Thursday and Friday are my days-off.  Last Thursday, I loaded up some .30-40 cases with some 130 grain Hornady 'spitzers' I had laying around.  (The 130 gr. bullets were seated to give a 3.057" OAL and backed with 43.5 gr. of IMR 4895).  Friday, was a beautiful day for shooting.  I took three Krag "sporters" to the range to test, at 50 yards, for future plans (keep, sell, restore).  The ammo used was 180 gr. Remington and the 130 gr. reloads.  Surprisingly, the 130 gr. Hornadys fed smoothly through all three Krags.  The top performer was an 1898 Krag Carbine with a side-mount Weaver 3x scope.  It liked the re-loads and the 180 gr. factory stuff and shot them to the same point of impact.  A cut-down 1898 rifle (23" barrel) did very well with Remington factory 180 gr. loads, but was indifferent with the re-loads.  An 1898 Rifle, I brought, with 30" barrel and shortened fore-stock, came in 3rd place.  Hopefully it will improve with a stock restoration.  I am going to experiment more with the 130 gr. Hornadys but with a different powder.  The IMR 4895 charge I was using is a maximum load in some recent references, although a conservative load in Lyman and Hornady data.  I ended my range session shooting a K-31 Schmidt Rubin and a National Postal Meter, M1 Carbine.  Everything was fun, but I liked the Krags best.

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