Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Favorite powders, .243 and 95 grain Nosler BTs

I am using RL17 with the 95BT's out of my 243, it has been working awesome! Not the fastest round ever but it is accurate.

IMR7977 averaged 3050fps w/22 in bbl with 95gr BT's and I haven't worked up to max charge yet.

What I can conclude is the IMR Enduron powders are the cleanest burning I've ever used in those foulding mutha's of a 243...

RL26 has been a little bit of a unicorn and I'm getting tired of chasing components. Maybe Trump will change things...

In the meantime I'm going to wring out IMR7977 in several 243's and 270's.

Casey

K22, how much '26 are you loading for the 95s? Are you loading any 105s?

Smokepole: I am not loading any 105's even though I'm running an 8T barrel. 100's are the heaviest and I'm doing 47.3 gr. of RL26 with thoses. In the 95's I run 48.0gr. which is a pretty full case. I can fingernail tap it down to the bottom of the neck. Guess I would be better off with a drop tube, but I don't generally use one.

I have had good results using W760 in just about every bullet weight I shoot in the 243. While I think it is a little better in the lighter weight bullets, I have gotten good accuracy and velocity out of the 90 and 95 grain Nosler BT's. I have also used IMR 4350 and 4064 also and been satisfied.

Thanks K22.

Happy I could help smokepole.

If you try it let me know what your results were.

I'll try it with 95s and 105s and let you know.

K22, if you're still reading this, 48 grains must be smoking! I shot some today and got my best accuracy with 46, and that was at 3200.

I started at 45.5 and never had what I would consider a bad group. First time that has ever happened to me. The rifle I'm using is a Kimber 84M that has a Lilja 8T 22" barrel. I'm hoping to get mine chronographed soon, but I didn't figure they were at 3200.
The 48gr. load is behind a 95gr. Partition. With the 100gr. load I run 47.3gr. No pressure signs whatsoever.
What is the setup you are using?

I should add that I am using Nosler brass with Rem. 9 1/2 primers.

The rifle is a re-barreled M70 push feed, Pacnor 9-twist @23". In an Edge stock.

Lapua brass, Fed 210 primer.

Didn't play with it much, but I used IMR7828 with 95gr BTs and Rem 9 1/2s.
Hit 48g without pressure signs and ~3050 fps.
Then got the chance at a threaded barrel and swapped barrels. Have not tried the new one yet, so I am also interested in 243 loads with 95gr BTs
AA 4350, RL22 and 7828 will be tried on the new one.

IMR 4064 nothing better in the 243

At first blush, R-26 appears to be.

Smokepole,

If you are still monitoring this thread I was able to get out the other day and chronograph my loads. The 95's with 48gr. of RE26 were 3133, 3156, and 3138. The 100gr. load with 47.3gr. were 3022, 3016, 3033, and 3023. The Chronograph was our shops Labradar and the barrel is a Lilja at 22".

4895 worked well in my granddaughter's rifle. Started out at 60%. Increased as she got bigger-older. It shot well all the way to max load. She has moved up to 6.5 Creed.

I ran my rifle up to 50 grains of RL26 with 105's last summer for 3150ish. Can't remember if that was Win or Rem brass. Some old Norma brass I picked up did the same with 48.5 grains at ~32 degrees the other day.

like hanco's I did the reduced loads with H4895 and at 70% or 75% I had 2 bullets touching and one about 1" away. Should have did more loads with the bullets pushed further away from the lands to see what it would do. This was with my son's Ruger American Compact.

Needless to say I had a Rem SPS 308 that he is using now because he has shot up literally and the compact feels harder to control now that he is 13 y/o. Oh well that is what happens when a kid grows up!

I am still playing with the Ruger Compact but may unload it as I have rifles with longer barrels that I prefer.

Moly?

Nope. I also ran RL17 up to 3100 in different brass last summer. Shot that load out to 1200 with good vertical dispersion. That same load of 41.5 grains RL17 I shot last summer is only doing a little over 2900 in this Norma brass and colder temps and 1.5" chopped off the end of the barrel.