Thread: Sauer 100 throat length - short?

Wonder if anyone has struck this.

I have a Sauer 100 in 243. Shoots pretty darn well.

I've started reloading for it. What I [think I] have discovered is this rifle has a pretty short throat length. Meaning the COAL is shorted than suspected. I'm using a Hornady Lock n load OAL gauge and with various pills from 75gn up I cant find one that will seat over 2.6" (most around around 2.580")

For example Ive been using Federal factory ammo in the 95gn weight. I extracted the pill from this factory load an using the COAL gauge measured it at 2.586" when it touched the lands. The factory loaded cartridge is significantly longer however which means this round has been engaging with the lands (considerably) for the 40 or so rounds I've fired with it.

Is this normal? Or maybe just a Sauer thing? I've heard of a Tikka T3 in 243 that had a short throat issue? Is it an issue even.

The factory round is the lower one in the pic below. The extracted and COAL measured is the one sitting in the calipers

mate had a mauser in .270win YEARS ago and could literally only use Norma factory loads ,nothing else would fit without jamming into rifling... Norma projectiles seem much smaller than others,they must be denser I believe....
unusual to strike it these days but now your aware of it..not a huge deal,you wont be stoking loads along with case jam packed full of fairy dust so case capacity wont be huge deal,you wont need to seat out long either.
just work around what you have and enjoy it...its an EBRG and they just shoot. go shoot something tasty with it and be happy.

also..take a factory round...get your trusty vivid felt pen and black the projectile,then chamber it and move bolt through cambering bit 3-4-5 times and extract..you will soon see if it has indeed been jamming.

Make sure throat is clean also I got a false feel for the lands on a rifle I use to have and I was going around in circles good scrub revealed i had it wrong all along by about 130thou tikkas are generally quite long throated but everything should be the minimum saami spec to allow safe operation with and factory ammo someone might pick up

SAAMI puts the minimum COL at 2.540" and the maximum at 2.710" for standard shape bullets. So I'm within those even thou at closer to the min end.

Thanks for the replies. Guess I'll have some room when I wear the throat out a bit and get it reemed.