Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints Explosive varmint bullet for .243 Win

I've got two chucks so far on my new/used 243 using 70gr BTs and they while it's an accurate bullet, it's not explosive like my 22-250 55gr BTs. I'm looking for 70gr on up, anyone got any suggestions?

75 grain VMax. 70 Grain Blitzking.

I second the V-max - I use Nosler Partitions in my 270WSM and they explode groundhogs. I never though a Partition would do that because most consider it a deer hunting bullet. The V-max is cheaper and does great job, I highly recommend. BTW I use only 32gr V-maxs in my Savage 204 and it always gets the job done + leaves the dog alittle something to shake lol. Another thing is the 22-250 is smokin fast compared to the 243, could be some of the difference your seeing. Let us know what works good for ya.

70 Gr Blitzking with a healthy load of Varget should fix your problem.

Use a Hornady SX, just don't go faster than their reccomendation, I believe 3400. The small loss in velocity will be more than made up in splat factor.

HM

I've shot a lot of chucks with the 70 NBT and my 6/06 and found it to be incredibly tough on the chucks. I also used the 95 NBT quite a bit and it was really tough on the big rodents as well.

Do you know what speed you're running the 70's at?

The 75 VM is another good choice as would the TNT that Speer makes, I think it's a 70?

One last thing, if you're shooting chucks while they're standing you won't have the same effect as you will via a chuck laying facing you and or facing away.

Dober

I'll second the vmax and the tnt. The tnt is a cheap little bomb.

I use 65 grain V-max in my 243 and they do blow them up.

I'll second what Dober said.I've splattered groundhogs with the 70 gr. BT.Never thought of it as NOT being explosive.Keep wanting to try it on coyotes, but it seems like I always have something else loaded up when I call one in.

Also have used the 95 gr. BT on 'hogs.That will make a serious mess.Great deer bullet as well.

My thanks to everyone that replied. I'm running a max load from Nosler#6 of H414 47.5grs. So it should running 3600fps, but no chrono to confirm it. But my drop tables have matched so far out to 500yds so no reason to doubt it. I'll post some pics tonight. Gotta run, got some brook trout grilling.

This chuck was only 150 yds away and giving me a quatering shot. That's an exit wound.


This one was 200 yds away and running away slightly left. The bullet cut his leg at the base and looks like it exited his head. Atleast a frag exited, but on close up on my computer it looks like the base came out at his ear.




Same shots with 22-250 at like distances at these things would have been gutted,.... to put it bluntly.

GoForBroke, I was wondering what the load is you are shooting? We are shooting a load of 46-47g of IMR or H 4350 with the 70g Nosler and it grenades yotes. Velocity on this load is 3600+ fps.

I am wondering if your speed is low???

Well the velocity could be low, but I plugged in my numbers into a trajectory program for 3600fps and they match my reticle out to 500yds so far. So I would guess my velocity is correct. In Nosler #6 H414 beat 4350 speeds, but to be honest IMR 4530 with the 80gr BTs gave me better groups. So I'll try IMR 4350 with my next batch of 70 BTs. I save the H4350 for my 30-06, with powder being such as it is. The bummer is that I traded for this rifle since it shot really well. It's a long action and heavy so it's not my ideal 243, but damn it's a shooter. And then I got 500 70BTs seconds and 200 80BTs. I haven't shot anything with the 80BTs yet, maybe that's my next step. It's loaded with max W760 load. Max loads have been the trend I'm following with this rifle LOL.

My son shoots 70 grain Sierra Match Kings from his 243. They are very accurate and wickedly explosive on jack rabbits and prairie dogs.

I like the plain old Hornady 75 grain HP....

in a 6mm Rem, I am running that a little over 3650 fps... on a long action...

nailed a few prairie dogs just right and it really sent them flipping thru the air, and they came down in a couple of pieces... but when looking at the remains, there was a lot of prairie dog parts just plain missing...

55gr BTs and u will have mist and parts. Very explosive and very accurate. HAPPY HUNTING

58 grain Vmax works for me.

I run the 70 gn Blitzkings over a charge of H414 and love what they do to critters!

I was real pleased with the Speer 70 grain TNT under a max charge of either 380 or 414 on prairie dogs. I had some of both to use up and they shot just about the same. I think the 414 had the velocity edge.

Thanks for the imput. I have 58 VMaxs and 55BTs but in order to make the barrel last longer I wanted to stay around 70grs or above. Ideally I'm looking for higher BCs and explosiveness for longer ranges. Since this rifle is heavier than I wanted, but lighter than my PSS, I'm designating it for 300-600 yds or longer varminting if the opportunity presents itself.