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“BTW, on my original post, it was the brass that was causing the sticking or my sizer.”

Good post!

That maybe a lot of the problems people are having with their NEF‘s.

A little history:
Most single shot rifles/shotguns do not have strong ejectors that pull spent cases out of the chamber like a bolt action, they rely on extractors and heavy springs instead. Years ago this is the reason the old H&R (pre NEF/Marlin) company stopped chambering their single shot rifles in 22-250, poor extraction in their rifles due to variation of early brass. The Harrison and Richardson (original H&R Co.) recognized the problem, stood behind their product warranty by buying back their 22-250 rifles, later going bankrupt to be bought in part by New England Arms (NEF), today Marlin Firearms owns H&R/NEF .

My thoughts:
Sometimes virgin brass just don’t form well during the initial case forming process, some get discarded... others pass inspection. Even with today’s high standards not all virgin cases come true, I have gotten bad brass from top manufactures. Semi-auto and fully auto rifles, even with stronger ejector systems can encounter the same problem as single shots. One example, the military issue M-16 rifle (5.56mm aka .223) although similar to commercial .223 factory ammo it is not the same. To ensure a more positive ejection, military fodder is loaded to produce higher chamber pressures for the M-16. Like mentioned other factors can also cause problems like fowled chambers/extractors. Firearm manufacturing errors are encountered, poor quality control, soft spots in barrel metal, chamber reamer wear and/or reamer wobble are a few. Brass cartridge cases are designed to expand and contract, that's the way they work to seal hot gasses in the chamber during firing. If a case is not true they could cause extraction problems for the single shot type rifles. When I read your post it occurred to me I’ve never shot factory loads in any of my NEF’s, I feel this is one reason I’ve never encountered stuck brass. I hand load, when sizing brass before reloading I full length size, rotating the cases several times. Neck turning brass also helps true up case necks.

Food for thought?

C<

Coyotehunter- by full sizing the cases several times , don't you shorten the life of the brass??

kbis
thanks for the tip on polishing the chamber,we havent tried that. I think he still has the rifle,I'll have to give it a try.

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Coyotehunter- by full sizing the cases several times, don't you shorten the life of the brass??

I have not experienced a notable difference in case life.

This is something I have always done… Once the spent case is fully resized, I leave the case in the shell holder, rotate it and run it back through the sizing die a couple of times (in different positions). The brass is already lubed and full sized, this effort may be a waste of time with trued cases but it helps on the ones that are not. We all know cartridge cases and reloading dies are not 100% perfect.

I believe you will find neck sizing only does not work well (extraction) in certain types of rifles, the NEF being one of them, cases need to be resized full length and as true as possible.

C<

You may be right about the stuck case thing with the Handi's and the sizing of cases. When I reload for my 243 I always nect size (I have been told that is the way to go for accurate reloads, I am not sure I am convinced that it is better than full lenght sizing). After I neck size, I try every round in the gun, if I get more than 5 stuck cases, I full lenght size all of them (20), if less than 5, I neck size them until they work. If I can't get them to work I will full size all of them.
What is odd is that I don't seem to have this problem with my 308 barrel (a 243 is just a necked down 308). I have not shot my 308 that much ( I am still woorking up a load) but it should have showed up by now.