I need to move to 100 yards where the big boys shoot!

Nice looking rifle and some promising groups!

Is the bore of your 1903 vintage Krag pitted or is it worn oversized? 

CE Harris in his famous article on cast loads for military rifles offered the following advice for the Lyman 311291:

"The same 16 grain charge of #2400 is universal for all calibers as a starting load. It is mild and
accurate in any larger military case from a 30-40 Krag or .303 British up through a 30-06 or 7.9x57,
with standard weight bullets of suitable diameter for the caliber. This is my recommendation for
anybody trying cast bullets loads for the first time in a military rifle without prior load development.
I say this because #2400 is not "position sensitive", requires no fiber fillers to ensure uniform
ignition, and actually groups better when you stripper-clip load the rifle and bang them off, rather
than tipping the muzzle up to position the powder charge.
Similar ballistics can be obtained with other powders in any case from 7.62x39 to 30-06 size. If you
don't have Hercules #2400, you can freely substitute 17 grains of IMR or H4227, 18 grains of 4198,
21 grains of Reloder 7, 24 grains of IMR 3031, or 25.5 grains of 4895 for comparable results."

Which is a good place to start.

I have had very good (for me) results (2.5" groups with Lyman peep sights at 100 yds) with the Lyman 311284 (210 gr) and 28.8 grs of H4198.

With jacketed, I also like heavy bullets in the Krag, and have found good results with 43 grs of H4350 and the 200 gr Hot Core SP, which will make a superb black bear round.

butlersrangers wrote on Jun 5^th, 2013 at 1:56pm:


Was that the rifle you brought to the range a couple weeks ago when we were shooting together?

gunboat57 wrote on Jun 6^th, 2013 at 2:17am:


My sporter has a true .308 bore / .311 groove aftermarket barrel. I like the Lyman 311284 gas checked and sized .310 (driving bands) .  Next step is to move to paper jackets. I will probably size to .311 for that. I do not have experience shooting paper patched bullets in 30 cal, so it will be a new learning curve.

If you ever have have a few hours to kill, you may want to go after that old barrel with a bag of patches and a jar of JB Compound. If you can smooth the pitting and lap out the bore a little, it may be shootable with paper jackets if you can get a slightly larger nosed (bore sized) cast bullet. But if the pitting is too deep it may be unrecoverable.