-wise and seating depth issues could cause pressure problems.  Stick with the manual on this one!

 

And your sights will work too!

Actually that is a common misconception about the round. Despite having a black powder sounding name the round has always been a smokeless powder round. The 40 in .30-40 was designating the gr. count of smokeless powder just like the .30-30.

 

As for going off the reservation, don't worry I am not, I would not risk damaging my favorite rifle. My reloading manuals all have data for spitzer bullets, It's just That from what I read some people have said that the LEE dies in particular may have an issue with loading them. 

I have run into a slight snag with reloading the .30-40 Krag. I have been using IMR 4895 for all my reloading as it is the one powder which I have data for pretty much all of my cartridges. now for .30-40 Krag only one of my two reloading books has data for it (Sierra, my Hordany book does not have data for IMR 4895) but a quick glance between the two for the common powders and sierra is listing much higher powder charges, which makes me worry about the IMR 4895 charges it is showing. I then searched IMR's website figuring they might have some info for their powder loads and found that they did have a max load of 36 grs where my Sierra book lowest data point was 36.1 would any you mind checking the tables in your reloading manuals to see what they are listing for IMR 4895? 

Post your bullet weight and I'll check my manuals.

I am using 150 gr. bullets. My Sierra manual is showing 36.1 g.r of IMR 4895 for a starting load and 43 gr. as a maximum load which would be ridiculously over loaded if maximum is suppose to be (and probably is) 36 gr.

I am using 150 gr. bullets. My Sierra manual is showing 36.1 g.r of IMR 4895 for a starting load and 43 gr. as a maximum load which would be ridiculously over loaded if maximum is suppose to be (and probably is) 36 gr.

 

Make sure you're distinguishing between IMR4895 and H4895.

 

My manual, Hodgdon 2014, says for a 150gr Nos Part...IMR4895 36gr only one loading

 

For H4895 38.5gr - 42gr.

 

Hope this helps.

Thanks that helps a lot. My Sierra manual does not have a listing for H4895 for the .30-40 Krag so It's possible that it might have been a mistake and it was suppose to be H4895 instead of IMR 4895, but I don't think that's the case either as there are similar discrepancies between the powders that are listed in both my books. My Hornady book (H) shows  for IMR 4320 36.3 gr. min - 39.6 gr. max load while Sierra manual (S) shows 39.5 - 44.8, IMR 4350 (H) 41.7 gr. - 46.8 gr. (S) 45.8 gr. - 51.3 gr., H380 (H) 38.0 gr. - 43.0 gr. (S) 43.0 gr. - 46.6 gr., etc. I almost get the feeling that the load data is all suppose to be for a different cartridge that acidently was put under .30-40 Krag.

 

You would not happen to have an idea of which reloading book may have more data for the for IMR 4895? I don't like working at the maximum load especially for a rifle that is 116 years old and would much rather work under that level.

http://www.hodgdonreloading.com/

 

The data I posted was from a hard copy manual but the above link matches that data.

 

I would feel comfortable using this data.

From my old Lymon 45th edition

IMR 3031 38.0-42.0

IMR 4895 41.0-45.0

IMR 4064 41.00-46.0

IMR 4320 41.0-46.0

IMR 4350 47.0-52.0

H380        44.0-49.0

4831         51.0-56.0(* compressed)

From Speer #9  1974

IMR 4381  45.0-49.0

H414         42.0-46.0 magnum primer

From my old Lymon 45th edition

IMR 3031 38.0-42.0

IMR 4895 41.0-45.0

IMR 4064 41.00-46.0

IMR 4320 41.0-46.0

IMR 4350 47.0-52.0

H380        44.0-49.0

4831         51.0-56.0(* compressed)

From Speer #9  1974

IMR 4381  45.0-49.0

H414         42.0-46.0 magnum primer

Thank you for that Info.

 

The other day I had went into bass pro and noticed they had a couple of reloading books that some one had removed the plastic wrap from and I had flipped through them as well and each one had a different range listings for IMR 4895 for 150 gr projectiles. with the lowest minimum being 35 gr. So I think that is where I'll start. I figure if I can find or borrow a Chronograph I'll see what velocities I am getting and that should give me an idea of which book's listings are the most correct. Also I am pretty sure that you should be able to calculate the pressure you are dealing with if you know the velocity the bullet is traveling when it exits the barrel and there is probably a formula you can just plug the numbers into.. 

Thank you for that Info.

 

The other day I had went into bass pro and noticed they had a couple of reloading books that some one had removed the plastic wrap from and I had flipped through them as well and each one had a different range listings for IMR 4895 for 150 gr projectiles. with the lowest minimum being 35 gr. So I think that is where I'll start. I figure if I can find or borrow a Chronograph I'll see what velocities I am getting and that should give me an idea of which book's listings are the most correct. Also I am pretty sure that you should be able to calculate the pressure you are dealing with if you know the velocity the bullet is traveling when it exits the barrel and there is probably a formula you can just plug the numbers into.. 

 

Read the primers and cases.  Safer than a formula.