Last year I bought my son a .243 in the Cabela's Rem 700 Guide Rifle ( Mountain rifle barreled action,
22", in a Ti stock). He is only 9 and is pretty recoil sensitive, but he handles the light rifle well. Last
season I loaded up the sierra 85gr BTHP with a middle road load of IMR 4064. The crono'd velocities
were just shy of 3000fps. The rifle shot this load very well and he killed one deer (his first ever) with it.
I have killed a pile of deer through the years with various caliber's, but haven't ever shot many with the
6mm family.
Here in NC, a BIG deer would be ~200 lbs, with most deer in the 100-140lb range. They do not drive
armored cars nor are they bullet proof when grazing.
I'm sure anything I load will poke a hole in the deer & make it dead. Just wondering what recipes some
of the experienced .243 guys are using. I figure I should be able to get a 100gr bullet to the same
velocity, why not shoot it??? But I have heard good things about the 85gr Sierra. Maybe I should just
bump the charge up... What works for you?
When I used a .243 for whitetails I used Hornady's 100 gr Interlock with 40.5 gr of IMR4350. This may not be the fastest load or the best. But it was very accurate in my old Savage 110 and I killed a lot of deer with it. Most of these deer either dropped in their tracks or didn't go very far.
__________________ PLEASE NOTE THAT DUE TO THE RISING COST IN AMMO PRICES I WILL NO LONGER BE FIRING A WARNING SHOT.
A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have.
I'm not as good as I'm gonna get - but I'm better than I used to be. "Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil - it has no point."
If you're going to have close shots (here in WV doing drives, etc.) <50 yards, then I would go with the 100, or a more stout bullet. Although you're not pumping them out real fast right now. My wife has had problems using the 85 grn. HPBT when deer have been real close (doing drives and stuff sometimes they about run ya over). I have about 3 other family members who use .243s and all use 100 grn. corelocs and have never had any problem with them at all.
as a recoil sensative load i would reccomend an 87gr hornady with a low end load. i loaded some up for a buddys wife and it was a blessing in descise. no kick to speak of and as long as she keeps her shots inside 200 yards, a squeezed trigger is dinner on the plate. plus, now she cant wait till season starts this fall.
__________________
shoot straight, hunt hard and appologize to no one.
I've killed 30 or so with the Sierra GameKing 85gr HPBT, I used the Federal Premium loading and supposedly it's 3320 fps...Actually this is an excellent bullet and harder than most realize, it's the loading I use to shoot over bean fields down east, here in NC....(also in Asheboro here)...
I've killed 85-90 with the plain old 100gr Remington CoreLokt...
The main advantage with the 85 gr bullet is the higher velocities and flatter tradjectories...If your shots will be within 200 yards, this is not needed...I'd simply buy some 100gr CoerLokts and start your load developement...
I have used the 243 Winchester for many deer and antelope. I have used the old Herter"™s 100 grain semi-pointed soft point, 95/100 grain Nosler Partitions, 100 grain Hornady"˜s round nose, flat base and boat-tailed soft point. My favorite powders have been R-19, H-4350 and IMR-4350.
Favorite 243 Deer Loads
