Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Best factory .243 deer load.

Yes I know I should reload for it but I may spin a 7-08 barrel on it next year so not anxious to buy dies and components for that. It seems to shoot anything I feed it into what I call hunting suitable accuracy, 6" plate from field positions out to 300 yards. So federal premium partition, Barnes ttsx, federal fusion, or hornady gmx for premium loads or 100 grain Winchester PP, Remington coreloc or federal powershok?

If you are just shooting deer, from what Ive heard, it would be 100 gr. Federal fusion.

ingwe: FWIW: If their website is correct, the 243 Fusion deer load is 95 gr

In my experience it depends a lot on the size of the deer. I've shot a bunch of "average" deer with the .243 using various cup-and-core bullets in the 100-grain range, including the plain "blue box" Federal and Winchester Power Point 100-grain factory loads. The only "problem" ever encountered was with a 105-grain Speer Hot-Cor that left its jacket at the entrance hole on a small whitetail buck shot at around 200 yards--but the core kept on penetrating and dropped the buck.

After chronographing a bunch of .243 factory ammo over the years, I suspect one reason it works pretty well with 100-grain cup-and-cores is the muzzle velocity rarely exceeds 2900 fps from a typical 22-inch barrel, and is often around 2800 fps. Such velocities don't put much stress on a bullet.

If I was specifically hunting bigger deer with a .243, roughly defined as bucks weighing over 200 pounds on the hoof, then I'd opt for a stouter bullet. The Fusion would probably be OK, but despite fairly high retained weight I haven't been overly impressed with the penetration of Fusions, especially at closer ranges or when they hit bone more substantial than a rib, because they expand pretty wide.

The Fed Fusions are 95 gr. as I recall.. and moly coated for some reason.... Have heard the fusions work very well though.

After read MD's post I suspect the reason the fusions have worked well around here is we have very small deer in KS...

The moly thing is what has kept me from trying them...

Federal makes very good factory ammo IMO. I shoot Federal Vital-Shoks in .243 and .260 and have not been disappointed in performance on deer. Either the Fusion SP or Vital-Shok partitions or ballistic tips should serve you well. Barnes Vor-TX 80 TTSX are also great loads.

Another factory round to consider is the Winchester 95 grain Ballistic Silvertip. It's topped with a coated version of the Nosler 95 BT which is a really good deer bullet.

Yup, 95 grain Fusion ammo has been my go to the last 5 years with my .243. Not deer but its accounted for a truckload++ of antelope out to 350 yards. Good stuff & accurate IMHO.

I've watched the .243 kill deer since it first came out. It has an excellent rep for killing deer, sometimes even well beyond 300 yds. That includes an ex-wife who put an old Pronghorn buck down on the spot even the hit was too far back...
Back in the 60's and 70's regular contributor to Guns and Ammo, Les Bowman said it and the .244/6mm Remington had a better record on elk than did the .338 WM. His recommendation was the still very good Sierra 100 gr. spiter.
But if you insist on the very best, from what I've seen personally, the 95-100 Nosler Partition is the choice. Based on what I've seen the Barnes TSX/TTSX do, I would say they are right there as well. So, it's your call. E

If anybody is making a factory load with a 95 NBT it would be the shizz...

Federal Premium:

OAD NO. USE CALIBER BULLET WEIGHT
GRAINS
BULLET STYLE BALLISTIC COEFFICIENT BRAND
P243J
Medium Game 243 Win. (6.16x51mm) 95 Nosler® Ballistic Tip® 0.378 Vital-Shok®

My earlier post:

My son has been using the Winchester Deer Season XP 95 grain extreme point with great success from his Savage 99F in 243.

we have killed a pile of schit with 243/6mm. 100 grain fed. blue box, winchester power point, or hornady interlocks. all killed very very well

Travis's favorite load for the 243 is a 55 grain 22-250...

I've used the 100 grain blue box Federal, 100 grain core lokt, 100 grain power point and 95 grain Hornady SST with complete success. Broke the onside shoulder joint on a mid size buck as it quatered to me with the blue box Federal a couple years ago. Turned the shoulder joint to shrapnel, trashed the lungs and exited at the last rib on the other side. That said, the Hornady SST does the most internal damage by far and puts deer down fast with lung shots. It also penetrates better than most here would believe. I shot a huge old doe head on, square in the brisket from 30 yards with one a few years back. Blew the top of her heart off, turned her lungs to purple jelly, blew a silver dollar sized hole through her liver and was lost in the paunch.

I have used Federals with the Sierra 85-gr HPBT to good effect on coyotes to deer. It seems to be counter intuitive but this hollow point seems to be pretty tough.

I don't read your posts anymore.

you are dead to me.

I thought that was his fave 7-08 load....