Load for deer for 243
 

I just purchased a pre 64 mod 70 in 243 ca. Any tips on good loads will be appreciated. A friend shoot a 95 gr purple tip bullet but the guy that loaded it for him died and he doesn't know anything else about the load. Help please, Rusty

The purple tipped bullet is a Nosler Ballistic Tip. Good deer bullet if you try to avoid shots through a lot of bone and muscle (shoulder) or where deep penetration is required (Texas heart shot). Stick that BT through a deer's ribs with a 243 and it won't go far. I've never had any trouble getting very good to excellent accuracy from BT's. For load data, Nosler publishes a few loads on their website. The Nosler BT is a very popular bullet and load data can be had in a number of places, or you can buy the Nosler load manual, too. Check out Hodgdon's website for more load recipes. I've always had good luck with Hodgdon powders too.

Mike

Obviously not every load shoots good in every gun, but my go to deer load is h414 and 100 gr sierra gamekings. 95 gr tipped purple is probably nosler ballistic tips. I know the 80 nbts are purple and the 87 gr hornady v-max and 105 a-max are red tipped. H or imr4350 and imr4895 are also good powders out of the .243. I've had good accuracy and velocity out of imr4895 with 70-80 gr varmint bullets.

All Nosler 6mm ballistic tips are purple. All Hornady SST's are red, for some reason they did not color code them like Nosler.

When I had a .243 I shot 40.5 gr of IMR4350 and Hornady 100 gr Interlock bullets. This load killed everything from groundhogs, coyotes and deer.

I'm using the same exact bullet and powder although i am running 41.0

My XS7 243 gets -.5" 3 shot groups @ 100 yds. with Nosler Ballistic Tips and IMR 4350.

I won't use the 100 gr gamekings again. I shot them in a savage 99 over about 40 grs of 4350. It was bad 6mm in dime out through about 24 " of mule deer. It took 3 shots and she ran about 80 yards up hill. All 3 passed through lungs and within 1-3" of the heart. My oldest boy quit hunting after that hunt too.

85 grain sierra bthp.With what ever powder does you best.That little bullet is instant death on a deer.Before I used these I always used the Hornady btsp in 100 grain .Never a problem.But back then I was using 4064 and a Lee hand loader.Bone stock Rem.model 788.

I need to include that the shots were under 80 yards. The load and bullet were exceptional on paper and by the book but IMO didn't do the job as expected. I think that the 90 grain would preform better in the role I had it in. Perhaps if we were shoulder shooters rather than boiler housers the out come would have been "better"

I know "1 deer 1 time isn't an indicater of total bullet preformance".