Wra 30 & 31 30-40

[kcw]

About 15 years ago I was given the unsold reloading/shooting leftovers from an estate sale.
Included was a fair amount of old 30-40 brass, some "gallery?" rounds and blanks. Additionally there area about 40 rounds of RN ball ammo, all of which is stamped either WRA 30 or WRA 31 which appears to be from a U.S. government contract. Why was the U.S. government buying 30-40 ammo at that late date (1930 &31)? With a couple of million M1917's sitting in storeage you'd think that all the Krags lwould have been long since replaced with rifles that used the standard 30-06 ammo?

[mike33]

Some of The WRA 30-31 was loaded by winchester for use in large coastal artillery using a sub caliber device . Cheaper to contract for 30/40 than to replace sub caliber devise . Military budjets were extremely tight during the depression.

[raymeketa]

The sub-caliber cartridges are loaded with a FMJ pointed '06 bullet and are easy to identify. They are headstamped mostly FA 25 and FA 26.

Both the Navy and Militia (NG) were still armed with Krags into the 1930s. The ammunition you have is some that was produced to satisfy the needs of those units. Most will be headstamped WRA or Western with dates from the late 20s into the mid or late 30s. You may also find some made by others, such as Remington, USC Co, etc.

Ray

[Festus39]

The sub-caliber cartridges are loaded with a FMJ pointed '06 bullet and are easy to identify. They are headstamped mostly FA 25 and FA 26.

Both the Navy and Militia (NG) were still armed with Krags into the 1930s. The ammunition you have is some that was produced to satisfy the needs of those units. Most will be headstamped WRA or Western with dates from the late 20s into the mid or late 30s. You may also find some made by others, such as Remington, USC Co, etc.

Ray

In about 1980 I aqquired a bunch of items from an old gentleman who had recently moved back to Texas from Alaska. Among these goodies was a sporterized Steyr 95 rifle and about 1000 rds of 30-40 FA26 with the spitzer bullets. The rifle had been rebarreled to 30-40 Krag. I still have the rifle but finished shooting the ammo about three yrs. ago. The stuff was very reliable but due to the age I didn't try to re-use the brass.

[raymeketa]

Festus

Yep, the old DCM issued a bunch of the sub-caliber stuff to shooters when the supply of Ball cartridges dried up. It was supposed to be very good ammo in a rifle, even though it was not loaded for that purpose.

Ray