I have Grandpa's 98 Krag rifle; he paid something like $3.95 for it and it shoots just fine. Considering my and the rifle's open sight limitations, any critter hit with a handloaded bullet from 150 through 220 gr. wont know the difference between that and a hotter loaded round.
A few years ago I had a 'sporter'; the mag. box had been removed and another sideplate fitted to flush it up some and a somewhat European style stock. With one in the spout it still held 3, and 4 if it was loaded tight, but when do you have need of more than 3 when deer hunting? Wish I had some pics, but I was too busy shooting to think camera...........
I agree, any buckskin vitally hit with a bullet from the 30-40 is going down without a doubt. However, the reason for hand loading, even for the hunter, has little to do with loading hotter, it has more to do with game getting accuracy and consistency in your particular rifle than anything else.
A box of factory ammo can vary 150fps or more from round to round and not always on the low side which can be rough on older rifles. As I pointed out in my first post the possibility of one round proving to be a case buster is there, so safety is another reason I hand load.
In any case I took the Krag and the Savage to the range a week ago and sighted them in at 200 yards. I also fired the test rounds mentioned previously in each rifle gaging the performance difference of the two cartridges when loaded with the same powder charge, primer, and bullet.
The Savage performed as expected, since 36.5grs. of IMR-3031 is my usual accuracy load for the .300 when using the 165gr. Hornady boat-tails. It scooted under the screens at 2442fps very close to it's 2460fps average...
The same 36.5gr. load tested in the Krag with it's larger case capacity gave a lower velocity as expected. It clocked in at 2263fps. This is well below my usual accuracy load for the 30-40 of 38.7grs. of IMR-3031 which yields an average of right at 2500fps with the 165gr. boat-tail.
Neither of these loads are what one would consider "hot" since both are 1.5 grains or so below the published maximums... right in the midrange so to speak... yet both will group within a half-dollar all day long at 100 yards if I do my part.
It's interesting that you would mention your "flat-gate" Krag sporter... In a recent trade with a friend, in exchange for some shotgun parts, I inherited a complete barreled action, a 6.5x55mm Norwegian Krag with a poorly done flat-gate conversion... fixing the badly bubba-ed loading gate and what is left of the carrier assembly will take some time. Otherwise though, the action, bolt, barrel, and bore are in excellent shape...
JTCoyoté
