What are your experiences with this bullet in the .243 Winchester? Its listed BC I'm surprising to see is higher (.405) than the Nosler 95 grain BT and the Hornady manual lists several 3K fps loads.

Thanks,
Expat

It can make dramatic kills one whitetails. However, it can also shed its jacket at shorter ranges.

For terminal ballistics I prefer the Nosler, but I understand that one is hard to come by these days.

We have been using the Hornady 100gr since the 70's and it's worked well on our Texas hill country deer. With the larger deer field dressing 140lbs or so but most smaller and mostly 100 yard shots.

But, I don't think you will get near 3000fps with that bullet.

I have 2 older Rem. adl's with 22" barrels. I can run over 2800fps with one but the accuracy load is about 2750fps with 40gr IMR4350. (which is fine with me,,we had been killing deer for years with it and thought it was going faster,,,I just recently got a pro chrono....ha!)

The other adl, I haven't tried with the Hornady but the 100gr factory core lock read about 2670fps and the Federal ammo with 100gr partitions was 2800fps.

I'm interested in others experiences too.

edited to add: this is only an example of one...and my 2 guns are very old....

i have been useing hornady 100 gr btsp for a long time, put it in the right place and you can kill anything you shoot with it. form 10yrds out to as far as you feel comfortable shooting a critter, but i have had trouble finding them this last year. rio7

I have used the 100 gr btsp Hornady and it works just like ms squared said a better choice is the regular 100 gr Hornady SP interlock. More than a few years back before the manual writers got their tits in a wringer the IMR manual showed 100 gr bullets being loaded with up to 47.0 grs of IMR 7828 at well over 3000fps. latest Hornady manual shows a 45.0 gr max around 2900fps. I need to replace my stock of 100 gr HornSP handloads I will work up to what I reguard as a safe load not what some litigation lawyer tells a manual writer.My 700 has a 22" barrel as well, their isn't much bc difference between the 2 and at under 350 yds it simply isn't an issue. I'll probably get hate mail for this but I think on deer and antelope it is the best 6mm bullet out there in c&c format. Actually works on those animals better than the 95& 100 gr NPT's. good luck MM

Have you compared it against the 95 grain Ballistic Tip?

Magnum man,
Pleas enlighten me as to how the 100grain Hornady soft point works better then the 95 or 100 grain Nosler partitions?

Factory hornady custom 243 with the 100 btsp. 5 shots with my 22 inch rem700 adl 100 yards. Hunting partners 9 year old killed 4 WT with it this year. One was just over 200 pounds and it broke both shoulders and was found under the skin on the off side. I normally reload but a couple 3/4 inch three shot groups at 200 yards and I figured there was no reason to reload for it

I'am also new to the .243 win for deer game. So yes I don't
know what to except, most of my shots will be from 20-70
yards out, so what can this bullet can do that the nosler's
won't. In thick woods if a deer runs and you don't have a
exit wound it would be a awfully hard to track?

I have done alot of research on the 243 as a deer gun and I
think this is why the 243 gets a bad rap. as a deer cartridge

I don't want to sound like I'am a arm chair deer hunter.
So what bullet to use in thick timber?

jr1968

I'm curious about this as well, but was going to load them in my sons 6mm for a hunting bullet for antelope, deer, and elk. The elk hunting will be very limited and selective of shot taken. I hunt with a 243, but am using the 105 vld's but I don't have the magazine length to use them very effectively in his 6mm. I have used the BTSP 162's in my 7mag and they worked very well in it.

I have a 6mm Rem in a '98 Mauser and the Hornady 100 grain interlock is my choice for whitetails. I use a lighter bullet for pronghorns and don't use anything that small on (even) cow elk.

Whitetails are more like big varmints than big game and premium bullets are just not needed for even 200 pound animals. I find the .243/6mm class of rounds fully adequate for deer hunting......and as a matter of fact, even preferable to such heavier recoiling calibers as the .30-06 and magnums.

Posted my replies yesterday but they seem to be missing.
Mathman I've a load worked up for my 243 with the 95 gr bt but haven't had the chance to use it on game yet so no comment on it.

