Blown primers factory ammo

[Wrench]

Not necessarily...as others have stated could be a fouling issue. I do agree save the box or at least record the lot number and contact Norma.

I jumped straight to the ammo because it went from mild to wild in one shot. If he was randomly piercing I'd buy it....but he's blowing the primers clear out of the case. That's not a small bit over....that's more like some unique left in the 4350 throw.....or WAY tight necks.

 

[Vern400]

To those who have mentioned fouling issues.. would said issues be visible to the naked eye? I maybe have 300ish rounds down the tube at this point. I dragged a bore snake through it last night to take out most of the carbon fouling and the bore and chamber look pretty shiny and clean to me in bright light. I've been following @Formidilosus train of thought on not cleaning rifles up to this point and I'm wondering if I now have one of the anomalies

You cannot see a heavy carbon ring without a borescope. I have a rifle with 3000+ shots down the bore. When I got my borescope, from the end of the case neck to the start of the rifling it looked like a solid ring of charcoal. I'm not saying that happened with your gun but a 243 is pretty easy to foul.

That being said, we aren't talking about mild pressure signs here. We're talking about pressures that are very close to causing damage, if it hasn't already happened. So yes, you should confirm that you're really keeping your gun clean. But you might want a chronograph some of that ammunition if you shoot anymore. Probably gives very good velocities

 

[WCB]

I jumped straight to the ammo because it went from mild to wild in one shot. If he was randomly piercing I'd buy it....but he's blowing the primers clear out of the case. That's not a small bit over....that's more like some unique left in the 4350 throw.....or WAY tight necks.

But it is odd that he has put a bunch of rounds down range of the same ammo without an issue an then pop, pop, pop. Unless Norma packages their ammo in sequence that is pretty hard do.

 

[Castle Rock]

I kind of figured that, but it seemed odd to me that the first 5 boxes were perfect then this one from the same lot was like this. I did buy this ammo so I could get some decent brass for reloading, so I guess I'll just pull down my remaining boxes and reload from here on.

People say Norma brass is good and it is good dimentially but I don’t like it because it is soft
The 243 is well known for pressure spikes
Probably a combination of fouling, poor QC and the design of the case, ie short neck, shallow shoulder angle and relatively large capacity
Same thing is known to happen with the 7 mm REM magnum

 

[Moose83]

Interesting... I reloaded one of my once fired boxes playing with 108 eld-m's. The primer pockets were so tight I had really grip my seating tool to get them all the way in. I always assumed that meant the brass was good and hard?

People say Norma brass is good and it is good dimentially but I don’t like it because it is soft
The 243 is well known for pressure spikes
Probably a combination of fouling, poor QC and the design of the case, ie short neck, shallow shoulder angle and relatively large capacity
Same thing is known to happen with the 7 mm REM magnum

 

[Moose83]

A loaded round from the same box.

 

[Moose83]

Only 2 things have changed since I last shot this ammo:
1. I tried a few test loads of 108 eld-m's with some of the once fired brass. I have been using hornadys case sizing wax lately as I haven't been able to find one shot locally. I do wipe the cases off but maybe not good enough? My hand loads shot good... no pressure signs there.
2. The temperature has gone up, although not too substantially. Most of my shooting with this ammo has been in the winter months and early spring. I am located in northern BC so it's not like I'm shooting in the desert or anything.

I do have a buddy with a Teslong bore scope. I'll see if I can get some shots of the chamber and neck area.

Still waiting for an email from Norma to see what they say.

 

[Moose83]

So I pulled a loaded round apart from the box that blew the primers... does 45 gr of stick powder with a 100 soft point bullet seem a bit excessive? I know I've mostly loaded in the 40 grain range. Also, no word from Norma yet.

 

[wind gypsy]

So I pulled a loaded round apart from the box that blew the primers... does 45 gr of stick powder with a 100 soft point bullet seem a bit excessive? I know I've mostly loaded in the 40 grain range. Also, no word from Norma yet.

Not really. Depends on burn rate.

 

[Luked]

I had some years ago when I bought my wife her 7mm-08. It was a Hornaday line of ammo that the shop had. Just bought it to break the barrel in and out of a 20 count box I had 4 that blew the primers out.
Never shot the stuff again and haven't had it done since in any other ammo.
I have quite a bit of the Norma Whitetail for my 243 and never had it happen with any of it I have shot. I would be contacting them for sure.

 

[Moose83]

So I went over to my buddy's place tonight and took a look with his borescope. We couldn't see any thing out of the ordinary... definitely no major carbon ring or anything that could spike pressure that much. We even compared it to several of his guns that were in various states of cleanliness, from just cleaned to dirty and we didn't really see much difference. I'm pretty sure at this point it's an ammunition issue. Still waiting to hear from norma.

 

[49ereric]

So I went over to my buddy's place tonight and took a look with his borescope. We couldn't see any thing out of the ordinary... definitely no major carbon ring or anything that could spike pressure that much. We even compared it to several of his guns that were in various states of cleanliness, from just cleaned to dirty and we didn't really see much difference. I'm pretty sure at this point it's an ammunition issue. Still waiting to hear from norma.

Post the photos the bore scope took.

 

[Moose83]

I don't have any... they were on my buddy's tablet that he has dedicated to his borescope.. I didn't ask him to take any pic's

 

[Moose83]

And the saga continues....

So last weekend i managed to impale my foot on a stick while on a canoe trip. This caused a trip to the ER and some time off work. Now having some spare time and being of Dutch descent I figured why waste "good" components. I figured I'd pull down the remaining 27 rounds I had of this ammo. While doing so I discovered that powder charge varied from 43 gr to 46 gr. On average 45 gr was the most common charge. Because my rifle didn't seem very dirty when borescoped i was leaning towards a very hot factory load and a hot chamber causing my issues. So i figured I'd back the charges down to 42 gr, roughly 7% lower than 45 gr.

To make this already long story shorter... I went out this afternoon and blew another primer on my third shot.

At this point I'm going with @Castle Rock and saying this brass is really soft... as in it was probably over annealed.

So... I'm canning the idea of using this brass for reloading. Anybody have recommendations for decent .243 win brass that doesn't require my first born and left nut to purchase?