I was finally able to make one of our local rifle club's vintage rifle match and shot one of my M1898 Krag rifles. It was a great day to be on the range with a variety of other vintage military rifles including a Springfield 1903A3, Mosin Nagants, Mausers, Garands and M1 Carbines. I was the only one to shoot a rifle that was almost exactly twice my age!

We just shot 100 yard targets at this match and most of us used as issued open sights. One older shooter used a Mosin sniper rifle with the period scope.

I have been practicing at 100 and 150 yards with this Krag and have gotten my load figured out pretty good.

I wound up with the high score for all open sight shooters of 189 out of 200 with 4 bullseyes! I am amazed at the accuracy of these beautiful shooters as were others at the range. I gladly shared the shooting of the Krag with others who hadn't ever seen one before. I'm sure some will be wanting to get one themselves after seeing the results.

I'm working on being able to reliably set my 1902 sight on this rifle for 200 yard shooting. It is so sensitive to slight variations that it's hard to get it back to the exact spot I need for the 200 yard targets. But, I've gotten it figured out pretty good and am practicing sighting at those far away targets. You definitely need good eyes to sight in past a certain point. I probably should get larger targets!

I hope others have been getting out with nicer weather for most of us this spring. Love the Krag!

I may try to fit that into my schedule in the next few years but I don't think I can soon. It sounds like fun and I'd love to hang out with other Krag lovers. I live in Marietta, Ohio and we have a daughter in Mayfield Heights outside of Cleveland, so, I'm not far away. Too much going on now, though.

In the meantime, I'll be working on 200. How small of a group are you able to get repeatedly at 200 yards? I know the 100 and 150 yards I am darn close to 1 MOA. Sounds amazing with these 100+ year old rifles. But, it does happen.

But your niece changed her wedding date so you could shoot Perry right?!

Pretty impressive to get 2 inch groups at 200 yds with the open sights Paul. I may be able to do that with lots of practice. I think my Krag is capable of 1 MOA with what I have been able to do with it so far. I just need more practice and will be fine tuning my reloads for this Krag.

I load different loads for my Krags, depending on which Krag I'm shooting.  For instance, for my Bench Rest Cast Bullet rig sporter, I load a NOE 311365 (cast for me by Madsenshooter) with 19.0 grains of AA5744 and a CCI 200 primer.  For my GSV Match Krag (my WW1 Vet), I load a standard Hornady 220 gr RN jacketed bullet with 40.0 grains of IMR-4350 and a CCI 250 primer.

The 220 gr RN with 40.0 grains of IMR-4350 is as close as you can get to the original Krag .30 Army ammo.

I haven't been shooting for extreme accuracy with my Krags as long as Paul has but I'm fine tuning different loads to find the sweet spots with one of my M1898 Krag rifles made in 1903 with a pristine bore. I am using the M1902 sight with the notch- not the Sgt. Peep. I tried that and couldn't do as well as with the open notch. (Yes, I did open it up a tiny amount.) I'm also wondering how the M1901 sight would work because the adjustment for distance is different and may be easier to finely adjust dependably.

I am using 37.0 Gr Varget with Hornady 180 gr. RN bullets and am also using 40.0 gr. IMR 4350 with Sierra 220 gr. RN bullets. I also have a number of vintage boxes of Remington SPCL bullets I have been using with this powder that have been quite accurate and fun to shoot.

So, I'm in the experimental stage more so but have been doing quite well but have some improvement to experience at longer distances.

The Krag certainly has a lot of accuracy to offer!

My post is a little confusing, I guess.

I am using 40.0 gr IMR 4350 with the vintage Remington SPCL 220 gr RN bullets also. Same weight bullets and fairly similar design as the Sierras I use so I kept the powder and the load the same. There's such a variable range for these powders in a long barrel rifle that it takes a lot of testing to find the best load for your specific rifle.

I have been using regular Winchester large rifle primers not magnum. Some like the quicker ignition offered by the magnum primers but I haven't tested that yet. Most use regular primers.

Good luck and keep us informed.