GOHUNT - Filter and find hunts like never before

Headspace issue or not - Part 2

Richard22

Active member
Joined
Jan 24, 2025
Messages
76
I own three rifles chambered in .243 there were made by three different manufacturers. I recently came across two boxes of factory ammo where I can only close the bolt on one of the three rifles, that being a Browning A-bolt. The bolt on both my Savage and Howa cannot be closed when I try to load this ammo, that being Hornady ELD-X. Other ammo that I have made by Winchester, Federal, Remington, and Norma all load fine in all three rifles.

Seems much easier just to mark the two boxes as being for the Browning than following other routes.
 
Last edited:
Any way for your to measure cartridge base to ogive length (CBOL)? I have a suspicion that your Savage and Howa are on the short end of SAAMI-spec for throat length and the higher BC, modern bullets are jamming in the lands.
 
Anyone notice anything using only their naked eye? The cartridge on the far left will not load in both my Savage and Howa rifles. The other three load fine in all three of my rifles chambered in .243. If I had to guess, I would say the shoulder on the ELD-X is shorter than the others.


IMG_4689.jpg
 
Last edited:
Contact the ammo manufacturer. The factory stuff should chamber in most rifles. Good chance they send you more ammo.
 
Personally, I'd use the Hornady in your Browning and not worry too much about things.
That makes more sense because it's less time consuming and because all three rifles shoot four other (Federal, Winchester, Norma, and Remington) factory loads quite well.

I appreciate all the replies.
 
Pretty simple to figure out with a black sharpie. Well mark the shoulder, neck and ogive, then attempt to chamber. You will see where the issue is.

Now, to assign blame is more than that. There are tolerances in chambers and ammo. Getting a min spec chamber with a max spec ammo can be an issue. Go, no go gauges would tell you if it was the chamber. Factory ammo generally has a lot of slop to fit all chambers.

I’d really not worry about it and shoot the ammo that fits. Just don’t buy a new box for a hunt without checking. Something you do on a dangerous game rifle before a hunt.
 
Last edited:

After sending this same photo provided by Mnthunter1 to the Customer Service Team at Hornady, they have agreed to send me a couple of new boxes. They also said that have some of the same lot of ammo on hand and will check it. I replied that I'm curious if an issue is found with the ammo that have on hand but understand such information may be sensitive in nature.

Once I have the new ammo they are sending me, I'll update everyone on how it loads in my Savage and Howa rifles.

The power of social media strikes once again.
 
Today I received the two new boxes of Precision Hunter ammo that Hornady sent me and they load beautifully in both my Savage and Howa rifles.

Here's a photo of a cartridge from both the old and new boxes of ammo. Even my 65-year-old, naked eyes can tell the slight difference in the two.

Hats off to Hornady for honoring the integrity of their ammo.

IMG_4711.jpg
 
Last edited:
Yeti GOBOX Collection

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
114,877
Messages
2,074,941
Members
36,790
Latest member
bliza9863
Back
Top