.243 heavy barrel

[Cubby]

Thanks for all the ideas guys. I take 4-5 rifles with every time so I can let them cool down. I already have 2 .223's so just looking at something else.

 

[MikeT49]

"something else"? 257 Weatherby w/90 SBKs.. Build your own using a 7mm mag, 300 win mag, etc for the donor action.

 

[searcher]

I can't imagine you burning up a barrel in one day no matter how hard you shoot it but I keep hearing that on the internet and I've shot my Barrels pretty hard.

I agree. I have often wondered how many people attribute a change in ammo, poor batch of ammo, erratic loading procedure, etc. on a barrel going south. I think I came close one day when I set my daughter up (a young teen) at the bench with a .17 HMR. and before I knew it, she had fired about 300 rounds about as fast as she could load them while I was yakking with the guys. Dang! I didn't know one could get a rimfire that hot! It was smoking the stock. But - it still shoots. And that was around 9,000 rounds ago on that barrel.

 

[SBS]

I can't imagine you burning up a barrel in one day no matter how hard you shoot it but I keep hearing that on the internet and I've shot my Barrels pretty hard

You sure can. About 6-7 years ago on a hot July day on the eastern plains of Colo., we had a PD town teeming with dumb dogs and I didn't stop shooting for a couple of hours with a 6mm Rem. heavy barrel. I still have that Krieger barrel and if I had means of taking a picture of the throat (my Hawkeye borescope won't), I think you would agree it's possible. I was using 87 gr. bullets with AA-3100 powder and you would need to cut off much more than the threaded shank to get to good rifling. It was a new barrel too, and I learned an expensive lesson on high volume shooting with a big cartridge. It started shooting all over the place, which made me quit. Cleaned it thoroughly, tried it the next day and wouldn't shoot in your hat. Borescoped it when home and retired the barrel. Had more rifles on that day to rotate, but had the wind and the distance figured out, so just kept shooting it. That throat is worse than any XTC rifle I ever owned. Sure do limit calibers like that to slow fire on occasional long range dogs ever since. Now use the smaller cases for high volume shooting and even then rotate often in hot weather.

 

[AckleymanII]

AA2700 for 55g bullets on up will extend the barrel life of the 243, few realize how cool burning this powder is, check the heat index chart...you will be amazed. We shot AA2700 in the 22/250, AI, 243, and AI, Heavies with the H1000 and N165 is well known.

Urbanrifleman will put you on the fast track with a great barrel in a great caliber for dog shoot'en. Have him thread it for 5/8-24 for a brake.

 

[Webster]

Looking for ideas on a heavy barrel .243, which rifle would you recommend? I'm really set on .243 so no need to offer other calibers.
Budget is under $1000. Main use will be p-dogs

You don’t want to hear about it but why not a 6br or 6brx. I have both. My 6br has 4000 rounds down the tube and it still shoots under .350” Kelby gunsmith looked at it with a bore scope and said it looked like it had 1000 rounds on it. Last year I shot a .098” group and 3 groups under .250”.

 

[Dgd6mm]

Does Cubby mean no need to offer another caliber or another cartridge ?

 

[AckleymanII]

You don’t want to hear about it but why not a 6br or 6brx. I have both. My 6br has 4000 rounds down the tube and it still shoots under .350” Kelby gunsmith looked at it with a bore scope and said it looked like it had 1000 rounds on it. Last year I shot a .098” group and 3 groups under .250”.

It will still be shooting .250 groups at 8000 rounds if you use AA2230 or H335 with 7 1/2's, speed with incredible accuracy.

 

[Oso]

With 6mm based cartridges a 1:9 twist for the 80gr-95gr bullets and 1:8 twist (or faster) for +100gr bullets. If you are wanting the $1000 budget then you are buying a stock factory rifle with enough spare change to upgrade the trigger and buy some nice scope rings. If you can do the gunsmithing for free, then you can buy a used rifle, buy new custom barrel, and chamber it from the onset to whatever you like. Most likely the fastest twist you'll find on a factory rifle chambered in .243 Win is 1:9, and you may have limited choices. Remington, Savage, Browning, Ruger are all offering factory models chambered in 6mm Creedmoor, with a fast twist (1:8 - 1:7). Do a search on Gunbroker to find a complete list of options from manufacturers.

https://www.gunbroker.com/Bolt-Acti...edmoor&PageSize=24&Sort=13&View=1&PageIndex=1