Shrike, I didn't say the 95 & 100 NPT don't work I said I prefer the 100 gr Horn SP interlock because it works better. I allways wait for a broadside double lung shot on antelope and deer with a 243/6mm. The Hornady gives me a bigger dia wound channel thru the lungs than the 95&100 NPT's as well as a larger exit hole. You get a fast 30-50yd death run or less with the Hornady and a longer one with the NPT's in my experience. Antelope is some of my favorite eating so NO I never shoot them in the shoulder, you only get about 30-35 lbs of boned meat , so why screw up any of it? The lungs are the largest vital organ and you can easily hit them there without busting up the fore quarters. Now a good friend and hunting pard likes to shoot them thru both shoulder blades to put them down instantly and more than a few times we've found a decent wound channel thru the shoulders and vitals between them yet find his 100 gr Core-locts from his 6mm Rem under the hide on the far side. yeah they work well too but I like exit holes. As some of the other posters said you don't allways get anywhere near advertised factory velocity. Knowing what your load really does helps you use it to your advantage.

msuhunter, I also have experienced those factory Hornady custom loads and thought they were very good.

I hunt wide open areas for antelope and never with others in the immediate vicinity so before someone thinks to start a pissing match on shot placement, you do it your way and I'll do it my way after 58 of them, I do know how to get it done. Magnum Man

It worked well for me. I got 3000 fps from a 22" barrel with my handloads. The old Hornady Light Magnum factory load listed this bullet at 3100 FPS. My buddy and I chronographed it out of his 22" Kimber Montana and for the first and only time I've seen it the velocity matched the factory number exactly, we got a five shot average of 3100 FPS.

I have never had to track a deer over about 20 feet when using a 243 Hornady but have had to do some plain and fancy trailing when finding deer shot with a 243 Nosler Partition. The wound seems to be bigger and more destructive with the Hornady.

I have never lost a deer with either. Each of the several dozen deer at which I have shot with either bullet wound up in the freezer. I now load all my 243 Win and 243 WSSM deer hunting rounds with Hornady bullets.

My elk experience is limited to one with a 7mm RM and one with a 338 WM. Neither went very far. I think I would choose the Nosler or get some Barnes if I had to use a 243 on elk.

I've had fantastic luck using Nosler 95 grain Partitions in the 243. I'm talking large northern whitetails. Never had to track one ,most fell right where they were standing,or fell within eye sight.

My wife and kids have used the boattail a bit out of two short barreled .243 rifles [An 18.5" 660 and a 19" Mossberg].I dobt my handloads were getting 2700 fps out of either [I only have notes on the Remington].Very good performance.

I believe the low velocities contributed to the excellent bullet performance.

I have also killed just a couple with a 22" 98K actioned Mauser, but usually use a different rifle for deer.

I started using the Hornady flat base after a couple of years, then Core Lokts. at the moment I am using some of those from Cabelas bulk bags.

We have some 100 gr Partitions too but haven't shot anything with them. My middle daughter wanted to try her .243 on an elik but it didn't work out.

How, with all the other factors in play, are you going to determine the immediate outcome on 5 grains of weight difference and a different construction?

If you've shot five hundred deer with each 6mm bullet, I'll listen.

I have shot 3 deer with a 243. Two have been in the heart lung areas and penetrated leaving a good sized exit wound. The third went thru both shoulders and ended up a perfect mushroom that I could feel under the hide of the off shoulder. If I recall it was a corelokt and weighed about 68 grs as a reference for the coreloct thread. All three deer were recovered within 10 ft of where they were shot. Ranges were from 25-200 yds. Don't make this harder than it needs to be. A good 100gr bullet will do fine though as someone mentioned the boattails do seem to shed their cores more than flat based bullets in my observation. In my experiences above two were coreloct and one was a hornady flat base.

If you are talking about Hornady custom BTSP, its a magic bullet if there ever was one. I've been disappointed the stuff has all but vanished and all you can find are the American Whitetail flat base.

Any premium 243 bullet does a very shocking job. .

I would turn over as many rocks as possible and buy up as many 95 NBT's as you can find. I can't comment on smaller game like Antelope, but for deer and black bear the 95 NBT is one of the best killers in .243

Well...just to stoke the fire a bit the 90 grain accubond is on sale over at sps for $16/50. Put the code "inependance day" and you should get 15% off your order!

I used to use this bullet in my .240 Weatherby shooting goats off cliffs at 500 yards using a 2 foot holdover.
It works great in my experience for those 120-200 pound animals and they have skin much thicker than deer.

I have killed over 100 white-tails out to almost 400 yards using the 100 Interlock in my 6mm. I load it to right at 3000 fps. It has never failed to do what it was supposed to. It has taken a few antelope also.

It is a very accurate bullet and very good for deer. I believe that if I felt the need to use a little caliber for elk, I would NOT use it. I would go with a 100-grain Partition or even a Barnes.

