243 deer bullet?

[AckleymanII]

2nd year producton #1

First of all, push a tight patch though the barrel. If the bore dia is not uniform from end to end(tight and loose spots), you are in for a rough ride on load development.

Find a ruger gunsmith specialist. Three point bed the forearm, and tune the trigger.

100g Hornady BTSP is an incredible deer bullet, so is the 95g Nosler ballistic tips.

With the 100g Hornady, if you can find any R#26 with cci 250 primer, you will get accuracy around 3150 fps.

 

[nawahine]

My .02 (cents) confidence and shot placement.
I’ve shot a few axis deer and a lot of feral goats (I preferred head shots) with the “older” Hornady 87 grain spire points.

 

[rockhound78]

Been doing a bit of testing. This thing has been shot a LOT. Cannot get a Nosler 95bt to touch the rifling and be in the case at the same time. Have some Remington 100gr core lokt that will touch the rifling and have about 0.020" in the case.
That said, Varget and the 85 bthp shoot fairly well @225 yds considering. Shoots about MOA

 

[AckleymanII]

Those number 1's had long leads when brand new.

 

[CJ6]

The barrels were not very uniform either.

 

[TrapperBR549]

Both of my sons used a 243 as youths so I got to watch a lot of deer die from being shot by one.
If you are only going to shoot them behind the shoulder the hollow points will work and normally drop them in their tracks.
If you are going to shoot them through the shoulders partitions are my choice and they normally drop in their tracks.
If you shoot them through the lungs with partitions they are going to die but not drop in their tracks. If you shoot them in the shoulder with a hollow point you are less certain of making a quick, clean, kill.