19 April 2003, 08:09
50MercRem Etronx excessive free bore
After breaking in my Rem Etronx, 220 Swift I took some fired case measurements in preparation for reloading. Found that with my Stoney point
gauge and a Sierra 50 gr. HPBT bullet that the free bore (bullet jump) in my brand new Etronx is in excess of 0.178". I am unable to reach the lands with enough case neck left to barely support the bullet let alone with the minimum of one bullet diameter I usually like to see! Called Remington and they told me that they intentionally built in excessive Free Bore to PREVENT users from loading into or touching the lands. Has anyone else heard this
from Remington? Are they doing this to all their rifles? How about Ruger, Marlin, Winchester, etc.. I am considering returning this rifle to Rem for selling it under false pretenses.
19 April 2003, 08:37
Hired GunTake a neck sized case and just barely seat a bullet. Then close it in the rifle. How much is in the case? On my Ruger 22-250 I use 50 grain SPSX's and they are only in the case about .100 when closed in the gun then I seat them about .005 deeper to get them off the rifling. This setup shoots fat .2's for the last 15 years. As long as they don't fall out of the case it makes very little difference for me.
On my 25-06 my 75 grain bullets jump .110 to get to the rifling and that is with only .050 in the neck. It shoot these .4
My 300 Weatherby jumps over 1/2 inch and it shoots .7 or so.
I say load it up and try it. I bet you will be surprised.
19 April 2003, 08:47
Rifleman 7Welcome the Free Bore World of Remingtion. About anything they put now days has too much free bore. Oh well. Good luck on getting your $$$ back. Big Green has some quality issues, in my opinion, that are long over due to be fixed. Perhaps companies such as Savage have recognized these issues and capitalized on them. A bunch of people are now saying that Savage is the best value/most accurate factory rifle out-of-the-box in its price range. I will not disagree.