I think the neck and shoulder make the 6mm Creedmoor slightly better than the .243 Win. All things being equal for a factory chambered rifle you will enjoy either round. I would lean toward the 6mm Creedmoor if you will be reloading, and if plan to buy factory ammo then definitely go .243 Win. My thoughts are enjoy the factory barrel with the knowledge/expectation that you'll be replacing/upgrading it after a season of shooting (2K rounds). Re-barrel it with a custom barrel and give serious consideration to a cartridge that is more efficient (less powder with same velocity), such as 6BR, to extend out your barrel life. The other big consideration is the new barrel steel that Bartlein recently announced/introduced that offers 2X the barrel life compared to today's stainless barrels. If the new steel barrels prove-up then the premium price will be worth it if you are planning on higher volume shooting. Yes, I have a .243 Win that I love and have been contemplating this same scenario... I flirted with going 6GT for the improved feeding from magazine over the 6BR, but potential for limited brass bothers me, which is also same challenge for 6XC.

Best Luck - 6mm Rocks!!!

 

[Ackman]

"something else"? 257 Weatherby w/90 SBKs.. Build your own from a 7mm mag, 300 win mag, etc
donor.

The .257Wby cartridge is devastating on rockchucks. But the heat from 72gr. powder pd's, plus recoil.....it's not a pd cartridge, no way no how. 7Mag could be used but it's also considerably shorter than the Weatherby case. ``

 

[AckleymanII]

6 XC brass, look no further than Tubb brass, excellent at a great price.

243 Winchester gets around 1200 rounds of really fine accuracy, depending on the powder used. With H & IMR 4895, Varget, R#15, IMR 4064,1/4"-1/2" accuracy in the many factory Remingtons, Ruger 77's that I have shot out on dog towns, chucks, and coyotes. By 1200 rounds you can not touch the lands with any varmint bullet, thus accuracy is hanging around 3/4" at best to 1", and this is where a barrel may hang for a couple thousand more rounds. 1" groups is not what I call p. dog accuracy.

In the 80's through early 90's, it was common to shoot 600 rounds of centerfire on a bad day, and 1200+ of centerfire on a good day. We had to cool the barrels with water to keep the guns shooting, rotating 6 rifle barrels which would have otherwise never cooled. The 243 and 6 Rem with 85g Sierra bthp was our windy day calibers loaded with IMR 4064. Several times, I burned out 243 barrels in two days of shooting, and I shot the leade out of one new Douglas barrel in an afternoon in 243.

This type of high volume shooting lead to me having a barrel vise welded on the grill guard of my truck where I could change out barrels, and we ordered Hart barrels ten at a time.

AA2700 in the 243 and 6 Rem added to barrel life, Win 760 was a good second choice.

H335 in the 223, AI, 6 BR, 6 BRX, 6 Dasher will give unbelievable barrel life, you have to learn to adjust to the temp swing, and KEEP YOUR AMMO OUT OF THE SUN! We used H335, then AA2230 for 20+ years varminting, never a problem, but you do learn some common sense about not shooting top pressure loads and Keeping your ammo out in the Sun.

Today,I would run 65g V max in a 6 BRA and 6 BRX(or Dasher), then I would go 87g V max, 6 XC or 243, with AA2700, and for LONG range, the 243 AI with the 87g V max and AA2700. Hornady discontinued the 105 A Max, and I don't know if the new 103 eld is the equal or not in being explosive.

No fun in seeing dogs just fall over, go for the blow = bullet mass\speed

 

[jmkasza]

This has been an interesting read, not to hijack the tread of course, but I've been looking at a Model 12BVSS in 243 that a buddy has for sale. Good info here as usual.

 

[David Milisock]

A couple of things to think about here - Are you buying it for long-range PD shooting using VLD type bullets? If so then you need to give the twist some consideration since it will take a faster than normal twist to stabilize the longer bullets, that will limit your choices or rifles available.

Are you buy it for a high-volume PD rifle? If so do some re-thinking of a 243. While it will work the 243 is not a good high-volume cartridge for PD's, too much recoil, too much powder, too short of a barrel life. In a high-volume PD enviroment it is possible to burn out the throat in a 243 in a days shooting unless you good self-control, which means that you will spend more time waiting for the barrel to cool than you will shooting.

If you are after something for just the occassional PD of opportunity then an off-the shelf heavy barrel Savage or Remington will serve you well enough.

drover

I agree with the self control in terms of firing rate with the 6mm cases.

 

[Monte F]

This has been an interesting read, not to hijack the tread of course, but I've been looking at a Model 12BVSS in 243 that a buddy has for sale. Good info here as usual.

I would jump on it for the right price!