243 ultra troubles

[Tango4N]

Hi all. First post for me here. Hope I can find some answers and learn a few things about the NEF firearms.

   Bought a NEF 243 Ultra a couple months back. The one with the HBAR. This is the problem I am experiancing and wonder if it is common or not. I had it sighted in shooting dead on at 100 yards. Next trip to the range, it was shooting about 4 inches high. I re-sighted and went on. Today I could not even touch paper. It was shooting about 2 feet high. What gives? Might scope mounts and all seem tight. It is not loose in the mounts. Need yet to check-tighten and see. I will put the blue loc-tight on the screws and try again. Will that solve my problem or not??b Scope is a $300 Leupold Rifleman so the scope should be good, or is that maybe the problem? The rifle rides in a hard, padded case behind the seat in my truck so I don't think that is the issue. Other rifles I have dont seem to mind.

  Any thoughts? It seems like a nice rifle and I like it. But to shoot two feet high next time out??? I am careful with it not to bump it and all that.
 
  thanks.

[Mitch in MI]

Is the scope crawling forward in the mounts when you shoot?
Are you resting the front of the gun in the same place each time you shoot it?

[Mac11700]

Tango4N:

Welcome Aboard

A $300.00 Leupold Rifleman?...Wow that's a-lot...after checking your mounts and base...there's a couple of other things to try and do...before your next range session......

1) rest the gun as close to the hing pin as you can to shoot

2) Pull all the way thru with the trigger after the trigger breaks on each shot

3) take the fore arm off...and put a small o-ring on the barrel stud and put the fore arm back on...and just snug it up firm...not over tight

4)Try a different factory load if shooting factory...if handloading...try a good factory load and see if you still have the same problems...

Good Luck


Mac

[ScatterGunner]

hi tango4n -

nice to meet you.

i have 243 ultra too.

to make my gun shoot good i had to:

1 - clean the gun carefully. use gunscrubber, or equiv, and get all the metal filings and gook out of the receiver and barrel hinge area.

2 - use light bullets, 52 - 75 grain or so, the heavy ones were fliers.

3 - remove the scope mount and clean the barrel and mount. mine had laquer or varnish under it that wasn't a uniform coating, only in some places. this may have caused the scope to move as the coating flaked off.

4 - put a small rubber O-Ring inside the forearm hole and just snug up the barrel screw.

the scope ended up being a moderately priced Simmon Pro-50. i like the scope, i've asked a few times about the simmons here but got no response. (a quiet way of being nice to me )


was there a significant change in temperature between the days you shot ? or different loads maybe ?

sg  

[MSP Ret]

Don't worry about the Simmons scope SC, nobody here was trying to be nice to you ( :-D ). I have a 6.5-20x50 Simmons Whitetail Classic on my .223 HB and it works great!!! I hear the Aetec and Whitetail Expedition models are even better. Great guarantee also....<><.... :grin:

[Fred M]

Tango.
Start from scratch and glue the base and rings to the scope with epoxy.
Some thing seams to be loose. But don't glue in the screws.

If the rifle shoots better when supported in front of the trigger guard.( no way to shoot a gun like that anywhere for any reason) it means three things.

1.The forward weight of the barrel applies about 18 lbs of pressure against the latch via a ratio of 8:1.

2. The latch spring is not strong enough.

3. The latch has not enough bearing in the latch seat.

Hand loads have to have .003" head space and primers seated flush or a tad low. That means primer pockets have to be clean and uniform.

These rifles are called Handi's because they need a handyman  to get them shooting.

Where about are you in Western Canada,  sending a gun back is not an option. But they have a smith in Canada that fixes things on H&R stuff.

I never talked to them but here is the phone#.
Genes gunsmithing at 204-757-4413

[Tango4N]

Thanks guys, I at least have a place to start.

   The temps were quite a bit different from other times. Yesterday it was snowing!!

   I actually got the scope before the gun. On the May long weekend my company had an emergency and several of us worked the long weekend in a city far from home the entire weekend. As a thank-you, in addition to our OT pay, the prez said to "spend $250 at your favorite store and expense it back." So thus I ended up with a hi-end scope. I was going to buy the rifle but thought the better of sending the company a receipt for a rifle!

   when I clean the gun, the rifleing seems still to be rough as pieces of the cloth seem to get stuck inside. I have maybe 50 rounds through it and have been using Winchester 100 grain bullets.

   I was resting the gun at aproximently the same place right behind the forward sling mount.

    thanks for your help guys, I will try a couple things.

[gwhilikerz]

Tango, my 243 does not like 100 gr. bullets of any brand I have tried so far. It simply will not group them well. If I drop down to 80-85 gr. Then it shoots a lot better.
oops! my grandson just read this and reminded me that he uses Remington 100 gr Core-Loct in "his" 243 and they shoot "good" and he has the deer to prove it.

[J-Milner]

I have shot a lot of the various H&R 243 Winchesters and have found them to shoot there best (when shooting factory ammo), shooting Remington 80 gr. Power-Lokt Hollow Point bullets...

I use a wooden forend on all of my H&R's and N.E.F. single shots, instead of the synthetic ones and have found that they will definantly shoot better if you install an aluminum or stainless steel pillar in the forend and have the pillar slip over the barrel lug. Bed the forend full length with the pillar. With the forend set up this way, it makes no diffrence where it rests on the sand bags....

J-

[Tango4N]

I will try the O-ring idea around the pillar. I can pilfer  O-rings from work. I will grap one that didn't fit whereever it was suppose to go.(Anyone have a preferred MS or AN number for the O-ring???  ) At some point I may try the pillar idea.
  Also, since it was snowing out, I did get snow down in the action lock-up area and wonder if the snow then turned in to ice and caused and incomplete lock up of the action. Also, I may have been hurring the shots as well. But to have it shoot consistantly 2 feet high baffles me. Last range trip it was dead on and I could get occasional 1-1.5 inch groups (I need to practice more!!) but it was not wandering and was dead on. Then two weeks later at the next trip it shoots so high.
   I did check-tighen the screws and they are tight. Nothing is moving. Bore sighted it tonight and it is dead on. I will try and run out there sometime this week again and try. I will do the loc-tite thing though as I believe it works and eliminates that issue from the equation.
   I have the laminate stock and fore-end if that mean anything.

[quickdtoo]

The "O"ring size is 9/16"OD x ~3/8-7/16"ID x 3/32" thick. Slip it over the barrel stud to partially float the barrel. Tighten the screw just snug, don't compress the "O"ring.

[thecowboyace]

I have shot a lot of the various H&R 243 Winchesters and have found them to shoot there best (when shooting factory ammo), shooting Remington 80 gr. Power-Lokt Hollow Point bullets...

I use a wooden forend on all of my H&R's and N.E.F. single shots, instead of the synthetic ones and have found that they will definantly shoot better if you install an aluminum or stainless steel pillar in the forend and have the pillar slip over the barrel lug. Bed the forend full length with the pillar. With the forend set up this way, it makes no diffrence where it rests on the sand bags....

J-

What is the "PILLAR" that you are referencing?
Thanks