I have a Tikka 243 (LH). For deer I shoot the 80 TTSX. 39.0 of Varget at 2.700" is how I run it. They shoot plenty accurate for what that bullet needs to do. I clocked that load at 3221 fps. Hammers the heck out of deer. The first time I used it on a deer, it seemed like it was hit with a much larger bullet, based on performance and blood trail. I have put a few through heavy bone, and not one has stayed in a deer. Works great on turkeys and coyotes as well.
The best accuracy load I have is the 70 grain Berger hollow point over 40.5 grains of Varget. That will stack as many bullets in one tiny hole as you want to.
I have loaded the 87 grain Vmax, but it really didn't do any better than the lighter bullets. I recently loaded some of the 65 grain Vmax and those shoot extremely accurate as well at 3385 fps.
Everything I load in it now is over Varget. The 87s were H4350, but I won't be loading any more of those.
Now BS will come on here and bitch about the "retard" twist rate and that fact that you can't shoot 137 grain bullets loaded to 3.58976543" out of a Tikka. I can't, I'm glad I can't, and there is absolutely no need to.
Good info here, thank you!
