Thread: .243 uses

Do any of you guys use 55 grain ballistic tips for long range gongs?

Originally Posted by Mooseman

How did the 243 go at Te Puke, now mine is shooting better I might give it a go up there as well, did it handle the wind Ok?

It went well, which seemed to surprise the member doing our scoring and coaching. He kept commenting that the wind would push the 6mm around a lot, but several times I had to reduce the windage from what he called.
I scored 18/25 at 300yd, shooting over a daypack.
Then I changed to the bipod and scored 24/25 at 500yd, then 20.2 and 23 at 600yd. I came fourth in the hunter class, but only a couple of points behind second.

That was an excellent result, you would have to be happy with that.

Used bulk 100grn remington corelokts for years over 2209 worked really well. tried some 100grn nosler partitions worked as expected but $$$!

Have shot the .243 Win for almost 40 yrs.

What I found time and time again is that after dicking around experimenting, I always come back to a flat base 100gr softpoint. Sierra ProHunter these days. At 2850-3000fps, it’s a very effective bullet on medium game. Just make sure you put it into the front half of the chest cavity.

The other candidate is the 85gr Sierra HPBT GameKing. I’ve had that really flying at above book max loads and come to seriously respect how it flattens smaller deer.

I decided recently that my ongoing 6mm fascination needed a different twist, so now I’ve got a 6mm Creedmoor. Amazing what a 7.5” of twist can do for a calibre...

Originally Posted by Flyblown

Have shot the .243 Win for almost 40 yrs.

What I found time and time again is that after dicking around experimenting, I always come back to a flat base 100gr softpoint. Sierra ProHunter these days. At 2850-3000fps, it’s a very effective bullet on medium game. Just make sure you put it into the front half of the chest cavity.

The other candidate is the 85gr Sierra HPBT GameKing. I’ve had that really flying at above book max loads and come to seriously respect how it flattens smaller deer.

I decided recently that my ongoing 6mm fascination needed a different twist, so now I’ve got a 6mm Creedmoor. Amazing what a 7.5” of twist can do for a calibre...

Do you find that a lung shot or liver is not a quick kill?

My 100 grain Winchester ammo punched through the front shoulder of a fallow esisly enough.

My go to .243 bullet in my Tikka is the 80gr Barnes TTSX loaded miles off the lands, (if you load for a Tikka don't waste your time chasing the lands) with over max load of 2206H this shoots under 0.5" groups all day, have never lost an animal.

Some photos from tests etc is the Hornady 87 gr SP (Spire point) and the 87gr HPBT both bullets shot from 100 yrds into (wet phone books), both held together but the SP weighed more.

Next is a Nosler 95gr BT from 100 yrds (wet phone books)

Barnes 85gr TSX recovered from a Red deer, this was my main bullet before I changed to the 80gr TTSX

Last photo was a Targex 70gr (wet ph books) and last (because it's a good example) 7mm 139gr SST Hornady recoverd from an animal at 325yrds, have used these for years never had a problem even at close range, very accurate in all of my rifles.