Advice on loading 243

Ganderite and c-fbmi, thank you both for posting your thoughts on this issue.
A resized case goes in nice and smooth....no troubles with bolt closing/opening.
The cam comes right up to touch the die during resizing.
Brass was trimmed prior to resizing .
No visible scrubbing on outside of neck.
Same issue with both Winchester and Federal brass.
I have no factory cartridges at home, but plan to visit a friend who has some.......Will see how they fit and take some measurements.
 
Ganderite and c-fbmi, when I read over my last post, I realized that the cam simply touching the resize die was not good enough.
I have adjusted the die down about a quarter turn so that now I get that final little "click" when the handle is all the way down.
My thinking is that this little adjustment will solve the problem.
I guess that the" fine tolerances" to which these old Remingtons were made would not accept the sloppy cartridges that my other rifles did!!!!
Thank you again for helping me toward my solution......Will try to load a few today to see if they are better.


Back again.......just tried a few......Success !!!
 
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Or your seating/crimping die is starting to squash the shoulder a bit - my most common mistake that causes tight bolt.

About COL - if it is not close to the lands, five thou this way or that will change little - but a COL that gets real close to the lands will also increase the chances of high pressure or wide deviation in pressures - and where is the benefit in that? For example, if the bullets are seated two thou from the lands, a bit of crud on the bolt face or locking lugs or a primer protruding or other imperfections will make pressure deviations. My own advice is to back away from the edge and find a different cat to chase. The bullet does not jump to the lands, but is fully supported by the neck as it comes forward to engage the lands. Pay more attention to cartridge runout and a bevel that doesn't scar the bullet as it is seated and uniform seating pressures and the pressure in your truck tires.
 
My 2 best load for my Ruger mk2 target were 36.5 GR varget with a 87gr vmax or 36.5 GR of IMR 4064 with a Berger BT 90 GR . Both were around .500 5 shot group at 100 yard. Both load wouldn't even strecht the brass . With my lapua brass I was at 7 reload than I moved and never got time to reload again
 
I have been shooting and reloading 243 for more than forty years so a lot of experimenting was done looking for what works best. My conclusion is that IMR 4350 and H414 have given me the best consistent results with all lengths of barrels, twist rates, and bullet weights. I have four 243's with barrel lengths from 18" to 24". None are custom builds and my most consistent groups out of all four is with 85 gr. Sierra and 42 gr. IMR4350.
I remember reading one of Jim Carmichel's articles where he called IMR4350 the miracle powder and he wasn't referring to the 243.

Good luck .... have fun and be safe. Reload, shoot, reload, repeat ..........
 
I didn't have success with varget and the 100 grainers so far, I just wanted to see and you guys confirmed it...
 
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snipe(+)show said:
Nice Smason, can I ask what your COAL was? Also, thanks for all the input guys. Hope to get out shooting this week.
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Unless you two share the same rifle, his COAL is of no interest to you.

COAL is very specific to a given rifle. The throat typically erodes forward (about 10 thou a year in my rifle) so if my accurate load is 20 thou off the rifling, I have to keep loading the rounds longer and longer.
 
In .243...
I like Varget for the 55-60.
414 for the 70-85.
H4831/IMR4831 for 90-100gr pills.
Here is 5x the 55 Varmsgeddons on top of some varget. Only thing is, even with a 22" barrel it's spitting a serious fireball...
 
Pete G said:
Ganderite and c-fbmi, thank you both for posting your thoughts on this issue.
A resized case goes in nice and smooth....no troubles with bolt closing/opening.
The cam comes right up to touch the die during resizing.
Brass was trimmed prior to resizing .
No visible scrubbing on outside of neck.
Same issue with both Winchester and Federal brass.
I have no factory cartridges at home, but plan to visit a friend who has some.......Will see how they fit and take some measurements.
Click to expand...

Should trim after you size.
 
c-fbmi said:
If a resized case goes in smooth but one with a bullet in it is tough it leads to only one conclusion on my part.........your case necks are too thick. Try one with the bullet pushed right back in the case to the ogive, if it still goes in real tight, it's definitely the case neck thickness. Can you see any scrubbing on the outside of the neck? Have you checked your case length, not too likely but should rule it out anyway.
Click to expand...


BMI, I have had a few 243 rifles, going back to one made in the 1930s, a custom 243 made in the 1960s, plus I got a Ruger 700 new, that had the tang safety, and made while you could still adjust the trigger. I have the spring I was supposed to put in to prevent the trigger from going too soft.
I have also had three with custom barrels built on '98 actions. I often had full length resized cases that would not chamber properly and a common problem was with tight fitting chambers, a cartridge case that was hardened from working, would spring back enough after it came from the sizing die, that headspace was too short for it to enter the chamber, especially on the custom built barrels.
By far the best solution is to have a body die that will take the loaded cartridge, bullet and all, safely into the chamber. There is enough lee way in the de-fault clearance of the body die, that any case coming out of your FL sizing die should go into any standard sized chamber.
 
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