.243 Bullets for Deer

[Zero]

I shoot a 80 grain Remington hollow point hand loads and have since I started hunting. Devastating little bullet for the high lung or neck shots but if you hit them low or clip the shoulder you have 0 blood trail to follow. DRT every time if you put it where it belongs. I had scope mount problems 2 years ago with a loose screw so the scope would wander and lost several deer before I completely took the scope and mounts off and put it back on. I can shoot fine but that made me loose confidence in that little bullet cause I can't stand not recovering my animals.

I'm down to 7 rounds so I have to load some up. What do y'all shoot out of your .243? I was have heard good things about the Hornady SST 95 gr. Not really sure what else is out there.

My shots can be from 10 yards to 175 yards. With the .243 It's the gun I take into the woods with me for close range shots due to the size of the rifle, so mostly 10-40 yard shots in the woods. Our deer range from 80 lbs for a yearling doe and up to 150 for a big buck live weight.

I'll be shooting it out of a Winchester Model 670 (basically a economy M70) -- it's a push feed -- will that mess up the tip of the SST?

[johnf]

I've shot a 100gr. Hornady BTSP the last few years with very good results.

[johnf]

I load for two different guns, one loves 7828SSC and the other does much better on Varget.

[Grady269]

My sons Model 700 youth I use Federal 95 GR Nosler Ballistic Tip. I like the Federals better than the Hornandy SST's they are more accurate for me. He has shot (2) deer with the rifle (1) bIg ol' nanny doe and a small buck. Performance on both was more than adequate and both deer went down on the spot. The buck was shot a little forward in the shoulder and it blew up the shoulder and lungs but did not exit. Doe was double lunged and had a hole in the other side you could put your hand inside.

[Jeramie]

Factory I shoot the Winchester Super-X. I like the corelokt better but they dont shoot very well out of my .243.

For Reloading I shoot a 100grn Hornady BTSP (IMR4350). This load has been deadly! Great round and hits hard. I shot an antelope doe in western Oklahoma over 200 yards and it opened her like a zipper.

Ive laid the smack down on does with a .243. Its actually my favorite Rifle in my case. Good little round for small to Medium sized game.

[johnf]

  Jeramie said:

Factory I shoot the Winchester Super-X. I like the corelokt better but they dont shoot very well out of my .243.

For Reloading I shoot a 100grn Hornady BTSP (IMR4350). This load has been deadly! Great round and hits hard. I shot an antelope doe in western Oklahoma over 200 yards and it opened her like a zipper.

Ive laid the smack down on does with a .243. Its actually my favorite Rifle in my case. Good little round for small to Medium sized game.

Odd, but for some reson 4350 doesn't shoot worth a darn out of either of my 243. Lots of folks have recomended it to me though. I must have odd guns.

[wtnhunt]

Don't reload yet. Factory loads, the 100 grain core lokts perform pretty well for the wife out of her savage model 10, for that matter everything we have tried in 100 grain weights do well out of the wifes rifle. Daughter's browning a bolt microhunter does better with the 100 grain power points. Supposed to be the same bullet from what I have been told, but for whatever reason the core lokts do not group as well out of the short barreled browning.

[Jeramie]

  johnf said:

Odd, but for some reson 4350 doesn't shoot worth a darn out of either of my 243. Lots of folks have recomended it to me though. I must have odd guns.

Just one of those things! My Ruger hates Corelokt. It sprays them all over the place. I thought something was wrong with it right after I bought it. My wife picked up a box of Super-X and it drives tacks with that factory ammo. Guns can be very picky, especially if youre working up loads and trying to fine tune things.

IMR4350 is a pretty good all around powder. You may look at using a different bullet, weights, etc and see what happens. Keep in mind the Primer can make a HUGE difference too. One load I have used calls for a Magnum primer but it doesnt shoot worth a flip. I ended up using a plain Remington Clean Bore and it grouped great.

[johnf]

  Jeramie said:

Just one of those things! My Ruger hates Corelokt. It sprays them all over the place. I thought something was wrong with it right after I bought it. My wife picked up a box of Super-X and it drives tacks with that factory ammo. Guns can be very picky, especially if youre working up loads and trying to fine tune things.

IMR4350 is a pretty good all around powder. You may look at using a different bullet, weights, etc and see what happens. Keep in mind the Primer can make a HUGE difference too. One load I have used calls for a Magnum primer but it doesnt shoot worth a flip. I ended up using a plain Remington Clean Bore and it grouped great.

After 5 different powders I got my 243 to clover leaf with the 7828SSC and have "Several" loaded for it. The other gun is a youth model with a short barrel. I couldn't get anything to shoot out of it very well and someone advised me to try a 243 handgun load with a faster burning powder. I had some varget hanging around from loading 223 and ended up getting a sub MOA group with that. Probably could have gone with a lighter bullet for the same results, but didn't have any on hand and that was when things were a little harder to come by.

[Jeramie]

Its odd how that works out. Ive had some very different results from what I expected. I really thought a hotter load would work better in most cases... I was wrong.

