243AI big game hunting bullets

[CdnHotshot]

Has anyone had particularly good succes with a hunting bullet that offers match grade or similar accuracy and has great retention at same time. I have 6 boxes of the old Nosler "red box" 85 grain spitzer that I'll be trying.
If I built a switch barrel 1:8 and used a 100-105 gr. hunting bullet in the 3,000+ fps then it would be very potent.
Please include your velocity results in your response,s).
Thanks
AL

 

[bedrock]

Cdn - I recently started working with my 243 Ack. I have had
very good groups with the 95 gr Nos/Win Combined Tech with 45.0
grains of RL-19. I am not a real Nosler fan so I couldn't say
one way or the other if I would use these as a hunting bullet.
I also had a very good 3 shot test group with Sierra Game Kings,
100 grain Flat Base with 45.5 grains of RL-19.
I have always used Sierra as my hunting bullets so I'm sure they
will be my choice.
I've loaded some other 95's and 100's with RL-22 and H-1000 but
haven't shot them yet. Likely tomorrow.
Hope this helps.

 

[M700]

Using a 6mm Remington with a 22" factory barrel my son and I have taken game up to mule deer.

The single most accurate deer bullet we've used was the 95 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip. Loaded to anywhere from 2800,reduced load for a young shooter) up to nearly 3100 fps it is a devestating deer bullet.

I've shot it into 5/8" groups at 100 yards from a well-worn 6mm factory sporter barrel, but generally it hovers more around 3/4" at that range. Reloader 22 did best with the higher velocity loads, but I used Varget for the mild shooting load.

Last year my son took his first deer ever, a mulie doe at 274 yards,laser). One shot took out the heart, a lung and broke the off-side leg on exit. She collapsed immediately and slid down the hill a ways, dead. Can't say what weight retention was, it penetrated through and landed somewhere in the hillside beyond. Internal damage on the deer was severe, and the bullet smashed the leg bone on the way out, shattering it. Pretty effective. Tracing the path of the bullet it was obvious that it did not fly apart, but expanded and penetrated. That was with the reduced load at about 2800 fps muzzle velocity.

The 100 grain Nosler Partition hasn't been quite as accurate in my rifle but is still a good bullet. An old bullet that seems to work very well for us is the 105 grain Speer soft-point flat base. Accurate, and very good expansion. No great trick to load it to 3100 fps in a 22" barrel 6mm Remington either,Reloader 22).

Regards, Guy

 

[CdnHotshot]

Thank-you for the comments thus far.
My experience with other calibres has shown the NOSLER partition to never be as accurate as the ballistic tip types.
The Sierra has been an excellent bullet for accuracy and bullet rentention.
I'd personally never use a ballistic tip for gig game hunting because of its explosive design. The table meat is destroyed and there is no retention. The accuracy is definitely tops with this one!
The Nosler partition,s) have a postive reputation for bullet retention and are a consideration...but have never been satisfied with the accuracy.
Hornday and Sierra soft points have been most practical.

 

[M700]

Well, I haven't seen the "explosive" part of the ballistic tips with the hunting weight bullets unless they're pushed really fast and hit at close range where they're still moving right along. In fact my hunting buddy just got back from Africa where he cleanly took a mess of plains game with his .300 Win mag and 180 grain Nosler Ballistic tips. Told me his PH was very impressed with the performance of the bullets on a variety of game.

This year another buddy is trying out the Barnes Triple Shock in his 6mm Remington on deer. Will let you know how his work out. I'm going with the Barnes Triple Shocks in my .25-06 this year. Those rascals ought to penetrate!

Regards, Guy