243 got a bad rap in the 60s due to cheap bullets not exiting. The deer would run a hundred yards or so in dense brush and not blow much blood out the small entry. That's a problem for many when shot at dusk and the hunter is not expended and doesn't have a good light.

I wouldn't hesitate to use it on a broadside bull elk and hit the shoulder or ribs with that bullet.

In case nobody mentioned it, I personally have had better terminal performance out of the flat base Hornady 100 grainer than the BTSP 100 grainer�.

YMMV

After analyzing my big game hunting notes (now coming up on 50 years of dead stuff), I decided the common knowledge that boattail cup-and-cores come apart far more frequently than flat bases was a little exaggerated, since an equal number of flat-base bullets had separated over that period, both in my rifles and those of hunting companions. Also, even though some cores left the jacket, the bullet almost always killed the animal anyway. Often the "separated" core was found in or next to the jacket under the hide on the far side.

But one of the very few bullets that failed to penetrate the chest cavity of a deer was a Hornady boattail Interlock. It wasn't the 100-grain 6mm, but the 117-grain .25. The rifle was a .257 Roberts and the animal a mule deer doe about 100 uards away, quartering toward my cousin Eric, who was standing next to me. The logical shot was the shoulder joint, and that's where the bullet went. The deer turned and started hobbling away, and Eric put another in the ribs, finishing the job. The remains of the first bullet hadn't penetrated the ribs.

Of course, saw basically the same thing on a forkhorn mule deer shot with a 150-grain Winchester Silvertip from a .30-06 factory load. (It was the original Silvertip, not the Ballistic Silvertip, which is a different-colored Nosler BT.) The range there was about 200 yards, and again the bullet hit the shoulder joint and came apart. I found the empty jacket resting against the ribs. It happened another time with a 150-grain Federal .30-30 factory load on a Montana whitetail doe, which supposedly isn't possible at such low velocity.

On the other hand, have had a Sierra 120 6.5mm at about 2700 and a Nosler Ballistic Tip 100 .25 at 3000 go through shoulder joints on deer of about the same size and end up at the rear of the ribs on the other side. The Sierra shot placement was a little bit of an accident, as the deer turned a little just as I shot, but the BT was deliberate, and the range only about 50 yards. That little 100-grain Ballistic Tip has a pretty thick jacket.

I was kind of surprised at the 117 Hornady not making it through the ribs, and really surprised at the 150 .30-30 bullet, but then life is full of surprises.

The other thing for me, quite frankly was that my rifle didn't like the boat tails�..other did, mine didn't.

My fave load in my .300 H&H was a 1909 Gr. Hornady boat tail, which would often shed the core, but almost invariably the core and jacket would be found within a couple inches of each other.

1909 grain is a HEAVY bullet for sure!

I forgot to mention�its the 300H&H UBER Mag!

Honest to God, when I was in the gun biz I had a customer ( trying to impress the guy behind the gun counter-if you can imagine that�) tell me he had a .300 H&H Weatherby Mag Improved�.


I asked him if he couldn't fit more adjectives behind the title and it went right over his pointed little head�.

The bullets that I've seen come apart weren't wearing boattails.

That is some funny stuff that right, that right there is.

Ingwe
I think I know that guy- When he stopped at my counter he was talking about hunting caribou in Paradise Valley- and I did not make that up.

No doubt built on an Argentine 1909 action....

Not so much terminal performance, but it is scary accurate in my rifle. I averaged groups in the .6s with that bullet....until they quit making them.

Like the 170 grain FP for my .30-30.....geeeezzzz, I think Hornady took inventory at my house and said "Let's discontinue these"...

Me too, why do they hate us ??

Is the Sierra flat base heavier than the Hornady flat base?

jr1968

I dunno, I think they are both 100 grainers, though I haven't shot a Sierra at anything in years...

No, it is the same weight. I averaged a bunch of both bullets for data correction in Quickload, and my lots of both the Hornady and Sierra bullets averaged 99.9 grains.

My limited experience with them tells me that the Hornady is more stoutly constructed, and more likely to penetrate deeper. That might change if I shot more deer with the bullets or the range were longer, as most of the deer I shoot are well under 100 yards.

All in all, I got better accuracy and on-game performance with the Hornady.

So I went with the TTSX....It shoots real good in my rifle, too!

Correct.

.243: After a 100 BTSP (don't remember the make) blew up on a fairly large WT's shoulder over thirty years ago, I switched to 100 NP for deer and the problems went away. I see no reason to change.

