243 wssm brass

phonesysphonesys said:

Not to sound stupid but can you fire form 243 WSSM to work in a 243 Winchester?

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No, the only thing they have in common is the diameter of the mouth of the brass. The entire rest of the cartridge is different.

No problem, happy to help.

.243 W brass is a dime a dozen, .243 WSSM is unobtainium. You could probably trade that 10:1.

243 Win next to 243 WSSM.

Laphroaig said:

.243 W brass is a dime a dozen, .243 WSSM is unobtainium. You could probably trade that 10:1.

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Im sitting on 40 of em, 33 still factory loaded by winchester. No use for em. Does that make me rich!? Lol

Just checked midway and they had 25wssm.....about fell off my chair

I found a bag of 25 wssm at a LGS a few months ago and had to jump on it. I have a .223 wssm so it’s better than anything else I’ve been able to find.

I bought several hundred of these back around 2012. More then I think my 243 WSSM barrel could burn through. The story back then was Federal was going to develop a load for the 243 WSSM and decided not to complete the project. The pic even states Federal head stamp made by Winchester.

Down side to the wssm family is Winchester doesn’t do a final anneal on the brass. It’s not unusual to loose 20% of the once fired brass to split necks.

Shame with the WSSM family being such unobtanium.

Seems like with the micro/mini actions gaining popularity in the market and the continued growth of the AR platform the WSSM's should be gaining traction.

A super lightweight bolt gun in a WSSM seems like it'd be popular in theory.

Have they tried making a 6.5 WSSM? Maybe a 6.5 Creedmoor Super Short Magnum re-branding would turn it around!

Edited to add:
Actually, looking into it... I'd bet a 6.5 WSSM with decent factory support would take off. It has pretty similar ballistics to the 6.5Creed and fits in an AR15. If brass was available (and affordable) I'd be interested in one more than I'm already interested in either a 6.5 Creed or a 6.5 Grendel. If they could get factory ammo as prevalent as 6.5Creed was at its roll-out they'd sell all they could make.

I really like my 25, but the whole family is hard on barrels.

gotboostvr said:

Shame with the WSSM family being such unobtanium.

Seems like with the micro/mini actions gaining popularity in the market and the continued growth of the AR platform the WSSM's should be gaining traction.

A super lightweight bolt gun in a WSSM seems like it'd be popular in theory.

Have they tried making a 6.5 WSSM? Maybe a 6.5 Creedmoor Super Short Magnum re-branding would turn it around!

Edited to add:
Actually, looking into it... I'd bet a 6.5 WSSM with decent factory support would take off. It has pretty similar ballistics to the 6.5Creed and fits in an AR15. If brass was available (and affordable) I'd be interested in one more than I'm already interested in either a 6.5 Creed or a 6.5 Grendel. If they could get factory ammo as prevalent as 6.5Creed was at its roll-out they'd sell all they could make.

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No, not really.
I rebarrelled a Browning A-Bolt II in .223 WSSM to 6,5 WSSM. Any bullet longer than 120 grain takes up powder space. So do the 120's to a degree as they extend deeper than the base of the neck. This is because they are limited in over all length. With the length of the 5.56 / .223 at 2.260" and the .243 WSSM at 2.3598", there is no room for seating the bullets shallower.

My reasoning for my rifle was to achieve 6.5x55 ballistics in a short, compact rifle. It just barely gets there, but due to the short, stubby cartridge, can have feeding issues with pointed bullets like the Lapua Scenar and Bergers.

Oh, by the way, don't think that all the WSSM cases can be used interchangably. I tried using .25 WSSM cases but the shoulder angles between the .243 and .25 WSSM's are different enough that the .25's won't fireform unless they are near maximum charges. I refuse to do that with an experimental round in an unknown rifle and without sophiusticated pressure measuring equipment. I had 100 .25 WSSM cases necked up to .264 that I discarded because I was getting flattened primers before the shoulder was blown to the correct angle.
.243 WSSM shoulder angle = 28 degrees; .223 WSSM = 35 degrees; .25 WSSM = 30 degrees.

I hope this is helpful.

oldfortyfiveauto said:

I really like my 25, but the whole family is hard on barrels.

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If you load 'em hot or fire factory ammo only, yes, they are.
BTW, I have an unfired .223 WSSM barrel off of a Browning A-bolt II if anyone is interested.

Probably you were below the pressure of the standard Winchester test load. I bought a sack full of once fired Win WSSM brass, from the Win factory test facility. FL resize them and they were still hard to bolt in a new chamber, until they were fired in my MRC guns. I was told by Clymer that the Win spec chamber reamer does not have a tapered throat cutter, bullet just jams into the square cut lands.
So if you were not full case fire forming with one shot, you were not there yet, keep at it, you will get there. Sometimes my 445 Super Mag takes three firings of the 30-40 Kraig cases.

BudaTx said:

I bought several hundred of these back around 2012. More then I think my 243 WSSM barrel could burn through. The story back then was Federal was going to develop a load for the 243 WSSM and decided not to complete the project. The pic even states Federal head stamp made by Winchester.

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I currently have several hundred new 243WSSM Fed. cases listed for sale or trade: https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...ass-garand-clips-snipepod-bipod-texas.885088/ (Also have 90 or so WW cases FS/FT but did not list them.)

The WW cases are definately harder than the Fed. Never split either, but those that I loaded were for one rifle. I did prefer the Fed. as they were easier to resize, having less "spring back".

The 243WSSM can be hard on barrels if pushed, but I fired around 300 mild rounds (3000 to 3100 fps ) of 100 gr NSB my go to Dtech for predator and WT doe culling. I did not measure the throat, however, but bore showed no visible wear w/a bore scope.

Believe the picture is an old one, based on price, and I also tried to log on to address but never was able to do so??

Regards,
hps