New rifle: tight chamber?

[greg788]

I bought a TC Icon .243 recently (my first gun purchase in a decade). I got it out to the range yesterday and today and put 4 different deer-specific factory loads through it.

While the overall accuracy is very impressive, I have noticed that it doesn't feed super smooth -- the bolt is hard to lock down after feeding in a round from the magazine to the chamber. This is especially evident with 100 grain loads, not so much with 95 grain and 85 grain.

Is is possible, even normal, for a gun to have a really tight chamber from the factory? Will this feeding issue loosen up and smooth out over time? Or maybe it's just a design issue with this gun.

 

[interlock]

i wonder if the rounds with 100 gr bullets are pushing into the rifling? mark one with a marker pen, chamber it then eject it and see if there are rifling marks on it#

 

[Geno]

Clean a factory loaded round (remove any oils), and "paint" the entire end of the brass and projectile with a permanent marker. Chamber the round and lock down the bolt. Extract the round and examine it. The black should rub off any areas where the "chambering" is tight. It may be the brass' shoulder that is very tight.

In my experience, TC firearms have tight (as in Match-grade) chambers. It is the reason that TC offers its MOA accuracy guarantee.

Please post pics of the "test".

Doc2005

 

[Fumbler]

Like Doc said, check to see if the 100 gr bullets are hitting the rifling (which isn't usually a big issue).
Also, if you have calipers then measure the length of a 100gr cartridge, load it, then check the length again.
If it's pushing the bullets in then that can be bad.

Make sure the chamber is clean.
If its difficult to close the bolt on a wide range of cartridges then it's possible the chamber is cut too shallow.
That can happen sometimes.
You may want to take it to a gunsmith and have him check the chamber depth. If it's cut too shallow then send it back to T/C and have them fix it.

It probably won't get any better with use.

 

[scotlfs]

If the bullet isn't really pushing into the rifling, but snug up against it, this is generally considered ideal from an accuracy standpoint.

 

[interlock]

but less than i deal from a pressure point of view. the bullet should be a couple of thous fron the riflling

 

[interlock]

Greg,
Have you got an update for us?

 

[greg788]

I spoke with an engineer from T/C, some custom accuracy outfits and a fellow T/C Icon owner. Apparently this situation is normal out of the box and it will loosen up over time.