.30-06: Also, I had a 180 Interlock ( Light Magnum loading) come apart on a mule deer when it struck heavy bone. A follow up shot ended the mess. I feel that one was a fluke, as I bought a twenty five year supply of those because my Mauser liked them. Unfortunately, I'm down to the last box or so. There have been no other problems with that lot.

Jack

My family has killed a lot of large whitetails and hogs with the 100g Interlock with the load of 42.3g of H4350 and a win primer, it is very accurate. More than a few 200 lb whitetails have fallen to this load at ranges of 300 yards(Kansas) and a few in Nebraska.

Personally, I prefer the flat base version, but the rest of the family shoot boat tails.

I think that they are both good, but the flat base seems to hold together a bit better. I reload them interchangeably depending on what I can buy and notice no difference in accuracy.

I load them right at 3000 fps from a 6mm Rem and they have performed well on white tails. I have killed over 100 deer with them out to about 400 yards with no complaints.

+1

Ingwe, that's some funny stuff.

jt402, I'm stealing your signature as I feel is has contemporary relevance.

Good thread, thanks to all who posted information and experience.

So, I'm building 2 rifles. Both are 6x47 Lapua.

One on an old Savage 10 action, and the other on a new Defiance action.

Anyway, I've purchased a bunch of different bullets in anticipation of loading up some rounds.

One of them is the 100 grn Interlock boatail soft point.

Does anyone have any experience with them in a 6x47L ?

One rifle is an 1:8 twist, the other is a 1:9.25 twist.

Jeff

The Hornady 100 flat base was always my favorite bullet in the .243 so when the 100 gr. BTSP came out I had to give them a try( yes...Ive been reloading THAT long) Had them shed a couple jackets but I wouldn't have known that had I not been doing a post mortem.
They kill deer sized game just fine, though I went back to the flat base because of the jacket thing...until they quit making them, now Im on the 95NBT train.
If you like the 100 Horn btsp, by all means shoot it, as I said it kills deer sized game just fine, and isn't that what we expect out of a .243?

Back about 20 years ago we bought a small ranch that joined us on our N.W. corner,we were told there were some elk on the place they didn't know how many.when doing our annual game survey that fall we counted over 40 elk on that place, way more than we thought were there.we put a couple of protein feeders up there and game camera's, these elk were not in very good shape, and looked to be badly in bred.

we decided to cull as many as possible, taking all the bulls and about 20 cows off, only keeping a few young cows, knowing from all i have read about bullet proof elk,, I took my big gun .243 with 100 gr. bthp killed 20 cows and 5 scrub bulls,that winter with 26 shots. No 500-600 yrd shots most shots were in side of 250 yrds, did have one young bull that just stood there after a heart lung shot so shot him again, he took one step and fell over, first shot killed him he just didn't know it. thus 26 shots.RIO7

This is the only bullet I have ever had completely come apart on the shoulder of a deer ! 50 yds broadside shot shoulder hit bullet made a crater but never penetrated the body cavity...still killed the deer she ran about 75 yards and fell over kicked around a bit and died...when we skinned her the bullet had hit the rear of the scapula and exploded leaving a huge bruise on her rib cage, I guess the blunt force killed her !

The 95Ballistic is the brainchild of Gale Root. Gale was the Chief Ballistician for Nosler for many years ... he was (and is) a total .243 Winchester lover.

Gale designed the 95Ballistic for big game and he told me many times, "Steve, if there ever was a perfect big game bullet, it's my 95Ballistic."

I believe him. Besides designing the 95 as THE go-to big game bullet, he designed it as HIS bullet to cleanly kill large critters with.

Over the years, Gale cleanly killed many, many deer, lots of big elk and several nilgai with the 95Ballistic.

In fact, as I remember, Gale had it as a personal challenge to kill a "FIVE BUCK" bull elk every year. Every elk season, my buddy Gale would fill up his gas tank and travel out of Bend and into the Cascade Mountains. And there he would hkill an elk that was at least a 6X6 bull. And if he got back to Bend, filling his gas tank for UNDER five bucks, he'd met his own personal challenge.

The 95Ballistic is as good as big game bullets get in .243".

Gale also designed the 70Ballistic. It is a coyote/predator bullet with few equals. It is NOT a big game or deer bullet, although one of my biggest mule deer died to a 70Ballistic in about .000000001 nano-seconds when I clobbered him with my .243 Ackley Improved ... I literally never saw him go down; one second he was there and then he was gone ... Bang Flop Dead.

Anyway, I hope this helps.

