Thread: 243w 1-10 twist

Just wondering what bullet waight guys are useing in 1:10 twist 243
Just picked up a brno 601 a rifle I have wanted to play with for a while and a caliber I have briefly owned before but have no experience with out of the second hand rack at the local
Planing on using it as a basic no Frills rifle with a basic soft or hollow point projectiles like sgk?s
Got given a bunch of once fired hornady brass from a mate
And I’ll probably get a real basic set of dies
And just make up a basic sammi spec load and go shoot it

What bullets do you suggest trying

i had good success with the berger 87gr vld hunting. the Sierra gameking 85gr hpbt or the hornady 87gr have good reputations
these 3 have been shot from my Dads Sav 99 lever. mid 1960's model so probably 10" twist.
the speer 75gr hollow point makes red mist out of small pests from my bolt action 243w
Z

There is a heap of good bullets, some premium, some cup and core between 80 and 90 grain that will work, think pro hunter, game king, hot core, interloc etc.

My winchester Mod 70 1-10 puts 105 gr Hornadys through the 100 yard target sideways and has a spread rather than a group.

It loves 85 gr GameKings great wee bullets.

My 601 likes the eld-x 90, gameking 85, prohunter 100 and shoots some ridiculous groups Hornady 87 varmint sp (6mm at 100m last weekend).
It hated the 103gr eld-x.

The view seems to be that a 1/10 twist will shoot any traditional soft point flat base up to about 100gr. Higher BC pills of about 95gr (SST, BT etc) are generally ok as well, but that’s about the limit. Mine likes the 95gr fusion, haven’t tried anything else

I had a ZKK601 for years. Still in the family.

It shot 105gr Speer Round Nose. Then, Sierra ProHunter 100gr. The ProHunter is 1.041" long - remember that number.

Where the 1:10" .243 runs into problems is with long for calibre, boat tailed bullets with less bearing surface and longer than ~1.060". For example, the 100gr GameKing (1.078") tends not to shoot well. The frustrating thing is, a few 1:10" twist rifles will shoot them, and this gets amplified on forums and guys end up wasting their time trying to shoot a sexier bullet.

The .243 Win was introduced in 1955 with two bullets, the Western Super X 100gr for deer, and 80gr for varmints. The 100gr was almost identical in dimensions to the Sierra ProHunter.

In terms of cost - recognising how much Sierra has gone up in recent months - a good option to consider is the Speer BTSP 100gr. This is an anomaly as it is a boat tail but only 1.050" long and it stabilised perfectly in my 1:10" twist Tikka at 3000fps, and was deadly accurate. I haven't tried it in the current Howa. I've recently been buying Speer in bulk through Amanda at Gunworks at half the price of Sierra, I'd defo put the Speer on the list. Killer medium deer bullet.

Basically any of the traditional soft or hollow point game bullets in the 85-100gr range, shorter than ~1.060", that have been around for years, they'll work.

@TARGEX makes a very good 105gr RBT hollow point for the 1=10 twist. His 95gr also very good.

As someone said earlier 85 sierra HPBT. Back a few years when we were culling then meat hunting we would boast if we could see it we would kill it. Not entirely true but you can see what confidence we had in our reloads. We used Norma 205 powder but I cant remember what amount. You would have to use the N205 equivalent I suppose

Rambo, I can drop off some of the 85gn Sierra to try if you want , I have a big stash of them for the 6xc.

Nice to see you back Scribe.

That would be brilliant @Barefoot be a handy load for goats and fallow

Originally Posted by sneeze

@TARGEX makes a very good 105gr RBT hollow point for the 1=10 twist. His 95gr also very good.

Yea a asked @TARGEX a few questions on trademe last night
Will probably trial a few reasonable price too

Thanks for the comments and suggestions everyone
Keep em coming

85gr gk works for me

Originally Posted by Graeme Sturgeon

As someone said earlier 85 sierra HPBT. Back a few years when we were culling then meat hunting we would boast if we could see it we would kill it. Not entirely true but you can see what confidence we had in our reloads. We used Norma 205 powder but I cant remember what amount. You would have to use the N205 equivalent I suppose

I have shot wallabies up to 630 yards on a number of occasions when conditions allowed with the 85 gr GameKings.

I have used these for more years than I care to remember.

In my opinion the best bargain to come out the end of a 1 - 10 twist .243 barrel.