Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 85 grain Nosler solid base in .243?

Going through loading stuff and find a box of the old Nosler solid base in .243 85 grains, are they good for deer size animals?

Yeah, they'd work. The Solid Bases were pretty tough bullets; the 60-grain .224 was a favorite of mine for pronghorn and deer in the .220 Swift.

I used that bullet for years in a 243 AI and a 6MM AI. Killed deer and antelope very well.

The first time I used them was when I had my first 243 AI built. My family made 5, 1 shot kills on antelope out to about 400 yds in one day, trying out the new 243 AI.

I still pick them up when I find a box at a gun show.

Thanks, I used to use the 120 grain solid base in my 25/06 but was not sure if these 85 grain would be too light in a 243.
Will load some up today.

I would section one to see what the jacket looked like. The original solid base had a thin with almost no taper jacket. These performed like the varmint version of the ballistic tip. Later I think Nosler went to a heavier jacket like they did with the "Hunting" Ballistic tips.

The thin jacket version would completely fragment sometimes if bone was hit, but usually the solid base would exit on deer.

Partsman
They absolutely will not work and are not safe. Send them to me for proper disposal before going any further.
Tim

They will be fine. I killed a lot of goats, fallow and pigs with that bullet in a couple of Sako Foresters I had back in the 70's and 80's.

Think about all the threads with people killing deer with a 223 and 55-70 grain bullets

Those old Solid Base bullets were quite good. The 68gn was my choice in the .243 and the 100gn .257 grainer's, I used in my first .257 Weatherby, a lot.

If anyone has .257 Solid Base they want to get rid of, I'm your guy. Ragged one hole groups are the norm in my .25/06 and .250AI, and one hole on each side of a deer is the norm, as well.