Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting Sporter 243 A.I. Revisited

I've been able to achieve these results with the last 6 rifles that I've bought, as well as several more that I work on and load for for friends and family. I can't profess to have any sort of magic secret up my sleeve, but I do a few things that may contribute to this.

- I always bed the receiver, and make sure the barrel is completely floated

- I always make sure the barrel has a clean crown

- I tend to use medium-to-slow burning powders for any given cartridge, selecting appropriate powders for both the lighter TTSX bullets, and the heavier target bullet loads. I push the light TTSX and heavy AM/MK/Berger loads fairly hard

- I use DBC in the bore of every rifle I get my hands on

- I first establish the max powder charge for the powder and bullet I'm using, with the bullet squarely touching the lands (except for the TSX/TTSX bullets, which I start, and usually stop, at 0.050" off the lands), and then I fine tune groups by varying seating depth. If seating depth doesn't give me enough adjust-ability in finding the accuracy node, then I'll adjust the powder charge down by a couple of grains in 0.5gr increments for anything larger than .223, and 0.2gr for .223-size rounds. This often consequently changes POI, and you can select a load that has the same POI as your LR load

I'm very picky about the accuracy and consistency of my LR loads, but if I can achieve 1MOA or under with a TTSX I'm happy, since I don't expect to use the TTSX for anything over about 400 yards

My methods may not work for every rifle, but I've either been extremely lucky, or else something is working for me to get POI intersections between TTSX and heavy target bullets. I'm not sure which

Thanks, good info. I have a couple of new rifles to play with. Maybe my experience will mirror yours with these guns...

Have you tried RL-17 in your Ackley or has anyone for that matter?

I get 3400+ with stupid accuracy in my wife's 22 1/2" vanilla .243 with the 80 TTSX and a max load of RL-17 (I "think" it's 45 grains by memory).

Imagine what your 3+ inches of tube plus your Ackley chamber may be able to achieve - grin...

I haven't. I don't have a lot of it on hand, and I have several pounds of IMR4350. I'd like to try it at some point, though. I'd not be surprised to see 3500+ with the 80TTSX and a max charge of R17...

Greg,

'17 is one of the powders I plan to focus on with my rifle. I'll post all the results, and you can bet I'll try out some 80s-90s. This 80TTSX you guys are talking about has caught my eye.

+1 on the R-17 and the 80 TTSX. My sons SPS Varmint gets smoking velocity and outstanding accuracy with that mix.

I shot a ladder with RL-17 and the 80 TTSX with a Leupold 6x42 the first range trip I shot this combo with just to get a feel of accuracy /velocity potential.

At 300 yards, the last 5 charges went into less than a 2" cluster and the max was 3,400+. I think I even wrote "holy chit" on my range notes that day because of the accuracy/velocity combo.

Tuner, Im shooting the 80 TTSX out of a std 243 @3420 fps...super accurate, but I have not shot it at any distance past 300 yds...

Thanks ingwe. Mind if I ask what you're using to push it that quick? That's a smokin' load!

3420FPS from a standard .243 - W/80gr. TTSX is "SMOKIN" I too hope that recipe is shared!

RaNDY

Yall gonna talk me into doing another 243AI...well actually the pile of parts that I have accumulated is gonna necessitate it. I got a Short 700 a MCwoodie hunter with a red pad and a rock sendero contour 7.5T carbon fiber wrapped blank just laying around. Might have a jewell needing a home somewhere in some of the piles of junk. I don't need another 6BR or 6x284 right now, sooo. Probably do some scope swapping so I end up with leica scopes on both. I really like the leicas but hate being limited to 18 MOA of travel because of the zero stop.

Do it up Eddy! Sounds like you've got a couple "decent" pieces to toss together... grin

Wish I had crap like that laying around! Laughin'!

I'm looking forward to putting mine together. Actually, I'd like to put two together. One light and one a little beefier. To be honest, I usually grab the 243 for deer season around here anyway. A 243AI would just make it more better...

That Brux you just bought is saweeeet and I bet you could put a rifle together using it and have it come to about 8.5lbs all up if you are careful... kind of a midweight?

Two is better than one, though... grin

I will definitely be carrying mine on hunts next year, pending on how it ends up shooting.

8.5 or even 9 all up wouldn't bother me for the heavier rifle. The McMillan (Sako) Hunter would be a nice stock for that rig.

The light rifle would be a MR contour in an Edge....or maybe Faux Ti....somebody told me they didn't suck.

I'll have to go the heavier route first since I just bought the barrel. I'd be waiting a few months on the lighter barrel anyway.

I really like the looks of the Sako Hunter, that'd be a great rig if you weren't going to do a bunch of steep hiking.

I like the faux-T.I. idea myself, too. I'm very interested to see what mine will weigh.


I hope you're stocked up on 105s!

I have a few (500ish) and will pick up more. LGS has a few boxes left. The 105's and TSX/TTSX's will probably be the only thing that goes down the tube.

I have plenty of RL17...for now. With the way things look now, I'm glad to have what I've got! I'm saving all my H4350 for when the 260 gets back.

My tax return is going to be spent %100 on gunpowder... If I can get a good stock of 7828 and RL-17 I'll be good! I'm putting some major blind faith in '17, but what the heck... if it doesn't work I'll trade it or somethin'.

What are you doing with the .260?

Eddie F has it. He's giving it a coating/bedding job. I had a Douglas screwed on last spring and it shoots great. Decided it needed a little bling. Ordered a Ruger MKII Hunter (McWoody) and coating all the metal in graphite black.

It's my Faux Old School rifle! It should be coming back very SOON...