.243 and Remington Express 80 Grn ammunition

[Brithunter]

Hi All,

    A while back I acquired a box of this Remington factory ammo and tried in in my BSA .243 with rather diaaapointing results. It was a bad match so after firing 8 rounds I gave it up as a bad job and put the remaining 12 rounds in the cabinet. On Thursday evening I picked up a second .243 chambered rifle this time a Parker-Hale model 1000 and spent the evening giving it a thorough going over and cleaning and boy did it need it  I won't go into all the "problems" suffice to say it took over 4 hours to clean it to the point where I felt a test firing to check for possible accuracy issues was the next thing to do.

     So on the Firiday looking in the cabinet and finding that the only factory ammo I had left in .243 was the Remington so that had to be it. I put my target out at 50 yards and fitted my bi-pod to the rifle for this test. My original plan was fire 5 shots see how they grouped then clean the barrel while it was still warm as I have found that this helps remove severe fouling build ups. We know that the rifle was zeroed for Hornady 58 Grn V-Max Moly coated ammunition so I did not expect it to be on for this Remington amunition plus I had removed the scope and even the mounting blocks in the cleaning and replaced a stripped front block screw in the process.

   The 1st shot was about 5" high and 2 1/4" left but on the target paper from a clean(ish) cold barrel. Shots 2 &3 were 0.97" lower and 0.6" to the right with 0.3" between them. So seeing this I adjusted the scope to bring the POI down and to the right. Didn't get it right but put the next two shots touching 1 1/2" lower and 0.6" right of shots 2 & 3    it was looking promising. Using shots 6 & 7 I walked it onto the black spot aiming mark and fired the remaining 5 rounds into a group. The final 6 shots make up a group of 0.65" wide by 0.5" high.

   So in this rifle at least the Remington ammunition show promise, a testing at longer range would be required to confirm it and that will depend on the price I can get some more at bu I am not paying the £95 ( $148 US) per hundred I was quoted in the gunshop  .

[Graybeard]

Never assume ammo is defective just cuz it doesn't shoot well in one specific firearm. It might merely mean that barrel doesn't like it.

Long ago I brought two Savage rifles home to see if I wanted either or both. One was I think a 340 and I believe either .222 or .223 can't recall which. The other was their standard fair in .22-250. Neither shot for crap. I kept what I didn't shoot of that box of .22-250 ammo for many years as I never picked up a rifle chambered for it until a couple years or so back.

I used that ammo to sight in my then new M700 SPS Varmint in .22-250 and to this day nothing has shot better in that rifle than what was left of that old box of Remington ammo. This is a super accurate rifle turning in half inch and less groups with many different loads both factory and hand loads but that old box of Remington ammo shot in the .2s and under in it. I wish I'd bought all the store had back then but had only one partial box of it.

[Brithunter]

Ahhh GB I didn't say it was defective:-

It was a bad match so after firing 8 rounds I gave it up as a bad job and put the remaining 12 rounds in the cabinet.

It just didn't suit this rifle hence the bad match.

However I am now in a quandry about this particular P-H rifle  as it has several issues which need addressing all caused by the previous owner(s) and I am wondering if I should return it and look for something better. Scanning through out Guntrader website I have found a nice looking P-H 1200 Super Clip in 25-06 that is also screw cut for a moderator. Well the photos look good I am wondering about phonign them on Monday and then perhaps driving up to view it but it's about a 3 hour drive so i will sleep on it and give it all some serious thought. I am not set upon a calibre and chambering except it should not really be another .270 as I already have 4 of those  and 7mm or .280 is the largest I really want to go so .243, 6mm, 25-06, .257, and 7mm/.280 is what I am lookign for in a P-H rifle and I don't have a Super Clip as yet  . It means returnign the rifle then gettign it removed off my licence and the licence altered to allow the purchase of the 25-06 and of course .25-06 ammo added so it's not quite straight forward.