ELEY TENEX ISSUE

[dc.fireman]

Gents, I have a custom built .22 benchrest rifle with a Shilen ratchet barrel (I don't know what the chamber was cut with). The rifle shoots very well with Lapua Midas Plus. I have tried Eley Match Black Box but was not seeing the same accuracy as the Lapua. A while back, I ordered a brick of Eley Tenex to test in the rifle. Upon firing a box of the ammo, I was having issues with about every third fired round not extracting from the chamber, requiring the point of my pocket knife to remove the fired cases. I have not had this issue with any other ammo other than the Tenex. I don't know if its a different case head shape that's causing the extractor to slip or if the cases are expanding in the chamber to the point they're sticking. Just wondering if anyone else has had this issue. I was going to take the rifle to the Eley Test center in June for ammo testing but I'm now thinking that would be a waste of my time. Let me know what you think.

I shoot a ton of rimfire prone, in year round practice, and competition. One of my friendly rivals at our local Labor Day match experienced a significant issue last year, with a new batch of Tenex (2021 production date). He shoots an older Anschutz '54 18 series free rifle. During the 320 shot match, he had more than 10 rounds that wouldn't go 'bang'.

It was frustrating enough for him, that it broke his concentration, and I was finally able to beat him after 12 years. To top it off, he's Russian, and I knew something was going on by the exquisite cursing under his breath (we are always squadded next to each other).

His normal ammunition for matches is Tenex, lot tested. Due to the recent shortage, he bought the first case of Tenex he could find. Our local Eley rep had him send it back to her, after hearing of the problem.

There are some issues showing up with newer production Eley Tenex (Red). I had not heard of it happening with Match (Black). His older 18 series Free Rifle uses a double extractor, no coned breech.

 

[VLNBYR]

Gents, I have a custom built .22 benchrest rifle with a Shilen ratchet barrel (I don't know what the chamber was cut with). The rifle shoots very well with Lapua Midas Plus. I have tried Eley Match Black Box but was not seeing the same accuracy as the Lapua. A while back, I ordered a brick of Eley Tenex to test in the rifle. Upon firing a box of the ammo, I was having issues with about every third fired round not extracting from the chamber, requiring the point of my pocket knife to remove the fired cases. I have not had this issue with any other ammo other than the Tenex. I don't know if its a different case head shape that's causing the extractor to slip or if the cases are expanding in the chamber to the point they're sticking. Just wondering if anyone else has had this issue. I was going to take the rifle to the Eley Test center in June for ammo testing but I'm now thinking that would be a waste of my time. Let me know what you think.

Looks like you were the one who was thinking it would be a waste of time going to the test center I'm fine with you changing your mind.

 

[Cbashooter]

Do you have a stiller 2500 with a cone barrel ?

I shoot a ton of rimfire prone, in year round practice, and competition. One of my friendly rivals at our local Labor Day match experienced a significant issue last year, with a new batch of Tenex (2021 production date). He shoots an older Anschutz '54 18 series free rifle. During the 320 shot match, he had more than 10 rounds that wouldn't go 'bang'.

It was frustrating enough for him, that it broke his concentration, and I was finally able to beat him after 12 years. To top it off, he's Russian, and I knew something was going on by the exquisite cursing under his breath (we are always squadded next to each other).

His normal ammunition for matches is Tenex, lot tested. Due to the recent shortage, he bought the first case of Tenex he could find. Our local Eley rep had him send it back to her, after hearing of the problem.

There are some issues showing up with newer production Eley Tenex (Red). I had not heard of it happening with Match (Black). His older 18 series Free Rifle uses a double extractor, no coned breech.

Sounds like a legitimate problem . Was the ammunition tried in another rifle to see if it was ammunition related? I had a similar problem 20 years ago with SK turned out and I wasn't the best at cleaning my match rifle and I had some crud causing a bit of bolt flex or something?
Any way I found a piece of crud by the locking lug(or extractor slot i don't remember), i cleaned it out and no more miss fires.

I know what your buddy was going through with lack of concentration. one of my schuetzen rifles was giving me light firing pin strikes and it would just syke me out not knowing if the gun was gonna go off or not. I definitely thought I was following through the same every time.... but by my scores I wasn't.

 

[MrG52D]

maybe the OP has already done this, but I would give the leade a good brushing to remove the carbon ring, which left unattended, will grow enough to cause hard extractions.

 

[Cbashooter]

maybe the OP has already done this, but I would give the leade a good brushing to remove the carbon ring, which left unattended, will grow enough to cause hard extractions.

My buddy made me a brass scraper years ago to do that. I wish I still had it.