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243ai
- Thread starter big ted
- Start date
S
sundance
Guest
One thing to consider
Big Ted,
Convention and bushing type dies are readily available from Redding, Lyman and maybe others. They are generally considered “simi custom” and cost a little more that standard dies. I personally prefer the Redding’s.
One thing to consider, and this is my current dilemma, the standard .243 Winchester brass will “shrink” about .030” when fire formed. In my chamber, this leaves about .040” gap between the end of the neck and the end of the throat. I don’t know how much, if any, this much gap effects accuracy but it seems excessive to me. Not to mention the loss of bullet seating depth especially in lighter (short) boat tail style bullets. Maybe someone else can chime in here with more insight/experience on this condition and the merits of hand forming brass from a longer “parent” case to eliminate the gap?
Big Ted,
Convention and bushing type dies are readily available from Redding, Lyman and maybe others. They are generally considered “simi custom” and cost a little more that standard dies. I personally prefer the Redding’s.
One thing to consider, and this is my current dilemma, the standard .243 Winchester brass will “shrink” about .030” when fire formed. In my chamber, this leaves about .040” gap between the end of the neck and the end of the throat. I don’t know how much, if any, this much gap effects accuracy but it seems excessive to me. Not to mention the loss of bullet seating depth especially in lighter (short) boat tail style bullets. Maybe someone else can chime in here with more insight/experience on this condition and the merits of hand forming brass from a longer “parent” case to eliminate the gap?
Boyd Allen
Active member
A while back, I helped a friend with a .243 AI project. We ordered a reamer for a tight neck chamber after sizing fired brass, from the same caliber (another friend), and measuring it. To address the shortening of cases from fire forming, we shortened the neck of the chamber so that there was just a little clearance, before fire forming, from the actual length of Lapua .243 brass. We measured quite a few cases, and used the longest plus .005. We ended up with the desired neck tension (one piece die.), and minimal body sizing. The sized brass is very straight, and it shoots really well.