Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters .243 Bullet opinion

Hornady 100 gr BTSP loaded to 2800 fps in the .243, so relatively mild.

Opinions on this as an all - around deer load?

Experiences with this bullet at a similar velocity?

I'd use it.

It would work fine, but you'd do well to look into the 95 grain Ballistic Tip for the stated duty.

Hornady Interlocks are always a good option. I get better accuracy with 90-95 grain bullets for some reason. If that bullet shoots accurately in your rifle I think you'll like it a lot.

I get the same velocity. Old Remington adl.
Have used it on and off for 40 years or so with the Hornady. Just on hill country deer which aren't very big. Probably the biggest was 200 lbs.and 200 yards or less.

Thanks guys

have harvested a lot of deer with the .243 100 grain horn, and 95 partition. the wt do not weigh 300 pounds here though.

If there's a job the 243 can do, it can be done with that combo and leave you wanting for nothing.

I don't think the 95PTs weigh 300 pounds here, either!

in sask they can get 300 lb and cost 7.5k to hunt.

It will work great if you put it in the front end.

The 95 grain Nosler BT is also a good option.

Either the 100 Hornady Interlocked or the 95Ballistic.

The Hornady Interlocked is a premium bullet at a non-premium price and at normal velocities (under 3,100 fps at muzzle) penetrates and kills wonderfully.

In fact, I used the 30/180 IL for my last loooong safari in Afrika ... killed 20+ head of plains game, including a 1,069kg (2,352-pound) eland. All kills were one shot ... dead right there.

The 95-grain Nosler Ballistic Tip was designed by Gale Root, Nosler's Chief Ballistician for many, many years. Gale was a .243 devotee to the max and he literally designed the 95 for HIS use in killing big deer (mules and WT), large bull elk and, his particular passion, nilgai.

Gale challenged himself to annually kill a "Five Buck Bull." He'd arrive at the outskirts of Bend, fill up his truck, go west and kill a 6X6 or bigger bull elk (he killed some monsters) and, when returning to Bend, his truck fill-up was less than $5.00, he'd WON.

Gale was a great guy and he followed his wife, a computer web site designer, to the SW USA. He was/is a good friend and one of the shooting industry's unsung geniuses.

Anyway, either the 100Interlocked or the 95Ballistic are both superb in the standard .243 Winchester and 6Remington.

God Bless,

Steve

This mirrors my experience on deer, hogs and antelope. Unfortunately, I've never flung either into an elk or a nilgai, but I'd be happy to!

That is a huge deer for the hill country. Was it a high fence deer? I lived between Boerne and Bandera for ten years and never saw one that would make 100 pounds.

I'm no Gunwriter but I have some of these for my 243 so I asked Hornady this question:
"What is the range of velocities that I can expect the best performance from the 6mm 100 grain BTSP, Item Number 2453, on deer size game? Thanks."

This was their answer:
"Thank you for your inquiry. The minimum velocity for expansion on the 6mm 100 gr BTSP is 1800 fps. It is capable of having a muzzle velocity window of 2500-3400 fps which is what we recommend."

Maybe someone could figure out at what range the velocity would drop to 1800 fps.

Deer, yes.

Elk, no.

River Ridge

Started at what velocity?

Go to the Hornady website and use the Ballistic calculator.
http://www.hornady.com/ballistics-resource/ballistics-calculator

The bullet has a BC of .405(look under bullets to find)
Plug in the Velocity and BC(ballistic coefficient)and bullet weight using the basic chart and it will give you the figures.

To each their own, but I bumped 9 elk the other day going to work on some solar mills and I could have been dropped any of them easily with my .243.

And would those same elk be standing around in rifle season on public lands after being bugled, poked and smoked for 2 months of bow and muzzle loader season, or lucky to catch the flash of their ass going through the trees at mach 3?

It's better to have a real gun with a real bullet once the shooting starts.