[Yellowhouse]

Factory loads for the 30-40 Krag are seemingly anemic and rightfully so as the old rifles weren't all that stout. The 200 gr load is on a par with the 35 Remington so I'd rather have the latter as a woods cartridge.

With the new miroku made 95's just wondering if anyone was pushing it a bit more. Seems like with this stout a levergun the 30-40 could be raced quite a bit.

Yeah, I know....get the 30-06 but theres just something intriguing about the Krag round.

 

[William Iorg]

The simple answer is yes, you can.

Ken Waters in his 30-40 Krag Pet Loads Update (September 1985) lists loads for the 1895 which push the 150grain bullets to 2,740 fps, the 180-grain bullets to 2,360 fps and the 200-grain bullets to 2,280 fps.

This is not the first load data upping the 30-40 performance levels. As early as 1918 Townsend Whelen published pressure tested load data for higher performance Krag loads. Fred C. Ness in the American Rifleman and then in the book: “Practical Dope on the Big bores” gave higher performance load data for the Krag.

Townsend Whelen had at least two 30-40 rifles. The first was a Winchester High-Wall with a 27” No. 3 (heavy contour) barrel which weighed 9 pounds. He hunted a great deal with this rifle and wrote of it often. Next, an 1896 Winchester with a 24” barrel of the same heavy contour as the 405 Winchester barrels. Whelen writes very fondly of this rifle also.