I just took possession of a nicely done Krag sporter in the original .30-40 caliber. I loaded up five dummy rounds with M118 salvaged bullets to check feeding, but found to my dismay that the cartridges consistently jammed going into the chamber.

Then it occurred to me that the original Krag military ammunition used a round nosed bullet, so I'm wondering if that might be the problem. There appears to be no shortage of round nose hunting bullets, many designed for the .30-30, on the market.

Yes, that does seem to be the case for US Krags; mine wont feed spitzers either, but is slick as can be with 220 gr Sierras or Hornadys. I also tried a dummy round with the Barnes 150 gr TTSX made for the .30-30, but it won't feed either.

Thanks for sharing your experience. Do you know of a 220 grain .30 caliber RN bullet which will expand reliably at Krag velocity (2100 fps)?

Not from personal hunting experience; I've not hunted with my Krag. The reviews of both those 220s on Midway's web site, though, include a fair number of folks who use them with Krags at 2000-2100 fps and they report good expansion on game, particularly with the Sierra.

Just tried my M1898 Krag with 150 gr. Sierra spitzers and it fed slick as snot!

Hip

If your Sporter has had the magazine cutoff removed to fit a receiver sight and the cutoff spindle hasn't been replaced it will not feed well, even round nose.

Jerry,

Thanks for the tip. It does have a receiver sight, but I'll have to check about the spindle.

Jerry,

The cut-off has been removed together with the spindle. Numrich lists cut-offs, but in two lengths: 2" and 2 1/2". How do I determine which one I need?

The spindle hole will accept a .125" drill bit 2.3" long and presumably longer. Would I be correct in assuming that the longer spindle was the correct one? The rifle will grudgingly feed a cartridge loaded with a 220 grain Hornady RN bullet with the drill bit in place, but will still fail to feed a cartridge loaded with a spitzer bullet.

According to my reference the cutoff spindle is .182" (?) and should be long enough to reach to the end of the hole with the rear sight attached. I'm assuming you have one of the sights that uses the spindle hole as part of its attachment to the rifle. The spindle without the thumb piece is about 2.144" long. the rod should be left a cylinder with squre ends.

My Krag shoots Wichester factory 180 grain Power Points (spitzer) and my 180 grain handloads that are Sierra's.
They feed like gas through a funnel, eggs through a hen, buttered roller skates or whatever....
I would look at some prior modification that is causing the issue.

Is the extractor allowing the cartridge rim to slip up onto the bolt face properly, maybe something with the extractor has been changed?