barnfrog
Member
So I finally encountered my first instance of the dreaded CHS. I've been worried about missing the signs, but as soon as I saw the ring it was obvious.
The bent paper clip test was also quite obvious, so it was fortunate to get some first-hand experience with seeing and feeling the signs without any inconvenience or injury to anyone.
These are Winchester cases in .243 caliber that were loaded with 42.2 grains of IMR4350 and Barnes 80 grain TTSX bullets.
The thing that concerns me is that this was the first reload of these cases. They were factory ammo fired once in my Winchester XPR, full length sized, loaded as specified above and then fired in a Rossi single shot my friend purchased for his daughter. That powder charge isn't particularly hot according to Barnes. The data I have shows starting load level being 42.0 grains, max is 46.0.
I'm thinking the Rossi probably has too much headspace. It's definitely got more than my gun. Using the same comparator to measure base to shoulder, cases fired in the Rossi are up to 0.008" longer than those run through the Winchester. I'm going to order a no-go gauge and maybe a field length gauge as well and see what they indicate. I'm also going to cut open a couple cases from the same batch that don't have the ring and see if they show interior signs of stretching.
In the meantime, should my friend be worried about firing anything but factory ammo in this gun? If I were to start with virgin brass and load them only for his gun would we get more reloads out of them, or is this gun probably going to stretch cases no matter what?
The bent paper clip test was also quite obvious, so it was fortunate to get some first-hand experience with seeing and feeling the signs without any inconvenience or injury to anyone.
These are Winchester cases in .243 caliber that were loaded with 42.2 grains of IMR4350 and Barnes 80 grain TTSX bullets.
The thing that concerns me is that this was the first reload of these cases. They were factory ammo fired once in my Winchester XPR, full length sized, loaded as specified above and then fired in a Rossi single shot my friend purchased for his daughter. That powder charge isn't particularly hot according to Barnes. The data I have shows starting load level being 42.0 grains, max is 46.0.
I'm thinking the Rossi probably has too much headspace. It's definitely got more than my gun. Using the same comparator to measure base to shoulder, cases fired in the Rossi are up to 0.008" longer than those run through the Winchester. I'm going to order a no-go gauge and maybe a field length gauge as well and see what they indicate. I'm also going to cut open a couple cases from the same batch that don't have the ring and see if they show interior signs of stretching.
In the meantime, should my friend be worried about firing anything but factory ammo in this gun? If I were to start with virgin brass and load them only for his gun would we get more reloads out of them, or is this gun probably going to stretch cases no matter what?