Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 243 and 6mm kills - do tell

He wasn't old when he shot them.....

I don't know. He looked pretty long in the tooth even way back then.

42 grains of H4350 and a 95NBT is an accurate and safe load in our rifles. That combo zergs deer disproportionate to its size/speed. Makes no sense but I swear it to be true. Seems to be a perfect combination of expansion and penetration. Granted that's with a standard 243 and not a hot rod.

All 243Win

95gr NBT 35'ish yards, DRT





95gr NBT 190 yards, both DRT's






95gr NBT 285 yards buddies wife, DRT





95gr NBT 285 yards, DRT





95gr NBT 240 yards, DRT





95gr NBT 427 yards by a friend, DRT







95gr NBT 240 yards, DRT

[img]http://i744.photobucket.com/albums/xx87/Vereor1/Charles8pt2007240yds95grNBT.jpg[/img]




115gr DTAC 594 yards I believe, 70 yards

[img]http://i744.photobucket.com/albums/xx87/Vereor1/PC300510-1.jpg[/img]

Have killed with just about every bullet thus far mentioned and the 95gr NBT is without equal for deer. A properly setup 243 slinging 95gr NBT's is a MONSTER.

I'll take an 80-85gr TSX or simple 100gr SGK over any ballistic tip type bullet for deer.

Of course it really doesn't matter. They die quickly with everything my 243s have shot.

In fairness, I have heard some of the jackets are now thicker on various NBT specimens. I wouldn't know. I gave up on them years ago because they were bombs and made a mess of things.

Question for you 95 NBT users. How would you compare them to an 87 V-Max on critters?

Completely different than the V-Max. The designer of the 95gr NBT was a 243 fanatic and Nosler let him make a bullet just for it. He made it to be in his mind the perfect big game bullet for the 243Win.... And by big game I mean elk and he apparently crushed a bunch of big 6x6's with it. I've shot well over a 100 deer with it and have only seen one caught- the 10pt at 427yards above. Caught forward edge of on side shoulder, spine, nicked off side shoulder and caught in offside skin.

The buck in the picture with the doe caught one through both shoulders, spine and out the other side, as have a bunch of others.

The 85gr TSX and 80gr TTSX are good, but we've gotten a lot more runners with them. I also caught two in normal sized does in the first 4 that I shot with them. I think we've caught 4 TSX's in around 20 deer, and only one 95gr NBT on a couple hundred.



Ps- interesting to note all but one of those was with a Leupold scope. grin.

It sounds as if the jackets must be thicker now, as I've read several times.

We took a bunch of deer with them when they first came out. Simple shots on light bone blew up a lot of meat. Even neck shots that normally penciled through and broke the neck with other bullets, did same, but destroyed what could have been some nice neck roasts.

My bud and his dad used to laugh at the damage they did. I just looked at it as wasted meat.

I asked of the 87 Vmax because they seemed to act very similarly. I haven't used the NBTs in quite some time now, but a bud took a deer with a 70 grainer and it penetrated further with less mess than I expected.....

Ballistic Tips in general, or the .243" 95 grain in particular?

6mm 95gr

7mm 140gr

.277 130gr

You know, come to think of it, were the first 6mm NBTs 95gr?

Or did they have 90gr. or 100gr? I honestly cannot recall.....

I thought the 95 grain was supposed to have been good from the outset, being designed as a game bullet by Gail Root. Not having been a 243 user in the early days for that bullet, I don't have any evidence from those times.

I can say it has been a great deer bullet for a few years now though.

I remember reading an ad about the NBT that said something like "over 25 years of continual improvement". Meaning some changes have most likely occurred.

It may well have been 90 gr we used. It just never dawned on me until now....