Its pretty amazing that something as little as a primer can make such a huge difference.

[johnf]

  Jeramie said:

Its odd how that works out. Ive had some very different results from what I expected. I really thought a hotter load would work better in most cases... I was wrong.

Its pretty amazing that something as little as a primer can make such a huge difference.

Yep, on my 223 the best load was the minimum of 25.0gr. of Varget. They more I put in it the bigger the groups got. I thought it was the gun heating up, but went back down to 25 and boom good group again. Shot a big ol' doe with it and she dropped in 5 steps.

[Zero]

Gonna pick up a box of Nosler Custom Trophy Grade 85 gr Partition factory loads. From what I've seen it's a wicked little bullet. Separated lead core on the bottom for the penetration, soft easy expanding upper lead core.

[doubleA]

Have had great results with 95 gr Nosler Partitions and Ballistic tip's in the 243 Win. My 6mm-284 used to thrive on original 75gr Barnes X bullets until they were discontinued, now use the 85 gr TSX in it as I can drive them faster than the 243.

As a deer cartridge, the 243 does ok, just have proper shot placement and use a bullet intended for large game and stay away from the lighter varmint weight pills. 85gr on up to 100 will certainly work, it just the matter of finding a load your rifle likes.

[hungry hunter]

I have had good results with the Winchester 100 gr out of my Remington 700 ADL, have not hand loaded yet, no need to, have dropped yotes out to 250 yards, and lots of hogs to 150. Its all about shot placement. Plan on giving the .270 and .308 a rest this year and use the 243 for deer. Besides am getting older.

[hunterbobb]

I use a 100gr Nosler Partion loaded with IMR 4064. Accuracey is outstanding and with this bullet even if you clip a bone it will continue to penatrate.

[Jeramie]

  hunterbobb said:

I use a 100gr Nosler Partion.

Nosler makes a great bullet. I dont shoot them much because the Hornady are cheaper but they really are a quality bullet.

[hunterbobb]

  Jeramie said:

Nosler makes a great bullet. I dont shoot them much because the Hornady are cheaper but they really are a quality bullet.

The bullet is not the place to be saving pennies.

[coles]

Just sighted in my new remington 700 243 with federal premium 85gr Triple Shocks. My rifle hasnt liked anything in the 95-100gr range so i bought the TSX's. Dont have time or components to work up a load before season starts in 2 weeks so ill be starting from scratch this spring and working up a good load for it. So far i love my 243. Have shot 2 coyotes with it. one at 350 yards and one at 460 yards with 58gr hornady vmaxs!

[Jeramie]

  hunterbobb said:

The bullet is not the place to be saving pennies.

Actually it is if you do a lot of target shooting and you know the Hornady will kill the animal just as dead.

You don’t have to spend big bucks on a premium bullet. My favorite factory ammo is Corelokt. They are dirt cheap and get great expansion and weight retention. I would happily carry those to hunt anything in North America. You can spend 3x - 4x more on ammo but its not going to kill the animal any deader.

[wtnhunt]

  Jeramie said:

Actually it is if you do a lot of target shooting and you know the Hornady will kill the animal just as dead.

You don’t have to spend big bucks on a premium bullet. My favorite factory ammo is Corelokt. They are dirt cheap and get great expansion and weight retention. I would happily carry those to hunt anything in North America. You can spend 3x - 4x more on ammo but its not going to kill the animal any deader.

A ton of dead deer here in the backyard have been taken with the core lokts from both the .270 and .243. Don't think any of those deer had a clue it was not a premium bullet.

[hunterbobb]

I use less expensive bullets for targets also. No need to be lauching the premiums down range for paper. I shoot a few of the premiums at targets just before the hunt to make sure the rifle is sighted in. The 270 is large enough that corelokt will work fine on white tail deer. The topic was about the 243. If the shooter does everything right and places the the bullet properly the 243 corelokt will definatly get the job done. However, if something goes wrong and that bullet travels forward and hits the shoulder bone a core lokt will more often than not explode on the shoulder. Deer shot like that will almost always run hundreds of yards with very little blood. The use of a priemum bullet like the nosler partition will punch through the bone. It is like a mini insurance policy.

:gun2:

[PA_Spike_King]

I have used hornady SP in 100 grn for over 28 years on deer and ground hogs and have never lost a deer yet.

[Texan_Til_I_Die]

  doubleA said:

Have had great results with 95 gr Nosler Partitions and Ballistic tip's in the 243 Win. My 6mm-284 used to thrive on original 75gr Barnes X bullets until they were discontinued, now use the 85 gr TSX in it as I can drive them faster than the 243....

Yep, right now I'd say the Barnes TSX and TTSX are so far ahead of the other bullets for on game performance that the contest isn't even close. If you can find a load using one of those that your rifle likes, you won't be disappointed.

[maddhunter]

A good friend of mine's wife shoots the Winchester Supreme 95grn BST in her .243. He says it leave a heaping hole out to 200yrds and minimal tracking required.

I personally haven't shot a deer with ours yet but will be useing the Federal 100 Noslar Partition this year.