I am just getting started on reloading for my 1898 Krag rifle.  The  220 RN with 40 gr of IMR 4350 went fine.  I have some other bullets at my disposal and was wondering what some of your favorite loads are.  I think next I'll use the Hornady 178 gr BTHP Match.  Powders at my disposal are IMR 4350, IMR 4895, IMR 4064, VIHT N-160, and VIHT N-150.  I also have the 168gr Hornady Match (which was recently covered in another post...another post I saw had 41.3 gr IMR4350 which looked good) and the 155 gr Hornady ELD. I have the latest Hornady reloading manual. 

Is IMR 4350 generally the favored powder?  Any other favorite loads...especially for the 178 gr?  I've been scouring the forum so let me know if I missed something.

I normally load the Hornady 220 gr RN with the 40.0 grains of IMR-4350 and a CCI #34 mil-spec primer.  I've been shooting this load in matches for ten years now!  That said, I recently (a month ago) loaded some Hornady 178 gr A-Max bullets with 44.6 grains of H4831SCl.  I'm told this might be a somewhat reduced charge with this powder and bullet combination.  Here's the thread where we discussed this load:    (You need to Login

I haven't made it to the range to try this load out... but I will hopefully soon.  My reason for this is because although my 220 grain round does well enough, I really want to try and tighten up my groupings.  I have a friend who routinely shoots in the 290s with his 1896 Krag at Perry, and he shoots a very light load with a 150 grain RN bullet (he told me his load, and I can't for the life of me remember it).  I tried his load, but it wouldn't group very well in my Krag, so I stuck with my 220s.

By the way, Parashooter is pretty much the Guru around here when it comes to load data and powders!

40gr Hodgdon H4350
220gr RN Soft Point

37gr H4895
Sierra Match King HPBT 175

Both with CCI 200 primers

IMR4895 and H4895 are similar, but not the same. So I wouldn’t use them interchangeably.

I've used both IMR-4895 and H4895 in my 30-06 rounds, and I prefer the Hodgdon H4895.  I just think it performs better.

psteinmayer wrote on May 27^th, 2020 at 1:04am:

I've used both IMR-4895 and H4895 in my 30-06 rounds, and I prefer the Hodgdon H4895.  I just think it performs better.

That’s interesting. I prefer IMR4895 in 30-06 but use H4895 in the Krag.

My Krag also likes the IMR 4350, but H 4350 has done well. My 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser only likes the H4350. You will have to try some different loads to see what your rifle likes. there are some threads here showing a few different loads I tried, and pictures of resulting groups.

That's the interesting thing about Krags - they are almost human in that different Krags like different food!