30/40 Krag neck break.

Attached photo shows a problem. It shot fine and no real recoil or lack of function. Noticed the broken case and that was only cartridge fired that trip to the range.

Other than maybe a gas seal, which should not be necessary at the pedestrian speed this was supposed to go, any suggestions on how to avoid this in future? If I have several more of these would they be safe to try if I start the bullets forward a little with the inertial hammer as if to pull them?

Brass is Winchester, not used more than three times. WLR primer. Unique powder nine grains. Bullet is .310 for 30/30, 170 grains from Oregon Cast. These worked earlier with eight grains Unique but were very slow, maybe 1200 fps or about the same as .22LR. This one was a little faster but not much.

Bullet is tight to neck.

I would guess I don't have a loose enough seat for the bullet to start going. You may also have had similar difficulty, if they sat for twelve years before shooting them. Both our rifles may have tight tolerances for the throat.

Did that .223 case come out easy? I mean the neck part mostly.

I worked on my rifle quite some time before I got the fragment out, and it is obvious that it tried to start down the throat before there became a jam and the bullet finally released and went on down the bore.

Put one in inertial puller hammer device.

Beat it a long time and it did not budge.

Cloth was pushed down bore.

I ran bore brush up and down a lot before I shoved bed ticking cloth in. I could feel the tight spot at the throat even though I could not see the neck fragment. I knew it was there, but played with my imagination how it might have went down bore as gilding metal. Bullet fired to point of aim as well as any I've shot through the bore. Cloth caught neck fragment and shoved it out the first time past, from the muzzle. The bed ticking cloth was not part of the load, just a patch that is not very slick.

Barrel is a Flaig from PA, not original Krag of 1898, and seems solid enough. Bore is good looking but brush was getting a few pieces of lead out, some of which may have adhered to the brass fragment. Action and lock up is all okay, probably better than most Krags. This should not be a very high pressure operation. It was the only load I've ever made and shot in the rifle that did not have a slightly extended primer with very rounded edges, indicative of low pressure and no movement back toward the headspace on all but this firing. The fractured brass looked like a normal primer situation flush with cartridge head and no signs of high pressure. I looked bolt over and it looks fine, but these are a one lug operation and I do not intend on trying to stress it unduly.

I do not have a swage die for .309. The bullets come at .310 and usually go in a 30/30, also not a high pressure application. I shot a few of these with eight grains of Unique, and they showed promise, besides not taking much for resources. I have Lee device and ran length cutter, did not get much of anything off any of the brass. The resizing is set to do necks and not push back shoulder much , which is rounded. I suspect break point was where brass was worked to, and the pressure rush had a spot between to try to mushroom but the neck had no spot anything could go on past. The brass neck fragment has an obvious squeezed area where it went forward into throat (after it broke free from rest of case!) and experienced a constriction, the lead bullet gave way and went on out the bore when this whole business caught the throat. I would suspect there is freebore at the shoulder but the actual neck and throat at end of chamber is tight. The dies I have are ancient and I have not changed them much for adjustments, they more or less have been with the Krag for fifty years plus.

The rifle is not very accurate. It does fair with 150 grain jacketed bullets, at the starting load. It would be better described as a carbine. I would like to work up something in these cast bullets that would be consistent, they certainly don't recoil bad at all. I have no interest in loading anything but the starting levels with jacketed bullets.

Bought the brass new unfired.

The failed case was fired only three times. I have twenty of these made and the charge is 8.5 grains of Unique. The brass was new product, not a factory load salvage. I will try the inertia hammer more as they seem real tight. The micrometer says the necks are .003 wider than the jacketed bullets I have been using with no incidents and slightly backed out primers. The difference is about .332 to .335. The cartridges do not cam down hard as they go in rifle. There is probably some jump to the rifling. Seating bullets the feel is not as hard as jacketed, but lead may never be that hard. I have loaded a lot of jacketed bullets but have not done so many cast pills.

The manuals don't say much about dimensions of neck, as headspace is on the rim. I suspect the throat is tight on this rifle, and the chamber is a little freebore near the throat. The brass seems to get worked hard on neck resizing. The cases have not been elongating, especially compared to higher pressure cartridges I've loaded. The brass also seems hard, but the Lapua brass I've used also seems hard but will go 20X in another rifle in 7.62X54R without incident!

Swampman might be right and it is a bad lot of brass. If so I don't have much faith in shooting the rest of these. I would have to say the Winchester brass has not been my favorite over time. Lapua is the best $o far.

Got one pulled, check this out:

Looks like they are unlikely to work.

Dies are old Pacific.

On another data set for cartridge measurements, the neck size was within normal limits, by several thousandths.

The break does not look fresh when it broke in the inertial hammer, as if the brass is granular and doing something electrolytic. I wonder if the silver Oregon Laser cast bullets are doing something electrical to the brass. In any event it all seems dangerous to me at this point. They do not pull easily with the inertial hammer device. In some way they are sticky.

I was really happy with the idea that I could shoot the old thing for low dollar and with low pressure rounds.

I wonder about the 170 grain Oregon Laser Cast bullets in .310, if they have a good track record.