A New Load For The Krag-Jorgensen
By
Recreation, vol 21, No. 2 Aug 1904, pages 109-110
Owners of high power rifles using the 30-40 Krag-Jorgensen military cartridge, who have vainly wished for an inexpensive load for short and mid ranges, as well as for use in hunting animals up to and including deer, should extend a vote of thanks to Dr. Hudson, the well known rifle shot, to Mr. Barlow, of the Ideal Manufacturing Co. and to the Laflin and Rand Powder Co., for their services in this direction.
Thousands of riflemen have pondered over this riddle which, briefly stated, is as follows :
Can a lead bullet without a jacket be fired from a high power rifle without stripping and leading the barrel to the destruction of accuracy and power? The men named have solved the problem, and here is the how:
Dr. Hudson and Mr. Barlow together devised a bullet composed of an alloy of 80 per cent, lead, 10 per cent, tin, and 10 percent, antimony. This mixture, properly fused and moulded, gives a bullet of nearly the specific gravity of lead, with a surface that has a resisting strength equal to that of a jacketed bullet. Brother Barlow injected into the formula an idea of his own in fashioning the front shoulder of the bullet, which first engages the grooves and bands of the rifling. This shoulder makes the path of the bullet free, in that it cuts away the fouling of the preceding discharge and its value may be guessed when it is said that after so shots, the inside of the barrel is practically clean. The new powder is a mixture of round pellets that look like pepper and salt. This powder, the Laflin and Rand Co. calls "Marksman." Its value lies in the fact that the gas generated by the primer, or explosion, is cool; hence it docs not melt the base of the Hudson-Ideal bullet. The heat from this powder, as an explosive in a gun barrel, may be conservatively estimated at less than 20 percent, of that of any other powder. On this account it may do away with jacketed bullets entirely, for we all know the jacket, in preventing fusion of the base of the bullet, found therein about half of its value.
Hitherto these high power rifles have had little value except in military service. Their extreme range and killing power rendered them unsafe in the woods and no sane man would discharge one at an ordinary target in close proximity to civilization. You need not now, however, throw away your Krags, for with the improved Hudson bullet and 15 grains of Marksman powder, you can with one of the Ideal tools, produce a cartridge that has a velocity of 1,500 feet a second and sufficient penetration and shock to kill a deer at 125 yards. As a target load at 200 yards if your barrel is true and you know how to hold and pull you will get on the 8-inch black most of the time.
As to other high power rifles of different caliber than the Krag, the Hudson-Barlow 30-40 load may be taken as a basis experimental unit, on which to work out other loads of value adaptable to the multiplicity of calibers and powder charges.
Ex-Ordnance Sergeant, Baltimore, Md.