Successful hunts with what 243 bullet?

[RUM]

So I decided I would take out my 243 A-Bolt this season for whitetails since it doesn't seem to know the term "hit off the mark"! Over the past year I didn't get to reloading for it so tried numerous factory loads and in the end found the Federal Power Shock 100gn PSP ammunition to group as good, or better than, all the rest at about 3/4" @ 100yds. Great news for me since they are half the price of near everything else!

Took 2 whitetails with these in the past couple weeks and have been happy with the results. First one was a 4x4 at right around the 100yd mark. Shot hit left shoulder and the bullet was under the skin on the opposing side while I was skinning. Not sure what the bullet weight left was, but he never knew what hit him and dropped on the spot, good enough for me. There actually wasn't alot of excessive bruising of the meat either, so that was a plus. Second was a doe at about 120yds, double lung with about loonie size entry and exit hole and she made it about 50yds before expiring.

So one of my winter projects is mixing up a load for this gun. Just wondering what bullets others have used and what their results and opinions were on them. This gun was intended more for my wolf/coyote rig, but have really enjoyed shooting it so it could be one of the go to deer guns aswell! Appreciate any feedback or info.

[munyee4321]

Last year I got a .243 for the same idea.... coyotes and other varmint with a slight hint of using it for a deer. My girlfriend decided she wanted to try hunting and what better gun to get her started on. Well I Reloaded 85grain triple shocks with H4350 ( not sure the amount of powder would have to check my reloading charts) and she downed her first whitetail buck in 07 at320 yards and WOW the damnage the buck went 80 yards, complete through and through i was impressed with the bullet... That is .... untill this year....

I was a huge fan of the winchester Fail Safes and found out that they discontinued them and made modifcations to them and came out with the winchester XP3. Bought a box of factory 95grainers and WOW i mean WOW.......... Check out this thread i started

http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showthread.php?t=22695

Can't seem to get reloading bullets of the XP3 bought them factory they are pricey but well worth it in my opinion.


For coyotes i loaded up 58 grain v-maxs with h380 i believe, pushes them out at about 3750-3800fps, and usually no exit salvaging the pelt. Shot yotes from 15 to 400 yards with these bullets, even at 15 yards the bullet is at such a high velocity that it enters the pelt and then just fragments inside without exiting.

[u_cant_rope_the_wind]

i got a hold of some 115 grn nosler for my daughters 243 and loaded them a little hot as her gun(NEF single action) wont group unless they are hot 44grns h414moves em out @ 3038 fps

[Albertadiver]

I'm using 100grain nosler's. Work just fine.

[The Moose Whisperer]

For deer I am running 90gr Swift Scirocco's on top of a max charge of IMR4064.

I Worked up this load during the summer/early fall for this year's deer season and am very happy with the results. Bagged two deer, an average bodied whitetail buck and a big bodied muley buck. Shots were between 150 and 175 yards. Whitey was quartering toward, muley was quartering away. Hit shoulder/vitals on both shots. Both deer dropped in their tracks. No recovered bullets as both were through and throughs, but damage/trauma was substantial so I assume they opened up as intended/advertised. Conclusion: big fan of this load for deer

For yotes, etc. I run 85gr Sierra GameKing HPBT's as they are very accurate in my gun and don't break the bank.

[raised by wolves]

Off the shelf, I liked the cheapo, Winchester 100 grain, soft points from Wal-Mart, for accuracy only. I was grouping 1 inch at 200 metres. The accuracy and consistency was great, but I did not like the effect on deer. Unless I had the headshot, I ended up with a chase despite putting a round through both lungs. I did not find that these bullets expanded as well as others on the market. Great gun for coyotes and fox with the 80 grain, jacketed boattails.

Another off the shelf cheapo that grouped well was the Federal Power Shocks, 100 grain. Through my rifle, they were not as tight a grouping as the Winchesters. The Federals gave me about 1.5" at 100 metres.

[RUM]

Appreciate the feedback everyone. I had thought about the Sciroccos as I had good luck with them out of my 300RUM's. Anyone try the Speer 100gn Grand Slams or 105/90gn Hot-Cor's?
The Elite XP3's are one of the factory offerings that I wanted to try but couldn't manage to find a box on the shelf when I was looking a couple times. Sounds like they would be something worth trying out, but who knows when Winchester will be selling the bullets for reloading components I guess.

[Albertadiver]

These are the three I use mainly
- Winchester Super X 100gr power point
- Federal Premium vital shok 100gr nosler partitions
- Federal Power-shock 80gr soft point