My first deer was with a 30 carbine. Dad figured he had a hunter on his hands and that Christmas I got a Remington 600 in 243. With that little rifle and a later Mod. 99 in 243, I took more than 150 white tails over 10 years, off of a ranch here in Texas that had permission to do a herd reduction.
Many very happy memories are associated with that little rifle. I'm patiently waiting (ok, NOT so patiently) for my 4.5 year old grandson to get old enough to take over the 600. I have loaded up 50 of the Nosler 95gr CTBT's (it's all I could find at the time) and worked up a load with some IMR 4064 that should work just fine for him. Maybe I'll test it out this year, just for old times sake.

im gonna pick up a box of federal premium NBT 95gr tomorow. u guys have got me wanting to try these

A nice 24hour member gave a friendly heads up a few weeks back that Midway had 95NBTs in stock. (Which has been hard to find for many moons). I bought several hundred to stock up. Between my friends and family, I load for five 243s. Point being, stock up while you can because for whatever reason they dry up for extended periods of time.

This might get kind of long but I will do my best to keep it short as possible. Sorry but I dont remember all the exact loads in detail but I can get close.

I have been using a 243 win for deer hunting since the early 90's. I used to shoot a Rem 700 BDL varmint in 243 loaded with 90gr Ballistic Tips over a charge of IMR 4350. Great shooting load and bullet worked great beyond 100 yards. Shot several deer with this combo out to 400yds and always got a large exit hole and DRT.

Started using the same load in a Model 7 243 I had. Made a broad side heart and lung shot on a scrub buck at 30yds. 90gr BT went in about 6" and blew up due to high impact speeds. This started me on a quest for a new bullet for all my 243's.

Fast forward a couple years and my oldest daughter decided she wanted to start deer hunting. She uses a Rem 700 in a Ti stock and a 22" barrel.

I have always like Sierra bullets so I loaded up 100gr BTSP sierras with the same charge of IMR 4350. She shot her first buck, a nice 4 pointer at 103 yards. Broadside heart and lung shot. No exit hole and deer ran about 20 yards and fell over dead. We found a little bit of the base of the jacket on the off side under the hide. Time to try another bullet.

I had a box of Speer 100gr round nose on my loading bench. Loaded her up some of them with the same powder charge thinking the round nose would be prefect for her since her shots are normaly close to within 200yds.

Shot a real nice 8 pointer broadside at 53 yards. No blood trail and he ran about 50 yards in a big thicket. Finally found him and there was about a 3" long trace of blood coming out of the entrance hole and no exit hole. Time to try another bullet.

Worked up a load with the 100gr partition. It has been bang flop ever since. Always nice exit holes on any angle shot from 25yards to 215 yards.

I have heard and read alot about the 95 gr BT and I have a few hundred I have been wanting to try so I cant speak for the 95 but the 90's do not work inside 100yds. There jacket is to thin.

6mm BR.
Youngest daughter decided she wanted to start deer hunting. I built her a 6 mm BR off the Model 7 243 I had. 22" 1/8 twist Benchmark barrel. Found a load using 95gr Berger VLD's and pushing them at 2800 fps per my chrono.

She has dropped 2 deer so far and both have been bang flops. Attached is a pic of the bullets we recovered from her deer. Both are 95gr VLD's and were recovered from the off side under the hide. The one on the left was recovered in the off side shoulder and the shot was 112 yards. Right bullet was under the hide and shot was 126 yards.

I have been tempted to change bullets in the BR due to not getting an exit hole so far but as you can see by the pic, they are holding together and working good so far so im going to stick with them for now.

Sorry for the long post. This is my readers digest version of deer hunting with a 243 over the last 24 years or so.

The 90gr version was first, and is completely different than the 95gr. I believe that the 95gr was one of, if not the first NBT that was built stouter. It was made correct from the start, always having a thicker jacket. Would have zero qualms popping an elk with one.

I the earlier post there is a pic of a long range whitetail at over 400 yards with what appears to be a handi rifle. Props to that shooter. I had a .243 handi rifle and never was satisfied with its accuracy. That was pre-handloading for me so maybe I could do better now. I am loading a marlin XS7Y for my son and nephew to use and I have great results with 100 grain federal blue box and the federal 85 grain tsx load. I have tried a few 90 grain nosler e-tips with sub par accuracy results. I now have some 100 grain hornady interlock BTSP and some 85 grain nosler partitions. I am hoping to find a good load for those partitions. They should work well on the whitetails and groundhogs they will be hunting.