.243 Fired Through a .270 Bolt Gun

[skerzz]

Went to the range with a buddy last week. We was shooting his new Ruger bolt action rifle chambered in .270 and I had been shooting my .243 bolt gun. Long story short, he ended up firing a round chambered in .243 through his .270. The round missed the 100 yard target and the casing expanded and was "stuck" in the chamber when trying to eject it. We removed the spent .243 casing with a cleaning rod and did not see any noticeable damage to the barrel, chamber, or bolt. We inspected the .243 casing and it had small splits at what used to be the "neck" (which is no longer a neck given the case tried to expand and fill the .270 cambering. I recommended not shooting it until we researched further. Other than making a complete "noob' mistake and suffering damage to the shooters ego, is it likely that firing the 243 in a 270 chamber did any real damage to the gun or its accuracy? I'm thinking it might be OK given the .243 is a smaller round and loaded to lower pressures than a .270. This is a new rifle and I've read newer rifles are more "durable" to these types of errors. Is the gun/accuracy going to be trashed or did he learn a valuable lesson without, luckily, facing consequences of a broken rifle or injury. Thoughts?

[Air]

It's likely fine. I would feed some dummy rounds through it to make sure it extracts okay, but I wouldn't worry too much.

I could be wrong on this though...

Not exactly the same, but my grandfather used to shoot .380's through a P-38 pistol he swiped off of a German Pilot during the war as Metric ammo wasn't commonly available back in the 50's in Rural South Central Missouri. Of course he didn't load any into the magazine, just fired them single shot, but apparently it didn't hurt the gun. Of course 380/9mm is in the same family, but the case is certainly shorter than the throat of a 9mm barrel. I wasn't there to witness this first hand, just second hand story from my dad...

[MongooseV8]

More than likely the rifle is fine. But you should have the chamber and throat inspected by a competent gun smith.

[edgerly779]

Lets see the pic of the fire formed case.

[toby]

It will be fine. Always one box of ammo on the bench.

[russ69]

Clean the chamber real good and take a look at it. It's doubtful that any damage was done.

[CandG]

It'll be fine. Luckily you didn't do the opposite - accidentally shooting a bullet larger than the bore of the gun. Granted, in most cases that isn't possible, but it could happen. For example, loading a .35 Remington into a 300 Win Mag chamber. Never tried, but I think it would physically fit, and fire, and probably blow up the rifle into tiny pieces.

[hermosabeach]

you should be fine.... lesson learned

[BigBamBoo]

Had a buddy call me a few years ago and wanted me to come check out and shoot his .300wm. When I asked why, he said he could not hit the target at 50 yards.

My first thought while driving was that the scope was bad or got knocked out of alinement.

Got to the range and look the rifle over. Nothing obvious that I could see would cause the problem. Pulled the bolt and "bore sighted" the target and then looked through the scope. Looked fine and was on target.

I then picked up a few rounds to load up and shoot and thought wait...those bullets look small?!?! Sure enough....he had grabbed a couple of boxes of 7mm magnum and not .300wm!

He had it bore scoped and was told everything looked good. He is still using the rifle.

Point is you should be fine.

[LynnJr]

My father shot a 243 through his 30-06 and the bullet whirred as it tumbled on its way downrange.
It hit the dirt at about 50 yards.
He had both boxes of ammo on the bench at the same time.
Clean it and shoot it as it was a very low pressure round.
Never shoot 308 and 270 with both boxes on the bench. Despite what you will read here a 308 will chamber in a 270 and when fired will cause damage.

[Fjold]

The 243 isn't loaded any hotter than the 270, the case deformation reduced the felt pressure in the chamber and the bullet didn't engrave going down the bore so it should be fine.

[SMarquez]

Yeah the bullet kinda did the hot dog down a hallway thing.

[TruEdge]

Had a buddy do the same but with his pistol. Shot a .40 out of his brand new .45 and it was the first shot he had fired out of it Buldged the casing and split it but he still hit the target right in the middle

[CaliDoc]

As everyone has said, one type of ammo at a time. Whenever my friends and I have gotten together to shoot multiple caliber, we keep it to one at a time to avoid any catastrophic incidents.

[skerzz]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I was thinking the "hot dog in the hallway" scenario might damage the barrel rifling as the bullet slams back and forth on its way out. Sounds like that's probably not the case, and even if it was, luckily it was not an expensive "precision" rifle

Edgerly776 - not sure if my buddy still has the split casing. I'll have him snap a pic and post it if he still does.