bullet suggestions for 243win?

[leomort]

Hello Everyone,

I realize that the 243win will probably leave alot of the rams standing, but given that, what bullet(s) do you recommend loading for the 243win?

I've just bought my reloading press and dies and will get started reloading for the 243win but looking into what components to buy, ie powder, primers, bullets, etc.

Cost is a factor so currently I'm looking at Hornady's 100gr Interlock..probably the boatail as they're fairly cheap. As far as powder, thinking RL-19.

Not sure how far off base I am with this as a start both to reloading and trying my hand at silhouette.

Thanks for the feedback!

Leo

[silhouette13]

i love the 243 win. it maybe a bit light for rams, so hit the rest and dont worry too much hey a 30 is still great.
i have 2 loads that may work well for you

both win lg rifle primers, and winchester brass your mileage may be better with some good lapaua brass or something.

100 g hornady spirepoints boattail 33g H4895 i clock 2800fps and they group under 3/4 inch at 100m
105 amax 31g h4895 about 100fps slower but still under an inch at 100m

i have never shot the silo distances with either so they may not be good for the long game. my twist is about 1:9 so the longer pills are pushing my capibilities, either are suitable for whacking eastern whitetails

dave

[leomort]

Hello Dave,

Thank you for your feedback!

I've got a custom barrel on order from Lilja: stainless steel match-grade, 1:7 twist, duplicate factory contour which should be around #2 sporter contour? Not sure what barrel length I want. Thinking either 24" or 22". Any thoughts to this?


I've got some winchester shells aleardy purchased . Probably get a few more when I go buy my poweder & primers.

Thinking I might use Midwayusa for ordering the 243win bullets. Most of the local shops around here don't have a wide variety/selection and Cabela's prices are just too high.

This will also be my deer hunting rifle as well as my silhouette rifle. So silhouette will be for fun, at least for me.

My current scopeis Leupie VXIII 3.5-10x40mm. I know this probably isn't an ideal scope for silhouette but will have to due for now. Especially since I took the splurge to get a McMillan stock and Lilja barrel for my rifle plus the intial cost of getting set-up for reloading.


My next big purchase will be a chrony!

Leo

[lone ringer]

Hello Dave,

Thank you for your feedback!

I've got a custom barrel on order from Lilja: stainless steel match-grade, 1:7 twist, duplicate factory contour which should be around #2 sporter contour? Not sure what barrel length I want. Thinking either 24" or 22". Any thoughts to this?


I've got some winchester shells aleardy purchased . Probably get a few more when I go buy my poweder & primers.

Thinking I might use Midwayusa for ordering the 243win bullets. Most of the local shops around here don't have a wide variety/selection and Cabela's prices are just too high.

This will also be my deer hunting rifle as well as my silhouette rifle. So silhouette will be for fun, at least for me.

My current scopeis Leupie VXIII 3.5-10x40mm. I know this probably isn't an ideal scope for silhouette but will have to due for now. Especially since I took the splurge to get a McMillan stock and Lilja barrel for my rifle plus the intial cost of getting set-up for reloading.


My next big purchase will be a chrony!

Leo

Just a bit of advice regarding your barrel contour and length, if you are putting a hunting rifle together and want to shoot a few silhouette matches I guess anything would do but really to shoot silhouettes you would not want to have a barrel that is smaller than a #3 which is about the same as a Rem 700 hunting or sport barrel, most of the people I know that built hunting class rifles use #5 barrels 24" to 26" long.

[silhouette13]

1:7 opens up all the long vld bullets upto 115gr, that will make it a (on paper) suitable for rams, if you smack them right.

cheers

[Trent]

What can you get the muzzle velocity up to with a .243 Win using a 105-115 grain bullet? 2800-2900fps? I am only seeing 676 ft-lbs of energy at rams with that.

Wasn't there a time when a bunch of guys were pushing the velocity of the .243 for silhouette?

Of course, Kevinbear knocked down A ram with my .22-250 once. A hit about 1/2" down from the center of the back with a 55gr v-max knocked it over, and that is only about 300 ft-lbs.

[leomort]

steel ringer,

Wow, a 24" or 26" #5 contour barrel? That's going to really add weight! What's the weight cut off on hunter rigs? I thought most factory contours are arounda #2, at least thouse around .6" at the muzzle. A #5 contour would be pushing the limit to fit into a hunting stock as you're starting to approach target/tactical grade at the level.

But what the heck, the 243win is only suppose to last around 1,500 to 2,000 rounds before burning out. That' leave me alot of fun shooting out the barrel plus give me some learning experience as well.


