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I have some Remington Core-Lokt .30-40 krag brass I fired recently. I have an old box of Western 180gr .30-40 krag that I would like to fire and reload. When I look at the two cases I notice difference in shapes. The old Western Super X round has a longer Neck. I resized the remington cases but the shoulders still do not match. Is it normal that there be different shaped casings for the same round? Is there a problem with shooting the older Western rounds even though the case is different?
The Krag headspaces off the rim, not the shoulder. That means the shoulder is less critical on this round compared to rimmless designs. The best thing to do is get out your reloading book and find the overall length for the case. Resize, trim the casings to that length, and then reload them.
I just recently went searching throughout the house for all of the old Krag casings that I knew where hidden away somewhere. Two generations of my family have used this rifle for hunting and I am the third generation so I knew there was alot of brass around somewhere. I found a good bit of them and proceded to clean them up for the day that I reload them, again. While cleaning I did notice some slight differences from manufacturer to manufacturer and even differences within a given manufacturer. Remington, for example, seems to have three different ways of stamping the same markings on the head.
There are differences between Remington and Winchester, the main thing I noticed was the way the rim is formed. Then there is the old G.I. brass that will give your press a really good workout when re-sizing compared to the commercial brass. I'd sort your brass by manufacturer then reload and shoot it seperatly too.
One other thing to think about. I am having trouble with the primer backing-out slightly in the Krag I use for hunting. I asked a gunsmith if I or he could do anything about this. He told me to collect the casings fired from the rifle, neck-size them and only use these cases in that rifle from now on. The reason for this is since the case has been formed to the chamber, the shoulder has been moved forward and should keep the cases firmly against the bolt face, preventing the primer from backing out. If your casings have been fired in multiple rifles then maybe one of those rifles has a problem similar to mine, (moving the shoulder foward more than other rifles)?
Just a thought.
Great, I only fired the Remington, they were new so I will neck size only like you suggested, I like that idea. The other rounds are new in the box never fired, I will work with them.
Rimmed and belted cases were designed to headspace off the rim or belt. Reloaders should not full length resize these cases, but rather neck size them only. Many rifles chambered for thes cases have wildly oversizes chambers, M-N, SMLE and Weatherby are very bad. And, it's not just length, but diameter as well. Complaints about short case life are the result of full length resizing these expanded/lengthened cases and in doing so cold working the brass. If at all posible, keep these together with the rifle. My shop computer is down just now, but if you check out my site, I have some info on this:
www.gswagner.com
Steve Wagner