Hornady Superformance .243 problems in chambering

[Jelen]

My friend picked up his brand new Tikka Super Varmint in .243, scope, rings and a selection of ammo today.
I helped him fit it all together. Cleaned the barrel, chamber and lug area. Checked all the screws and torque.
All sorted we headed to the range. He'd sensibly bought 3 brands of factory ammo and was excited about the Hornady Superformance having read great reviews.
Norma was so-so barely scraping into 1 MoA. Federal gave two groups of 3 shots into 1 ragged hole and another 1/4" group. But sadly the Hornady fell at the first fence.
The first round wouldn't chamber to the extent that the bolt wouldn't close. The next 5 we tried all chambered differently with varying bolt closure resistance. If they were reloads I would straight away have said differing head space or differing COAL. We didn't fire them as I told him to take them back to the RFD and swap them for the Federals.
I find it shocking that in this day and age the quality control is so awful. Has anyone else experienced these issues?

 

[The Grouse]

I use Hornady in my 22-250 and can't say I've had any issues out of the countless boxes that I've put through it, they been faultless and extremely effective. Hornady Outfitter CX in .308 however left me less than impressed, pressure signs on almost every fired casing, rubbish groups, hard to open bolt.

Maybe a duff box, won't be buying more to find out.

 

[buckfever]

Had problems with the super performance in .223. Cases jammed in after firing. Never tried them since

 

[kenbro]

The Superformance might well meet the ammo specifications but that doesn’t mean it will fit all chambers.
KB.

 

[farrieral]

Bad batch maybe?

Shot 100s of the 75 grain Vmax Superformance in the .243 all gone bang thus far!

 

[homer]

Bad batch maybe?

Shot 100s of the 75 grain Vmax Superformance in the .243 all gone bang thus far!

Same here, and also the 58gr

 

[NP435]

My friend picked up his brand new Tikka Super Varmint in .243, scope, rings and a selection of ammo today.
I helped him fit it all together. Cleaned the barrel, chamber and lug area. Checked all the screws and torque.
All sorted we headed to the range. He'd sensibly bought 3 brands of factory ammo and was excited about the Hornady Superformance having read great reviews.
Norma was so-so barely scraping into 1 MoA. Federal gave two groups of 3 shots into 1 ragged hole and another 1/4" group. But sadly the Hornady fell at the first fence.
The first round wouldn't chamber to the extent that the bolt wouldn't close. The next 5 we tried all chambered differently with varying bolt closure resistance. If they were reloads I would straight away have said differing head space or differing COAL. We didn't fire them as I told him to take them back to the RFD and swap them for the Federals.
I find it shocking that in this day and age the quality control is so awful. Has anyone else experienced these issues?

My thought is it's possible the projectile contacted the lead of rifling hence a tight closure. Seen this a few times in several differing manufacturers. A sleeker projectile may be the cure or if you can seat the projectile slightly deeper. My educated guess is the Tika is slightly short throated.

 

[MTheaded but happy]

Hornady's poor quality control was the trigger for me to take up reloading .
I had Superformance lock up my bolt and accuracy issues from one batch to the next . A couple of years ago , there was a batch of 223 ammo with excessive headspace which was resulting in light primer strikes .
Some people never encounter an issue , much in the same way I never found a 17HMR case with a split neck . Luck of the draw .
It would be interesting to pop some of the offending ammo in a headspace gauge . If they're out of spec, you'd be doing others a favour posting the batch number on here .