NEF 243 and reloads

[ejpaul1]

Well, I been breaking in my new little single and It of course is awesome, but for some reason she dont wanna lock closed as easily with my reloads as opposed the the factory ones. Is this due to the case getting longer? I have only used this brass twice. Lemme know what ya think. EJ

[charlie brown]

I would not go any farther with you load development!! Your brass is probably needing to be trimmed. I know I get quite a bit of stretching in my NEF .223. Have you measured the lengths of the brass before loading, but after resizing? I am betting your brass is too long. Just because you have only fired the brass twice does not mean squat! Some brass could go 4 or 5 loadings and not need trimmed and other brass may need to be trimmed every time. It also depends on what loads you are loading and what pressures they are generating. And the pressures will only keep getting higher the longer you go with the brass being longer than it should. Get a micrometer if you don't have one already and check the lengths of the cases.

[deerslayer223]

i agree. Sounds liek your cases are to long check your loading book to find the correct case length measure em with a micrometer and trim them puppies down. Best of luck. Keep us posted on how it turns out!

[Sonnytj]

Check the adjustment of your sizing die. I t may not be hitting the ram hard enough. If that is the case the cartridge will not be sized quite right and will be hard to chamber. 243 seems to be pretty particular on that point. The die should touch the ram and then be set down about 1/4 turn more to correctly full length size the cartridges. I have never had this problem with 30-06 or 270 but just recently experienced it with a new Tikka T3 hunter and that is how I solved the problem.

[patch51]

I bought a new NEF 243 win a couple of years ago.I have owned a few of these rifles and never had a problem until this one.With factory ammo and reloads it would open when I shot.Not every time but about 3 out of 5 shots.I checked and tried everything but nothing helped so I shipped it to NEF.They returned it with a note "nothing wrong with this rifle".I tried it again same thing.A guy offered me some brass,ammo,and a couple of cases of Bud.I took my scope off and let him have it.I have not even looked at another NEF or H&R since.I talked to the guy couple of weeks later he had already got rid of it.The thing nearly blew my face off so I took it to the pawn shop.

[Ark City Larry]

I have 10 H&R Handi's, no problems with any of them..............

[ejpaul1]

I figured it out, I think. What the problem seemed to be was the cases were growing after one firing and needed to be trimmed. I wasnt trimming them. I will now trim them! EJ