Hoping some of you military buffs may be able to give me some insight in loading for a 1917 Krag Jorgensen . I under stand that these rifles need to be loaded at lower pressures . hoping someone may have a pet load they would be willing to share . also is there any factory ammo that is safe to use in these rifles . any help would be greatly appreciated .
6.5x55 Krag
- Thread starter rembolt
- Start date
Pretty well all North American Factory ammo is safe in that Krag. I would shy away from the light Magnum Hornady stuff, or Eurospec loadings.
But otherwise, all is safe enough.
For a handload, almost any 140 grain bullet chased by 44 grains of H4831sc or 41 grains of IMR 4350 will work just fine. Regards, Dave.
I don't know that I've ever found data that was 96/38 specific. Published data (as I understand) was developed with the weakest actions in mind (Krag, 94?). and are usually at/below 45,000 psi. That includes the 96 n' 38 bu I'm guessing only by association/era.
Those loads developed for newer/modern/stronger actions are usually noted as such, and can take advantage of generous case capacity and go over the limits placed on older 'surps.
Like any change I guess, work it up for an individual rifle.
burnt_servo
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it is my understanding that the ammunition between the krag and the Swedish mauser was meant to be interchangeable between the 2 rifles .
so to follow that thinking , load information meant for the 96 mauser would be safe for the krag .
to add to this I have seen both the 96 mauser and krag rifles , that where originally chambered in 6.5x55 , rebarreled into 308 Winchester ,and then heavily used afterwards without ill effects .
this is not a recommendation to run these rifles up to much higher pressures , but rather to show that they are not overly fragile and need to be handled delicately for fear of them coming apart .
it is my understanding that the 96 mauser will suffer from lug setback with higher pressure loads , and may suffer from case head separation ...... if this happens the 96 mauser is a poor design to deal with hot escaping gasses .
among other things with the krag , repeated use can result in cracks forming around the locking lugs and in the areas of the frame near the locking lugs ,some of this was addressed by larger radiuses in the areas prone to cracking .
so to follow that thinking , load information meant for the 96 mauser would be safe for the krag .
to add to this I have seen both the 96 mauser and krag rifles , that where originally chambered in 6.5x55 , rebarreled into 308 Winchester ,and then heavily used afterwards without ill effects .
this is not a recommendation to run these rifles up to much higher pressures , but rather to show that they are not overly fragile and need to be handled delicately for fear of them coming apart .
it is my understanding that the 96 mauser will suffer from lug setback with higher pressure loads , and may suffer from case head separation ...... if this happens the 96 mauser is a poor design to deal with hot escaping gasses .
among other things with the krag , repeated use can result in cracks forming around the locking lugs and in the areas of the frame near the locking lugs ,some of this was addressed by larger radiuses in the areas prone to cracking .
Thanks for the info guys . it seems the only factory ammo I can find locally is Sellier Bellot 140 gr sp or fmj . according to selier & bellot site it has a muzzle velocity of 793 m/s which converts to 2600 fps . it does not list the chamber pressure for these loads . I am going to email them to see what they say about using it in a Norwegian Krag . any of you have an opinon on the sellier & bellot ammo .
There is also a 6.5x55 SKAN. Dimensionally, I gather it is the same as the 6.5x55 Swedish, but loaded to a substantially higher pressure. I've only seen mention of it in reloading data from Lapua, along with a caution that it is only to be used in certain rifles (certain Sako models?), and not older rifles.
