Bought my first rifle 2 weeks ago. I chose a rifle in my price range and found a 2003 Ultra HB in 243. It looks to be new or very lightly used. I have been glued to this forum ever since and learning about my handi. Thank you for the great info posted here. It is fun to read.
After two weeks waiting for my Nikon scope to show up, I got out today to shoot it for the first time.
The rifle shoots great. No problems with the 10 rounds I shot. I got the scope sighted in on paper at 50 yards. Going to take it to the range to use a bench and get it sighted in for 100 yards later this week.
A couple things stand out and I thought I could get some comments.
1) I called the manufacturer to ask what the twist rate is on my barrel. They pulled 1/9 from their computer and my serial number. However, using measuring techniques from the FAQ, I get 1/10 using a tight patch. Is their computer database wrong or should I retest a few more times to see if I can get 1/9 measurement?
2) I had one new factory round of Winchester Power Point 100g that would not fit into the chamber. The other 10 went in easy and seated flush with the barrel. This one round didn't want to go in the last couple millimeters. I threw it away not wanting to force it in. I was walking the 50 yards after each shot to check where it was hitting so I think the barrel was plenty cool after each shot. OK, so the factory round isn't perfect..but...
3) This is the curious part. So the one live round wouldn't fit into the chamber. I then decided to look into my chamber size a bit more. I was just testing a few of the brass from the 10 rounds I had just shot by reinserting them and ejecting them one by one. Of those 10 brass that had just be shot today, and all ejected just fine from the chamber after shooting them, 2 of them would not fit back into the chamber. They were too big AFTER I just shot them. They grew (stretched from the pressure). I pushed one ill fitting brass all the way in with a bit of light force, not much, just to see if it would seat flush like it did before and try to eject again like it did before. It didn't. It was stuck in there.
I got the brass out easy enough with a cleaning rod but...anyone have this problem before? Maybe my chamber isn't round? Or is this something that comes with using factory rounds?
Should I blame the chamber of my rifle or blame the factory ammo for the poor fit of some of my brass? Will this have a big influence on the rifles accuracy?
Rifle seemed to shoot well at the 50 yards. The final 4 shots were all 'touching' a quarter size area after playing with the scope settings at 50 yards.
Thanks