Blessings,

Steve

Interesting story Steve, thanks for sharing!

If I had known way back what I've known for a while now about the 243 and 95 BT I'd be the proud owner of a Browning Low Wall I passed on because it was a 243.

Steve this is good to hear out of the 95NBT. As I mentioned earlier in the thread I went to them when the 100 gr. Horn flat base was discontinued.( Though i still have a stash...) Only shot two critters with them that I can remember, a couple of Axis deer. Performance was spot on, and I plan to use them on more in a couple weeks.
It is a damn accurate bullet too.

Friend Ingwe,

Gale was a great man and a friend. I remember him "flying" different combinations and permutations of the 95 in what he called "The Government Ballistics Program."

He was so happy when he got it right.

For Gale, the 95 and the 70 were a personal thing. He was absolutely attached to the .243 Winchester and having developed what he truly believed were the perfect bullets for the two applications was HUGE.

Gale is still alive and kicking down in the SW somewhere. If I recall, his wife was a software designer and they moved to a place they love.

I miss him ... did I mention that he was a good guy?

Blessings,

Steve

Cool beans, folks like that and our own JB make life's road a little less bumpy...

My friend, I could not agree more. Johnny and Eileen are simply the BEST.

By the way (and I've thought about this a lot), I've taken the liberty of sending you a PM of my next blog. It's about an experience in Africa and I thought you might enjoy it.

Your friend Steve

The 100 gr. bthp have been hard to find the last year or so, we have switched over to the 95 gr. bt, they work. Rio7

Nice write up on the 95gr BT Steve!

Indeed, a great write up and one that inspires me to give it a good look on some Oklahoma pigs and whitetails.

Before Hornady Interlock and before Nosler partitions in 6mm/243, I only shot varmints with that caliber due to dismal performance of bullets available then. I've since used different bullets 95& greater on Antelope. I like only Hornady and Nosler bullets for game larger than coyotes in 243/6mm.

I haven't found a .243 bullet that won't kill deer expeditiously yet. That would include the Sierra Gameking 85 gr. BTHP, 95gr. Hornady SST, 100 gr. Hornady interlock FB, 100 gr. Core-Lokt, 100 gr. Federal power shok, and 100 gr. Power Point. My .223 with plain old 55 gr. Hornady sp's kills the hell out of them so I ain't too worried about finding/using the absolute bestest .243 bullet.

Deer aren't hard to kill when you hit em in the ribs, that's for sure. I do like a bullet that will get through a shoulder on occasion though.

It don't take much to get through a deer shoulder either. Actually much less than most hunters would believe. I once put a 38 gr. Power Lokt HP fired from a 5mm Remington rimfire magnum through a fokhorn bucks shoulder from 60 yards. He ran all of 30 yards and fell over dead. The bullet punched through the shoulder and exited behind the shoulder on the off side. Hard to believe maybe, but true nonetheless. I've also broke shoulders with several of the .243 bullets listed above, as well as the 55 gr. Hornady sp from my .223. In fact I put one of the 55 Hornady's through both shoulders of a big doe from a distance of 80 yards just a couple seasons back. She dropped like a lead balloon and I found what was left of the bullet just under the hide on the offside shoulder.

There's deer and then there's deer. Try that on a 250-300 lb mule deer buck and results might be different.

You may well be right. There ain't any 250-300 lb mule deer around here so never shot one. The above applies to whitetails only.

I shot over a dozen wolves,and countless coyotes with the 70gr.nosler BT,as well as several nice mule deer. They worked exceptionally well. I have since went to 105s after rebarreling and wanting a better bc for longer range. Those 70s kept virtually all the energy inside the animal, causing very quick kills.I did get some exits on coyotes and they were quite large. No tracking needed.

Why is there a 90 grain Nosler BT and a 95?

Is the 90 as good? I noticed that shooters' pro shop has the 90 grain ammunition on sale all the time.

http://www.shootersproshop.com/nosl...-ballistic-tip-ammunition-blem-20ct.html

Twist rates is my guess

Slower than 1 in 10?

Still some 12 twist 244s out there

I'm in.

Is there any difference in jacket thickness between the 90,95 and 100 gr. Nosler BT?

As far as 6mm bullets for deer go the only bad choices are the varmint bullets. Stocked up on 95 BT so that's what I will be using. But could just as well go Hornaday.

Had the non core lokt deflect off a deer's rib before and some boat tails that were loose in the jacket on recovery but really can't say any of them failed as they were all taken from dead deer.

I'll ask do you have any extensive experience of bullet failures with that shot?