Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Best factory .243 deer load.

If i was going to use factory in my 243 Win for deer it would be the 100 gr Remington Corelokt

I have used the Winchester, Remington and Federal 100gr cartridges and all have worked just fine on deer and smaller animals. I can take all of those mix 'em in a bucket and fire 'em in random order and they will all go into 1 1/4 group at 100yds. But, my gun DOES NOT like the 100gr
federal Premiums.
Get a box of whatever 100gr; shoot em for accuracy/POA/POI and go kill some deer.

Winchester 95gr Ballistic Silver Tip.

Sounds like I should just stick a new 2-7 scope on it and keep shooting corelockts until I get the urge to turn it into a 7mm-08. It shoots them very well.

Sorry shrapnel no .22-250's but there is a stock Stevens 200 .223 Remington that kills deer and the occasional nuisance bear. Typically with 64 grain power points although its currently being fed 55 grain hornady sp with cannelure.
Wait I guess it isn't exactly stock. I stuck a leupold VX-1 on it.

Over the years when I was young, and before I learned to reload, I used 80 WW soft points, 100 WW power points, and then 100 Rem Corelokt.

Never had a single issue other than the 80s being way to destructive.

Now that I'm a reloader and barnes man, I believe factory comes in 85 tsx or ttsx... thats the way I'd roll for sure. I can't recall firing more than one round on a deer in quite some time. I practice with a 22 most of the year or 223, and hence few 243 rounds fired ever. Just enough to verify drops to 500 and zero ever year I use it.

While I have larger rounds, I just don't think that on deer under 200 pounds that it takes much to kill them.

That said I had a lot of jacket/core seperations until I went to the 105s that John mentions. I never saw that with them, but likely didn't ever shoot more than about 200 of them over some years of testing/ and finally hunting.

Hornady Custom line with a 100g BTSP is a very accurate round, loaded with H4350, and the bullet his hard to beat for a cup and core bullet, better than a core loct in my opinion.

I would also look to barnes factory ammo with a 85g tripple shock or a 80g tipped tripple shock, they are awesome performers.

Federal loads the 95 NBT in their Premium line. And I can testify that it works well on deer.

I've also used Federal Fusion and Hornady's 100 grain American Whitetail ammo and they worked well on deer and hogs.

Zing!!

When not shooting reloads,the .243Win I have (the Wifes) just loves Rem Cor-Loct's 100gr.No problems with our Wa mulies...ScottyO.

I'm of the opinion that for deer, any 95-100gr bullet will work fine. Of course, the lighter Partitions and Barnes will do as well. They're all designed to shoot deer out of a .243. As a kid, I took deer and javelina with the old Federal red box Hi-Shoks. I never really tried for shoulder shots with the load or any hard angles. I did hit a javelina square in the neck once. I was 15 and it was 250 yards out at a very slow trot, and broadside, the lungs and neck run pretty much in a straight line and are right next to each other. The bullet did come apart on that neck, which is pretty solid on those little stinkers, but that animal dropped right there. Also, I took a mule deer angling toward me at about 60 yards. The bullet missed the point of the shoulder, but took out the heart, then traveled through the length of the deer and exited just in front of the opposite hind quarter. The hole coming out was about the size of a nickel. So, even with a close shot, that tells me it expanded well, but held together too. The deer staggered, ran for about 40 yards, then piled up.

Our little savage youth M11 in .243 has accounted for many, many deer, with most of the mentioned factory fodder.

100gr blue box federal
100gr Winchester PP
95gr Federal Fusion
85gr TSX Barnes Vor-tx

I know some people hate on 'em with a passion, but it's current diet is Hornady Superformance 95gr SST, & we're loving the results !

Never had one go more than 250 yards & that doe was hit to far back in liver & was pushed too early. Most the standard 30 - 60 yards.

My son has killed several deer now with his Model 700 Youth .243. They all seem to work the same for us, and all have been plenty accurate.

A couple with blue box federal 100gr.
8 or 10 with 95gr federal fusions.
and a couple with Hornady 100gr btsp.

Recovered two Fusions and one Hornady on hard angled shots. All found under the skin on the off side.

Hornady, deer only made about 20 yards before a second shot anchored him.


Bob.

Fusions.
The one on the left went through a shoulder and was found just in front of the off rear leg. The one on the right was a more broadside shot slightly quartering away at closer range and was lodged in the off side scapula (it shows the wider opening that Mule Deer referenced). Both deer only went 20-30 yards after being shot.

Can't go wrong with 100gr powerpoints!

^^^This^^^

I've killed truck loads of deer and hogs at the Ranch over the years with that exact load. Also, with that same bullet in my 6mm Remington 700 Classic.

Used Winchester Supreme for years. One fine downright deadly deer dumper.

Well, I don't use factory ammo, but I copy a factory load, and the results are spectacular. 80 grain TTSX. Hits hard, never have had one stay in a deer, even with shoulder and neck shots, and the blood trails are great, if needed.

It's hard to go wrong with a .243Win load for deer, since most 6mm bullets between 80-100 grains are built with the .243Win velocity window in mind. A lot of good advice on here, I would only add that factory loads often fall short in the advertised velocity department. For this reason I sick with the under 100gr factory loads for my own rifles.

I am as others fond of the 95gr Federal Fusion load. Also I like the Federal 95gr Nosler Ballistic tip (if you can find them)

The next one I really want to try is the Nosler Custom 90gr Accubond. That looks like a sweet spot for the .243Win on deer in my eyes.

Stay away from the bullets designed for Varmints and you will be just fine.

mg

The vortex 2-7z32 is a great little scope for the $.

Since not going to reload grab a box of Barnes Vor-tx and see how it does at the range.

If you like the 243, you will probably really like the 7mm08.

Which line of vortex? Locally the easiest 2-7 scopes I can get my hand's on are Redfield, Burris fullfield and nikon prostaff any faults with those?

I figured the scope question would generate more discussion by now.