.243win

[sionharris]

Just bought a .243 for lamping foxes at night out to 350yds. What’s the optimum load with a 1:10 barrel with flattest trajectory and wind beating performance?

 

[sewwhat89]

Personally, I would start with 88 gr Berger HBCFB bullets with a good charge of H4350. A very close second would be either the 87 gr VMAX or 90 gr Berger Match BT. All of these bullets have been very consistent and easy to find an accurate load for.

 

[sionharris]

what do you think about the 58g vmax and 55g nosler b/t?

 

[fdshuster]

sionharris: Most consistantly accurate load for my Savage 12BVSS with the 1-9.25 twist has been with the 87 gr. V-Max & 37 grs. of RL15 & 37 grs. of VarGet. 5 shot groups are always under moa, even with the 5th round "flyer". Continue to be disappointed with barrel life of the .243. Already showing signs of light fire-cracking in front of the chamber at a documented 373 rds, w/ my borescope. Burned out a Douglas chrome-moly & a Shilen stainless at 1400 rds. Will re-barrel next Spring for another 6BR.

 

[AckleymanII]

I don't know what part of the world you are living in, but 350 yards is a long shot on a fox. I've killed a lot of foxes over the years in Mexico, Ca., and Arizona with a 243. Needless to say, the 243 is rough on a fox until the yardage is beyond 200.

When you skin the hide off a fox, you don't have much of a body as far as size, which is very surprising. For this reason, I would suggest a fast load.

I have shot the 60g Sierra HP at 3800 with amazing accuracy at 3800 fps using a max load of Win 760 in several 243's. I think that the king of all loads that I found in several 243's has been the 80g Sierra BT Blitz bullet loaded with 39.0-41.5g of IMR 4064, Rem Case, with Fed 210 primer at 3450 fps+ depending on the rifle. This load is very flat shooting and holds up good in the wind and knocks the dickens out of anything that you shoot with it.

For some reason, the bullets in the 90g range rarely get more than 3100 fps with great accuracy and their trajectory makes range estimation on a fox at 300+ tricky. When preditor hunting, you rarely if ever get the chance to use a range finder, you usually have a nano-second to estimate range and get the animal in your crosshairs. For this reason, an extremely flat shooting bullet is needed.

You mentioned that you wanted some wind bucking ability, and I did not mention the 70g bullets, but they are usually extremely accurate with Max loads of IMR 4064 and Win 760.

In my years of shooting the 243 where you have to shoot quick shots at guestimated distances, the 80g bullet pushed to the hilt seems to do the best job of not hitting the animals low in the stomach, therefore not dumping all their guts on the ground. For many years, I shot the Sierra 85g BTHP and the 85g Spt, but when I went for the 80g Sierra, I quit unzipping animals at longer distances.

The 80g Sierra Blitz at 3450 seems to be one of the perfect varmint rounds out of standard factory rifles due to it's energy dumping ability and good BC that leads to some wind bucking.

I avoid using poly tip bullets on coyote and fox because often you are shooting at them on the move, and if that poly tip bullet hits a twig, the bullet will blow up.

The 80g Sierra Blitz did a much better job on coyotes, bobcats, and foxes than the 85g Sierra's of any variety. The 80g Berger did an ok job at closer ranges, but there was not much expansion at longer ranges.

The 80g Blitz also does not have a lot of bearing surface which equates to MUCH less copper in the barrel if you happen to get a factory barrel which is less than perfect.

If you are saving pelts on foxes, then I had good luck with the 100g Hornady SPBT loaded with 42.3g of IMR 4350 with a WLR primer in several Rem sporters. It is not a flat shooting round as are all of the heavy bullets in a 243, but will give you killing performance and excellent accuracy.

 

[halfmile]

I'm using a 65 Grain Vmax with 41.7 grains of Reloader 15. In my old Remmy 700 BDL varmint it prints cloverleaf groups easily, even with my palsied shooting.

Performance on meat is quite satisfactory too.

HM

 

[CPorter]

I use the 70gr Nosler ballistic tips out to 500 yards. I've had good luck with 45.7 grains of IMR-4831 and 42.6 grains of IMR-4350 with a COL of 2.710" With the 4831 velocities are around 3360fps and with the 4350 it runs about 3326fps.

The 80 gr Noslers worked better with IMR-3031 which surprised me. 36.7 grs pushed it to 3305 fps with a COL of 2.815"

I used to shoot the 55gr Noslers using H414 but found the powder didn't burn completely and I was getting unburnt granules in the chamber and barrel. IMR-3031 works better with a max load of 43.4 grains, COL of 2.60" and roughly 3921 fps.

All these loads are for best accuracy, not top speed, and in my 26" barreled 9.125" twist Rem 700 VLS

 

[Bench4fun]

Well when I go on a praire dog town I take either a 51 grain handload 220 swift or 55 grain .243 Win. With my .243 I have dropped wolves, smaller deer, and even a larger buck with 55 grainers. But if you're gonna' be doing longer shooting a 75 grain Remington Core Lokt. is a great bet. I've extra small groups with those. I find I get more though with 55 grainers though. So long story short, a better consistent rouond is a 55 grain, but a better longer range shooting,300-500 yds) is a 75 grain Remington Core Lokt. not to mention it definately hits harder.