Another what load thread 243

[grandpamac]

Greetings @blip,
Good point about a new barrel. Those Mohawks are getting a bit long in the tooth for a barrel burner like the .243. On the powders you first mentioned all should be fine with IMR4064 perhaps the best, you don't need a slow powder with those light pills to get top velocities. If original your barrel should be a 1 in 9 inch twist so should handle the heavy pills as well but not the new super pointy ones. I try to keep the powders I use to a minimum. AR2206H for the .308, .303 and .30-40 including reduced loads. I used to use it in the .223 but am moving to BM8208 that is closer to the now gone AR2206 and fits in the case better. The 6.5 Swede gets AR2209 which will be no surprise to you. The 7mm SAUM uses AR2217 but will probably change to AR2213SC when the current can runs out.
Recently I had to load some 7mm-08 for a rifle lent to me by my son for F Class shooting. I loaded 145 grain Speer projectiles over AR2206H (both what I had). You don't have to find the ideal powder for every cartridge and projectile and for the more standard ones what you have will work just fine.
Regards Grandpamac.

[kiwijames]

87 V-max was a good killer in mine. Used these for goats and other. Will kill a deer easy too.
The 85g Sierra HPBT is a very versatile bullet too. CFE223 Should be a great powder for the 85.

[blip]

Cheers g par mac. So I went out and tried these loads and here's the results shot at 100m off bipod, 5 shot groups except for the cfe which was the first group extra shot for fowler and keep the shot count all the same on the brass. Looks like the barrel might have some life in it yet. first up was the cfe not sure what was going on there shots 1 2 and 5 made the little group. Next was the varget and it looks like what the rifle likes the pulled shot was more than likely me. the 4064 was crap which is surprising as I thought it was the same as varget, difference being the 4064 load was more powder these were all min book loads

[blip]

[blip]

Surprised me this rifle, I bought it in taupo and it had obvioulsy bee a working rifle hadnt been babied thats for sure it was all rusty and had an old tasco 4x40 on it so Id think it was either a cullers rifle or a bush hunter. Ive reblued it and tidied up the stock and tru oiled it

[Micky Duck]

beat me to it GPM... find some shorter/blunter 100 grn..hornady used to make a round nose believe it or not... for bush ranges they would be hard to beat.
MOST of the older writer/hunters ex cullers who swore by the .243 were 100grn fans and shoulder shot if neck wasnt option ... our very own deer.243 shoots more bush deer than most and swears by his EBRG even prefers it to the mighty .308!!!!! (but then again he wont try 180grn winchesters LOL) poke pill in right place and they are a great gun.

[Jaco Goosen]

70 to 87 I used Varget for bullets in this weight class. I found that 2206H and CFE will cause big innitial pressure spikes - 2209 would give enough speed.

Pushed 70gr pills at 3700ps and 87s at 3250fps.

[blip]

I might up the varget and see what happens. It might of been a bit low for this rifle, It was accurate enough but the necks were a little bit sooty

[Oldbloke]

I might up the varget and see what happens. It might of been a bit low for this rifle, It was accurate enough but the necks were a little bit sooty

Yes but you dont mention the load of 2208/varget. Nor the jump to the lands?

[blip]

Yes but you dont mention the load of 2208/varget. Nor the jump to the lands?

its about 2 posts up

[grandpamac]

I might up the varget and see what happens. It might of been a bit low for this rifle, It was accurate enough but the necks were a little bit sooty

Greetings,
From my testing in the .308 the ADI powders, including AR2208 seemed to shoot a bit better than IMR4064 at lower pressure and AR2208 looks the best of the bunch from your results. One thing you could consider though is a better target. These days I mostly use the NZDA 50 and 100 metre targets but you can make up a hollow square target with red tape on paper. I just quarter the inside of the circle or square with the cross hairs and find this more accurate than trying to aim at a fine point.
Regards Grandpamac.

[blip]

I know varget and 2208 are the same is 4064 different?

[grandpamac]

Greetings,
Yes it is. IMR4064 was originally made by Dupont in the US from about the 1920's and was the go to powder for the .270 for a while until IMR4350 came out. AR2208 has been made by Mulwex, now ADI in Australia since the early 1980's. From my testing IMR4064 can be a little faster than AR2208 but is bulkier and not as temperature stable. I used IMR4064 in my .308 from the late 1980's and got good velocity and accuracy at book max loads but it needed to be compressed. I changed to AR2206 and later AR2206H, far better powders for sub max loads.
Regards Grandpamac.

[Jaco Goosen]

What was you load data?

75gr pills?

[blip]

75gr speer and 36gn varget thats a min load on the hodgen site