RE: Your favorite .243 for deer
l agree that the Hornadys are a harder bullet than the CoreLokt, but I feel that they are actually harder than needed for whitetails...In my tests the CoreLokts were flatter shooting than the Hornadys...Plus, the CoreLokts put a deer down faster with a center lung shot than the Hornadys...
I bought my .243 in 1980 and have shot over 150 deer with it, from 1980-1995 I killed about 75 deer with the CoreLokts...At that time I started trying other factory loadings to see what the difference in wound channels would be...I killed 8-10 deer with each round and shot some in the lungs and used a high shoulder shot on others...I want a bullet that exits on center lung shots but is hard enough to break down the shoulders in case you need to drop the deer on the spot...
The bullets I tested were: 100gr CoreLokts, 100gr Hornady Custom, 100gr Federal Premium Sierra SPBT GameKing, 100gr Federal Premium Nosler Partition, 85gr Federal Premium HPBT Sierra GameKing, 100gr Federal HotCore, Winchester Supreme 100gr PowerPoint, 100gr Winchester PowerPoint, Nitrex 100gr Grand Slam, 100gr Remington Premier SPBT (discontinued)...I also shot but didn't use on deer because of lack of accuracy the Federal 100gr Fusion, Winchester Supreme 95gr Ballistic Tips and the Hornady Light Magnum 100gr...
With the Remington Premiums, the Hornadys the Grand Slamsand the Nosler Partitions, lung shot deer typically ran 60-100 yards...I had exits even on shoulder shot deer...I had a few that went about 125 yards...
With the CoreLokts, 85gr HPBT and the 100gr HotCores I usually had exits on lung shot deer and they ran 30-70 yards...
With the 2 Winchester loadings andthe 100gr Sierra SPBT GameKing, I seldom had exits on lung shot deer but they dropped within 50 yards...
They all did the job and it proved to me that the bullet that stays in the animal and deposits every bit of energy into that animal will drop the deer closer to where they were standing...Exits are good for tracking, but once a bullet goes through the chest cavity, it's through killing...
My gun prefers the CoreLokts, I shot it yesterday evening, 5 shots inside a nickle at 100 yards...With Hornadys, I get 2 inch groups...