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[Rooster41]

I am going to be loading some 30-40 Krag for my father in law. He gave me some 180 grain Winchester soft points. I am curious about loads for this. DO you think I can use data from any book such as Hornady, Nosler or Speer.

[sqlbullet]

I don't recall ever seeing a Ruger #3 or 1895 specific loading section in any manual for 30-40 Krag. Those rifles could certainly handle higher pressures, but it does not appear that such rifle specific data was ever produced.  If you have a manual that calls those out, then I would not use that data.  Speer 13 specifically states it max pressures do not exceed 40,000 CUP, so I am confident that is safe reference data.

Couple of other notes.

These rifles are known to have groove diameters that vary widely.  I would slug the bore with a fishing weight to see what I was dealing with before I put bullets down the bore.  No sense in wasting .308 bullets if the gun grooves are .314.  Also, if you don't know the condition of the action, it might be worth validating.  The US Army at one time produced 220 grain rounds that exceeded the original spec by some 200 fps.  These caused cracked lugs on many rifles.  In theory these were all fixed and the damaged parts discarded, but you never know.

Good luck with the rifle and the loads!  Love these older bolt action guns.