Trent,

My 8th ed Hornady reloading manual show 2900 fps with 105 gr a-max or BTHP with max load of 43.1 gr of RL-19 in 24" barrel.


Originally my rifle was chambered in 308win which recoiled too much for me to where I did not enjoy shooting it much. Debated rebarrel with 243win, 257bob, 260rem or 7mm-08.

I wanted to be able to use this rifle on varmints, predators and whitetail deer plus have readily available reloading compnonents at reasonable prices that would be reloading friendly to a newbie such as myself. So in my mind, that gave the nod to the 243win.


Hey, if I'm wrong I'll have fun shooting 2000 round to burn out the barrel. And barrels are cheap!

Leo

[lone ringer]

To be able to make the 9 lbs weight limit and use a Shilen #5 barrel 26" long on my HP hunting class rifles I had to get Mark Pharr stocks and really pay attention to weight of my other components like scopes, bases, rings, recoil pad, etc. Some times I even had to change firing pins and bolt shrouds but that is what it takes to make weight in case you are interested. I know other shooters that bought Remington Titanium actions and were able to use #5.5 or #6 barrels on their Hunting rifles. Its all allowed by the rules now a days the "the hunting class" is just a name given to that part of the sport, at the very beginning it used to be called "light" to differentiate from the Standard rifle class where weight limit is 10 lbs 2 oz and there is no weight limit on triggers and stocks do not have to resemble "hunting stocks" but still have to fit a jig the NRA takes to the Nationals. Its all in the rule book which if you look for here or the NRA Web Site you can download for free or send for.

[lone ringer]

What can you get the muzzle velocity up to with a .243 Win using a 105-115 grain bullet? 2800-2900fps? I am only seeing 676 ft-lbs of energy at rams with that.

Wasn't there a time when a bunch of guys were pushing the velocity of the .243 for silhouette?

Of course, Kevinbear knocked down A ram with my .22-250 once. A hit about 1/2" down from the center of the back with a 55gr v-max knocked it over, and that is only about 300 ft-lbs.

If you push the velocity too much you could damage the targets, it happened back in the day before the 260 Rem was allowed in Hunting class rifle. Some shooters loaded their 243's and 6mm Rem so fast that they damaged targets. I saw some turkeys at Ridgway, PA one year that looked like sheet metal that had been hit with a ball pin hammer. Before that we had shot several nationals with mostly 308's and 7-08 without causing any damage to the same targets.
I have a friend that shoots a 6mm BR and uses the 115grs David Tubb's bullets and gets his share of rams but he also rings more than a few now and then. If I was shooting a 243 Win that would be the bullet of my choice for rams.

[chuck d]

steel ringer,

Wow, a 24" or 26" #5 contour barrel? That's going to really add weight! What's the weight cut off on hunter rigs? I thought most factory contours are arounda #2, at least thouse around .6" at the muzzle. A #5 contour would be pushing the limit to fit into a hunting stock as you're starting to approach target/tactical grade at the level.

But what the heck, the 243win is only suppose to last around 1,500 to 2,000 rounds before burning out. That' leave me alot of fun shooting out the barrel plus give me some learning experience as well.


Trent,

My 8th ed Hornady reloading manual show 2900 fps with 105 gr a-max or BTHP with max load of 43.1 gr of RL-19 in 24" barrel.


Originally my rifle was chambered in 308win which recoiled too much for me to where I did not enjoy shooting it much. Debated rebarrel with 243win, 257bob, 260rem or 7mm-08.

I wanted to be able to use this rifle on varmints, predators and whitetail deer plus have readily available reloading compnonents at reasonable prices that would be reloading friendly to a newbie such as myself. So in my mind, that gave the nod to the 243win.


Hey, if I'm wrong I'll have fun shooting 2000 round to burn out the barrel. And barrels are cheap!

Leo

You can try slow powders, H1000 or VV 160. They will get you more rounds, and good maintenance of the barrel.
chuck

[leomort]

The rifle I'll be using is a Ruger Hawkeye. Ruger's aren't know for being lightweight, lol!

Figure I can keep the speeds down to 2800 fps to also help barrel life as well.

The 260rem or 7mm-08 would probably be more ideal for silhouette, but I'm going to see what kind of fun I can have with my 243win. Those rams are at 500 yards shooting freehand which I'll not be hitting anytime to soon Figure I'll be embarassing myself the first few times I go to a match, lol!


Leo

[Jerry G]

You can get just about 3000 fps with IMR 4831 and a 107 Sierra. I hav not seen any damage to my HP rams from that load. Don't shoot the other animals with thoes kind of velocities with any weight bullet. I think it is the velocity that does the target damage.