Ups shows up at 5 pm with the Neck turner Pilot from Brownells. Hour later I have a perfect loaded dummy round.  So it goes like this

All trips though the dies lubed with Imperial Wax

.30 US down to 7mm Neck only
Down to 6.5 mm Neck only
Down to 25 caliber Neck only
Expand the neck in the .25 Krag F/L sizer die
Lightly trim to even up case mouth
Chamber the inside De-burr the outside
Turn about .002 off with the Sinclar Neck Turn tool
Push the case in the chamber just to be sure.
Load a jacketed bullet, chambers just fine

End result is good enough to fire a 90 % charged case with the proper bullet. Going to work up 10 for the range.

I have to decide how long to leave the necks. Krags have long necks and my rifle will chamber a case necked down to .25 with little to no neck trim. To my Eye 117 gr bullet seated to touch the lands has a lot covered by the neck still keeping the boat tail fully inside the neck. Have to load some dummies for the 87 gr bullet and a 117 flat base, see how they look

.257 Roberts cartridges I have seen also look like a lot of bullet inside

Any and all advice appreciated

Boats

Have seen that tool advertised, may be the way to go when I start finial loading. Have 20 loaded up for fire forming, used a 3/4 load taken from .243 data, about the same case capacity. Forming no bullet was not a success.

I figured out the shoulder is a bit shorter than the chamber, after cases are fire formed it's going to move forward and have the effect of making the neck shorter, from the back end. 

Other thing is to outside turn the necks or not.  They will chamber neck sized expanded with the expander ball and bullet seated.  Next step is to mike a fired case and see how much room there is.  Can't outside neck turn until the case is fire formed, cut too far back the turn ends up as part of the shoulder. If it needs it at all not going to be much.

These old varmint calibers in single shots are not like anything else we do.   

Boats

Black may work will see how the smokeless works this morning. Loads I have in the cases now are about 3/4 case filling. ACC 2520 some old powder I need to use up. Have used it in less than case full .308 loads in the past no problems with it.

Ken Waters old Handloader article recommends 4350 as optional for the .25 Krag same powder recommended by Ackley.  4350 slower than Varget which I am using for all bottleneck cases full loads currently.  Will keep my eyes open for some 4350. Meanwhile & once formed Varget will be the powder

I don't plan to use Ackley charge data 

Boats

Boats,
Try forming one case using either 12 gr of Red Dot or 14 gr of Unique. Fill to top with C of W and cap it off with a grease wad. Any kind of thick grease will do (even Crisco), I use bullet lube. It should leave nice crisp corners in the neck and shoulder.

If you have a ball mic, check the neck thickness and if it doesn't vary and the bullet will chamber, there is no need to neck turn.

One other thing...... if your using a 14 twist, I don't think it will stabilize a 117 FB or BT spitzer. I have Sierra's FB and they are 1.09 long. The stabilazation programs say that it won't do it in a 14 twist. Let me know if they are right.

Frank

I've studied the 25 Krag for a lot of years after I got those cases. I always wanted to build one, as I have a HW in 30/40 but, I've got bolts in 243, 6mm, 6mm Imp and and Mauser in 257 Roberts so, I never got around to it. It's a wonderful SS caliber and Ackley had 2 improved versions of it, of which he liked his shorter one the best. I'm glad you've built it, I'd like to hear a lot more about it as you progress.

For loading data, you can use standard 6mm Rem loads. H414 gave me my best accuracy in 6mm with both 85 & 100gr bullets but, 4895, Varget or RL15 should do very well for the 87 gr bullets.

And, you need to shoot it in the Quarter bore matches as, Ken has never had one compete

Frank

Back from the range perfect fire form.  Load up 20 more to form take the formed 20 and start working up full power loads.

Boats

boats wrote on May 13^th, 2013 at 8:26pm:


How many grains of powder?

Finished up my fire forming and have some rough sights at distance.

Col-Native on the ball mike. Like to borrow it but won't be at the Match Sat. I found the cases chamber fine with no neck turning. Suspect they could be evened up. Am going to final trim chamfer etc slight turn may be good.

On the Powder Charge.  Don't like to call it guess work interpolation is perhaps the better term. You do have to do some guessing. Very little publised data on the .25 Krag most from Akley If you consider Case capacity and bore size .250/3000 published loads ought to be light. 257 Roberts loads ought to be Max.  30/40 is about the same case capacity as .308 & there is plenty of data on the 308 cases. 6mm Rem .243 25 Souper 260 Rem 7mm08 etc.

I used a light 250/3000 load with a powder that is similar in burn rate to published.  Another set of problems, you can't buy powders you want have to use powders you have on hand.

Table of sights using 87 Gr spire points and fire forming loads. 30 grs of ACC 2520 100=0 200=2moa 300=4moa 385=9moa  This equates to about 2700-2800 fps.  like to get 3000+ with the 87 gr bullet 

Boats