I patched the barrel before shooting today and the patch came out green, so I'm going with what you said, it's copper and not rust.
Here is the result of my shooting today.
Shot the 1898 Krag today in the 100 degree Texas heat. First four rounds, all shot at 100 yds were Remington 180 gr that I pulled down and reduced the loads by 3 grains out of original 47.5 of extruded type.
NOTE; round 2 is out of picture at bottom of paper. I held low because I had thought round 1 went over top of target (big puff of dust). Only after first two shots did I pick up my Savage and look at target through the scope, surprised to see both rounds landed on paper.
I adjusted the sight and launched two more hitting at 3 and 4 o'clock and checked the breech again for any signs of problems. Expelled cartridges look good except for round two that had a primer sitting slightly proud.
I then shot one un-altered round. LOTS of case stretch near head. Probably not re-loadable.
I switched to Winchester 180 gr. Super X ammo shooting 6, 7 & 8. Cases looked much better and rounds landed only slightly high. Feed from magazine although not problem free but not bad overall.
Rounds 9 & 10 were shot after a half hour cool down. Not sure if barrel temp, absence of mirage or my shooting were the reason for the lower impact point, but still….not bad for a 117 year old rifle with iron sights and a half- blind nut (or maybe a half blind-nut) behind the wheel.
I'll measure the brass with my headspace gage and see it I have a head space problem.
If I do have excessive head space, what if any are my options?