Want to load some up for a friend. My old smith had a surefire load for them, but I had just gotten started in handloading and didn't have a .243 when we talked about it, so it didn't matter. Old bugger's been gone for 5yrs now, so I can't ask him.

Try Ramshot Hunter, between 44 and 45gr I'd say.

Did you mean the 85 gr. Sierra BTHP ? If so 38 gr's of IMR 4064 has been my standard load for years and has produced .5 MOA accuracy in several rifles.

Sorry. Yes, the 85gr BTHP. Too many .250s. I have 87 on the brain. Thanks for the tips.

The 85 grain Sierra BTHP has always been an accurate bullet for me in the 243, 6mm, and 6-284. I have shot deer with it, but no longer use it for that purpose, after I had 2 failures to penetrate with it and 2 more with its 90 grain .257" brother. They are a little, well actually a lot, on the fragile side, but still a great bullet for shooting varmints, if you're not planning to keep the pelts, and paper. A buddy of mine shot a nice bobcat with this bullet and nearly tore it in half, but 'cats are pretty fragile too.

Combined with Winchester/Olin brass, Remington LR primers, and H4831, the 85 grain Sierra BTHP is a consistant MOA shooter in the faux CDL-SF 243 parts gun that I put together in 2011.

Jeff

I've got a pile of Sierra 85gr HPBT's. I don't use my .243 much anymore, but I remember shooting 3 shot 1/2" groups with my Ruger MKII with 44 grs of IMR 4350, CCI LRP and Winchester cases. They clocked almost 3,200 fps from my 22" barrel.

48gr of 4831 SC, CCI 250 will get you +-3200 and is a cool burner.

260Remguy, Quick question - when was the last time you had a failure with the 85 HPBT ? My buddies and I have had nothing but great success using that bullet on deer for a very long time. I'm also pretty sure that Sierra beefed that bullet up several years ago and believe me, it's not that fragile anymore. Oh by the way, I totally agree with your load, except I prefer WLRP primers. Ben

I asked one of the Sierra techs about a year ago if they had changed the bullet. He said no

Thanks for the info. Loading for a young lady friend and figured a combo chuck/deer load.

Just loaded up Hornady 87 gr. HPBT with 37.0 gr.H4895. Shoots 1 MOA at 100 yards in my Howa.

Sometime between 2000 and 2005 I had 4 Sierra BTHPs, 2x .243" and 2x .257", come apart on impact, resulting in no parts of the bullets penetrating through the rib cage and into the pleural cavity. The damage in all 4 cases was a shallow wound that disintegrated a piece of hide between saucer and dinner plate size and tearing the remaining hide from the body for up to 1' from the POI. The fact that it happened x4 is what soured me on this style of bullet for shooting deer. Prior to those 4 failures, I'd shot at least 50 deer with them, all being 1-shot kills, but I never recovered much more than bullet fragments from those animals, so I limited my POA to behind the shoulder or the neck, locations that required minimal penetration. As with many things, YMMV.

I still shoot Sierra BTHPs in .243" and .257", but not at deer and not nearly as many as I had in the previous 20+/- years.

Jeff

Jeff, I knew a guy some years ago that exclusively used the Sierra 85gr HPBT for deer. He had great results with it from his short barreled M7 (18.5" barrel in those days)with a dose of 4320 powder. He used that load for years before he ever got around to chronographing it-turns out it was chugging along at around 2,800 fps, which explains why he got such consistently good results.

I used the same bullet on just one deer, an average sized doe that I shot broadside right behind her shoulder. She was about 20 yds away so impact velocity was probably 3,150. The bullet hit a rib on the way in and took out a chunk of the rib next to it. Lung destruction was impressive, but penetration, while adequate, wasn't-I found what was left of the jacket sans any lead just under the skin in the rib area just behind the offside shoulder. Certainly a quick kill, but I'm glad it wasn't an angling away or shoulder shot.

I cross sectioned a couple of .243" Sierra's one time about 15 years ago. They were the 85 gr HPBT and the 100 gr SPBT. The 85 showed a consistent jacket thickness from nose to heel with a slightly thicker base. The 100 grainer had a forward jacket section of similar thickness to the 85, but thickened considerably about 1/3 of the way back from the nose. This thicker section was at least half again the thickness of the nose section and extended to the heel of the bullet.

I like the 85 HPBT, I still have several hundred of them and would consider using it on deer again, but probably only where shots were going to be longish or if firing this bullet at a lower velocity, such as from a 6x45 (which for some reason really calls to me).