Thread: 243: 85gr Interbond v 90gr ELD-X v 90gr TGK

Thinking of rolling up a new brew for the next few months. Anyone have any preference on these for stags? Currently using 85gr HPBT. Last animal on Sunday night @ 283m. 1 shot. Not complaining but appreciate any views.

I was very impressed by the 85 Interbond and rate it as the best projectile I used out of my 20" barrel. Knocked over some big deer with them and can post pics if you want. I got them going pretty fast with Hybrid 100v. Some people find them difficult to get to shoot but I just loaded them touching the lands and I was away.

They do though leave a lot of blood shot.

Anyone tried the 95gr SST? I have recently got a 243 and was looking at the SST for deer.

The SST is a common bullet for the .243. My experience of it on probably a dozen or more reds is that it’s one of the messier bullets I’ve tried, especially when shot broadside through the shoulder. Like @Tahr’s comments about bloodshot, the SST can certainly spoil the front end of a deer.

@TeRei, the Wife and I used the 90gr ELD-X quite recently, but on goats only, although there were some very heavy billies shot. High shoulder shots delivered truly impressive DRTs, I don’t think we had a single animals even bleat or take a step. But I didn’t recover any for meat, so can’t comment on the damage.

The 90gr Tipped GameKing has a very mixed reputation from around the world, some can get it to shoot in the .243, but quite a lot can’t it seems. Some googling will give you a sense of the mixed bag of reviews. My cuz couldn’t get it to work in his 10 twist .243. I’m not going to bother trying it in the .243, instead I’ll try the 100gr TGK in the 6mm Creedmoor.

Gut feel is that the bloodshot problem is more to do with terminal velocity then purely the bullet construction. As a young fella it was hammered into me not to push the .243 too fast when shooting animals you want to eat, which kind of negated the whole point of the cartridge I suppose, not that the local fallow and roe deer ever got to complain as they were dead. But I’ve kinda stuck to the philosophy and don’t push my 100gr bullets (ProHunter) particularly fast, 2,800fps does the job. Ideally the animal is quartering away slightly, so the bullet enters through the rear ribs and runs across the vitals to the first or second rib on the other side. This results in a lot more recoverable forequarter meat, most of the time.

Its all good with these discussions with what you should use but i say this being a 243 user in the bush. The 243 is a awesome bush cal. Its great.
Good factory straight soft points work as good as anything. Ive shot heasps of deer, incluing big stags with a factory 100gr softpoint. The fed powershoks work as good as anything you reload out to 300 m as lost not one animal with them and im just shooting engine room etc..
People get carried away withj the projectiles , all good if you shooting longe rande, and yes, maybe a re tink is on the cards.
But if you bush hunting or shooting out to 250m genrally a gfood straight soft point will work as good as anything. Thje 100 gr fed powershoks are totally awesome and cant be beat my anything as dead is dead and you can have lots of room for erroor as they all drop hit in wide margin, trust me, i know, so unless you ling range you dont need fancy projections that cost heaps etc