Thread: An Unexpected Bonus.

Greetings All,
After suggesting that I would use some of my old soldiers in some shoots later this year I thought I should make sure I had the cartridges on hand to do it. The three scoped old soldiers I have are a .30-40 Krag on a Martini action, a M38 Swedish Mauser and a No4 Lee Enfield. The last two are pretty well sorted but in spite of owning the Martini for over 40 years I had done little with it until 6 years ago when I fitted a scope. I had always assumed that the throat was extra long to take the original 220 grain round nose projectile but now seemed a good time to find out for sure.
There are both .30-40 Krag and reformed .303 Brit cases on hand plus samples of 150, 155 and 165 grain projectiles. The barrel has a 1 in 12 inch twist and high velocities were not considered. The Krag cases are 2.2mm longer than the reformed .303. A session of measuring followed. It turns out that the jump to rifling in the reformed .303 cases is 5.3mm, 5.8mm and 2.9mm for the 150 grain Hornady Interlock, 155 grain Frontier and 2.9mm with the 165 grain Hornady Interlock respectively. Jumps for the Krag cases are 3.1mm, 3.6mm and 0.7mm. This is way better than expected with all projectile seated 7mm into the case. Using the Krag cases the jumps are less than the same projectiles in my old M700 .308. I think I will need to get loading.
Regards Grandpamac.