.243 Winchester TC rifle help for a buddy.

[6mm Remington]

I have a friend who has a break action TC rifle with the switch barrel capability. He just got a .243 Winchester barrel for it. He shot a little factory stuff and it shot 1.5" 100 yard groups. He resized some fired brass and loaded up some handloads to try out. He said it shot horrible like a 10" group at 100 yards and the primer's looked funny, and I'm having a hard time remembering right now what else he said.

It sounds to me like he set his full-length resizing die incorrectly and has bumped the shoulders back just a touch, which doesn't take much, so the headspace on his loaded cartridges is not correct. I told him to read the instructions with the loading die again as to set up the sizing die and then back it off a little. Try that case in the rifle in direct comparsion with how a new/trimmed/unfired factory brass cartridge feels being put into the chamber. Keep backing off on how far down his sizing die is screwed into the press until he is just partial resizing the cases and not quite completely fully resizing them. I told him that his cases will last longer. I also said keep backing the die out just a bit at a time until you can feel it being hard to chamber and close the action. At that point the die needs to be screwed down just a bit into the press. You want your rounds to chamber easily so you don't have problems in the field. I said when he got to that point then in an unprimered brand new case with a bullet seated where you want it off the lands, chamber it and see how it feels. Then do the same with one of your ONCE sized brass that is trimmed to length and the exact same bullet seated to the same depth and see how it feels. It it feels similar to the brand new brass and chambers easily then he's all set.

Any issues you guys have for TC's with the switch barrels, and did I steer him in the right direction? I also told him to take a sharpened piece of metal wire bent at the sharpened end 90 degrees and put it into the cases he had shot and resized and see if just in front of the case head web if he can feel a little ridge or dip in the case on the inside. This means his case lengthened to fit the chamber when it was fired. I also suggested he look at the case on the outside and see if he can see a bright ring just up the case from the rim a little. I also suggested he not load those fired cases again as they could separate and allow gas to escape and or damage him or the chamber of his rifle. This the right track guys. All help appreciated. I'll see if I can get my hands on one of the cases and post a photo. I could tell more by looking at it myself too. Hard to tell just what's going on by his description.j
Thanks
David

 

[onesonek]

Pic's would be nice, even so they won't tell all. But it sounds like you covered most of the bases.
With out watching him, it's hard telling what is going on however. I am assuming he is loading the same or close to same bullet weight as in the factory rounds? What powder and charge weight was the reload? Mostly just curious on those points.
If what you told him don't at least match or better the factory ammo, I would also try another mfg of bullet in the same weight. Also I would fireform new brass by loading a starting load with a long enough bullet to seat into the lands. Then partial size as you suggested after that. But for the most part, I agree that he likely bumped the shoulder too much. There very well could be other factors, but as I said, with out watching him in his practice's or methods, it's hard telling. One can only go by process of elimination. I have never found the TC 's overly fickle to load for. Factory barrels can be partial to loads, but still show reasonable accuracy. 1.5" groups with factory ammo, I guessing is somewhat average. Going to 10" groups, is way beyond the norm,,,something is amiss.