Thread: Reloading .243, tricks, tips and advice

Originally Posted by Pommy

The Hodgdon data is for a Barnes TSX. That is a copper monolithic bullet which is longer and tougher than your average jacketed lead bullet of the same weight. This means it takes up more space inside the case and is harder to drive down the barrel, meaning more pressure.

That's why the Hodgdon data is significantly lower - the two bullets are not comparable. Use the Speer data.

Ahhh, that makes sense. Good spotting, I didn't see that

Teh answer to any question about the .243 is 95 grain ballsitic tip and 42 grains of AR2209
(Or a Sierra 85g BT)

Which i snot very helpful because I just saw you bought some 2208. (I have been looking for some for ages. where did you get it?)

@JohnQT

Out of interest, do you already have a .223 Remington? If yes, what is the twist rate of the barrel?

Disregard the following if you aren’t gonna shoot a .223, but worth bearing in mind.

I use both .223 and .243 and shoot a lot of goats, several hundred a year.

I almost exclusively use the .223 Rem for the reasons above - when culling you need to get as many as you can in one fast-fire session, so as to not make them gun shy. And that kind of shooting kills a .243 barrel in no time at all. As in you will destroy your Superlite barrel in a few hundred shots if you regularly shoot multiple shot strings.

For me, an 8” twist .223, 10 shot mag and a frangible 70gr pill anywhere in the boiler room and it is instant death. Learn your windage, anything within 400m has a one-way ticket to becoming pig food.

Originally Posted by JohnQT

Absolutely. The problem is where I do a lot of the culling, the goats can quite often be out past 200m. In my experience there, the .223 has been absolutely fine in the past for everything up to 200. Between 2-300, it’s marginally ok for nannies and kids, but not ideal on the Billy’s. I like to know that when I need to take an animal, goat or fellow deer at 300m or more, I can dispatch it quickly.
As you say, the .223 is the ideal, but I just need something with a bit longer legs now (the goats are way faster at climbing hills than I will ever be haha).
Cheers,

Those who havent shot a lot of goats, can easily underestimate just how 'hard' billys are to put-down, you are on the right-track with .243 for those longer shots. They will only get longer too, once mobs get a bit gun-shy

Originally Posted by Pommy

No. I would not make that assumption.

Gonna disagree with Micky on this one. "set up your die off of one type of ammo to try and get the same jump with another" lark[/I].

go back and actually READ what I posted...similar is used for good reason.....any twit will realise a round nose will be completely different to a spitzer....and a 130grn is going to be different to a 170 or 110 grn.......SIMILAR and GOOD STARTING POINT that will either work or wont are relevant bits......
if projectile has a cannalure you can just seat to that depth too.....manuals will tell you that...seating it to SIMILAR depth to a load that shoots well isnt hard to do...
so the OP doesnt need to start from scratch as he isnt at start point,he has already found a load that has merit..there is something about that load his rifle likes...it would be silly to discount it completely in these times of component shortage and stupidly high prices..... thats like not bothering to bore sight before using a target..cause you going to have to fine tune zero anyway........
hells bells I arent a huge EBRG fan but vividly recall shooting goats at 300 yards with one 35 years ago after making ammunition for it using a lee loader and claw hammer....powder was measured with a spoon provided with kit..... sometimes folks over think things and make it more complicated than needed.
we used factory ammunition ,whatever was in shop...and fired 3 rounds to check zero then went hunting....
hopefully next time we bought some more it was same brand......