Parashooter wrote on Dec 28^th, 2016 at 6:55am:


Agreed. I wasn't very clear in what I was saying. I only thought the previous firearm would explain why the shoulder on pre-sized casing were so far out of spec.

IIRC - 'RedLeg0811' has a model 1899 Krag action with a barrel of "undetermined" origin. The barrel is 22 inches long, has a 'non-arsenal' muzzle-crown, a Springfield 1905 front-sight, and 'buggered-up' rear-sight screw holes.

Maybe the barrel is not an original Springfield made Krag barrel & chamber.

FWIW - The tightest .30-40 chamber, I have, is on a Sedgely 'reworked' Krag 'sporter'. This rifle has a 22 inch barrel made from a 1905 dated .30-03 Springfield barrel. The origin of this barrel is obvious from its markings, "S.A. - 05" bracketing a flaming ordnance bomb, and notches across the barrel for front and rear-sight pins. (Although 're-cycled' and tight chambered, this barrel will accept F.L. Resized cases that were fired in other Krags).

Possibly RedLeg's barrel is a replacement, chambered with a reamer, of minimum dimensions or tolerances.

Maybe his F.L. Re-sizing Die is worn or was cut with a reamer of maximum tolerances.

Interesting riddle. I'm sure trained eyes and experienced Krag Guys will solve it if we can see it.

p.s. - RedLeg posted a cartridge case comparison picture, while I was originally typing this message.

That 'Factory Round' has a puzzling looking projectile, to me, and apparently some deformation or bending of the case rim!

FWIW - The re-sized case looks normal.

It is hard to tell much without a case actually fired in his rifle's chamber.

I have three cartridges like that and they all load. Although one is more the cupro.

I also have an Western Super X that has not been shot and it fits fine.

Could be whoever cut the chamber had one of those min spec cartridges and only cut as far as he needed to go to get one of them to fit.  Might have been the fellow behind some of reloading dies I get off ebay that have had the bottoms ground on!

I imagine the old exposed roundnose on that bullet made quite a splat!  I have one old die that might push the shoulder back far enough that it would chamber in your rifle.  It's an old Pacific file trim die and the shoulder on them comes out rounded like an original factory round.  Rest of my dies produce an angled shoulder when I size once fired brass.

So this is where I stand
Factory rounds load

old UMC rounds will load

Once fired brass in another rifle then resized with (new) RCBS
14701 dies will not load.

Bought brand new 14701 die and same issue.

Found some RP brass in my stash that was new. It loads with a little push at the end to close the bolt.

Friend lent me an (in the old RCBS box) RCBS 14701 die. It loads with a little push at the end to close the bolt.

So still agree that the chamber is tight, but interesting about the old dies.

I would not have thought an original Krag chambered by Springfield would be small, but I guess that is what you have. If you mark one of your cases up with a Marks-A-Lot and try to chamber it, if it like my sporter reamed with too small a reamer, it will have the marks scuffed off just in front of the rim. I reamed mine with the replacement reamer by hand on the assembled rifle. I was very concerned about increasing the head space on the rim so I made a thin brass washer that would stop the reamer from touch the headspace surface. It worked like a champ.
If yours it tight on the shoulder you will have to ream full depth with the reamer, not sure if I would try that by hand on assembled barrel and reciever.
Figure out which it is so we can advise further.
When I get a chance I will post the photos of the tools under the Howto thread in the Sporterized section.

(You need to Login to view media files and links)