Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Best .243 WIN load for Whitetail

I purchased MCT3's sweet Kimber Montana 243 with a 1:9 Douglas barrel, looking for a good whitetail load for a 2017 Kansas hunt.

To keep it simple I am not worried about being lead free for hunting here in CA, this gun will be my go to out of state Whitetail gun.

Federal 100's are pretty darn good.

Hard to beat the 100 grain Remington Coreloct Factory loading for accuracy and DRT results on whitetails. As a kid, I probably killed several truck loads of deer & hogs using that ammo here at the Ranch.

Winchester/Olin's 95 grain Deer Season XP shoots great groups in the three rifles that I've shot it from, my Marlin XS7, Remington 700 CDL-SF, and RAR-P.

95/100gr Partitions, as fast as you can push them. Makes the 243 a potent killer.

federal blue box 100 grainers

After looking at my Nosler reloading manual I am leaning towards this as my hand load and 100 gr Federal's as my factory load.

I got a few boxes of it. Killed my deer w reg 100gr WW PP last yr, worked but I want something to kill 'em just a little faster.
Double lunged at 50 yards, small hole in and out, looked like you stuck a finger through the lungs.
Shot to drop was 80 yards. Easy BT at halfway point (not needed but still looked to see what was what).
That ammo cloverleafed in my #1 RSI. Hope the Deer Season stuff is close.

100 grain Sierra, Hornady or Speer whichever shoots best on a max load of IMR-4350. You do your part and that will be a DRT combination.

The 95 gr Hornady SST and the 85 gr. Sierra BTHP will turn a deers lungs to soup.

What Bobby said. My second choice might be Federal Fusion, after that, Hornady American Whitetail or Remington Core Lokts.

95 gr, Partition with a lot of RL 26, Rem. 9 1/2 primers, and Nosler brass. 48 grains of RL 26 in a 22" barrel will get you in the 3140ish fps area.

I second what JPRO was sayin...I also have used 85gr. sierra HPBT, and the 95gr Federal Fusions,with great sucess...ScottyO.

For factory ammo, I would go with Federal Fusion 95 grain without any question. It's accurate, deadly, and penetrates well enough too.

Surprised no one has said it yet, but Barnes 80 gr TTSX works well. They run 3100 over a load of IMR 4831, Lapua brass and a F210.

39.5 grains of 3031 and a 80 grain Barnes TTSX runs 3282 fps average out of my sons .243

80 gr Barnes as fast as it will go with accuracy is my choice in a 243. Try the factory load. It did 1"ish in 2 243s for me. Did in two deer within 50 yards on behind the shoulder shots with two holes then you have your CA load as well!

To simplify questions like this, I only use Hornady flat base spire point bullets for all of my cartridges, 33 dies sets last count. This is the only bullet that has never let me down.

The Fusion shoots great from three .243 rifles here. The wife and son have killed four or five whitetail from single digit to about a hundred yards with one shot kills and exits.

Kansas deer can be pretty darned big. For a factory load I'd go with Fusion. Handloads would get a Partition.

Lots of excellent choices, I haven't killed anything with my .243 yet but there's some 85 grain Nosler partitions and 95 grain fusions waiting to be tried. If they fail to impress I will fall back to the corelockts it shoots into a 5 shot 3/8" group as long as you let the barrel cool.

100 grain Nosler Partition, Federal makes a hot premium factory load. I load them for my daughter. 42.4 grains IMR 4350, Federal Primers. Good on big deer and big hogs.

Whatever the gun likes. Sounds like you are not hand loading...

Factory Hornady "White-tail" 100 gr is one of several that my 700 likes. Likes it best., tho by a small margin over Factory Corelocts. DOES NOT LIKE 95 gr. Remington Accu-points (I think what called). Shoots a couple lighter bullets fine also, but I've always stuck with 100 gr for animals (sheep, caribou, moose).. Likes Federal 100 gr. also.

Best to shoot, not ask us- guns are all different.

I've heard good things about the Fusion too, tho I haven't shot it in my own rifle. The only rifle ( friend's) that I tried it in (his ammo), I wasn't impressed, but that might be the rifle's preference. My Corelockts in his gun performed much better, on paper.

Buy 3-4 boxes of 100 grain, 1 each of different brands and go shoot.

.243's are funny, and I don't like 'em much, tho I've had mine for going on 40 years and killed a chit-load with it....it's light to carry and no recoil to speak of.

I was looking online for Federal 243 ammo with the 100 grain partition. I kept finding advertisements
that said "moly coated."

Is this the same moly coating that was highly touted years ago but then found to be a pain to clean
out of the barrel?

My .243 rifle produces best accuracy with Black Hills Ammo featuring the Hornady 95 grain SST bullet. All bullet holes touching each other at 100 yards. A cheaper alternative is FEDERAL Fusion ammo with slightly less accuracy.

Sherwood

I've shot a bunch of Kansas whitetails with Hornady 95 grain SSTs from 20 out to 200 yards. All of 'em dead right there.

40-42 grains of H4350 behind a 95 NBT

Being 1-9" you're likely safe using 105 BTHP with 40-42 grains of RL17.

Swift 90 gr Sirocco with IMR 4064

This is right on it with the IMR version too.

My son and I have loaded 100gr Corelokts over 41gr of H4350 for years. Good accuracy and great performance.

With small calibers, I like to stay toward the heavy end of the bullets. I would stay with the 100 grain bullets. My go-to with my 6mm Rem was always the Hornady Interlock. I killed around 150 deer with that rifle before it shot out and became a .260. You can never go wrong with a Partition, either. I would stay away from the frangible bullets, personally, and WILL NOT shoot SST bullets ever again. You always want to make sure that you have plenty of penetration with a smaller caliber.

back many years ago, when my lad turned 12, I gave him a Ruger 77 in .243 for his birthday. He is pushing 50 now, and that Ruger is still his main hunting rifle. As you say, 'truck loads' of deer and hogs, using nothing but the 100 grain Remington Core-Lokt factory ammo.

95 gr. NBTs....

Was never a .243 fan until my daughter started hunting and I set her up with one shooting Barnes 85gr TSX's with IMR 4831. That rifle and load has taken a lot of deer and I have never had reason to experiment with anything else. I would like to try partitions but have no reason to stray from what works.

I just use 100 gr Corelokts Remington factory loads. Not super fast but accurate and deadly on dear.

Ted,

I took a few deer in Kansas last year using the 95BT - my first go with that bullet in the .243.
So, with that little bit of experience, I might suggest staying off the shoulder(s).

Hard to go wrong with a lot of the suggestions given, especially for whitetatils.

If you are hand loading, yet another one to look into is the 100 grain speer BTSP. I've killed antelope to elk with it, without issue.

I know very little about factory loads, but doubt you could get a bad choice from mainstream loadings.

Scott, a bowl or two of strawberry jello mixed with that ground shoulder meet enhances the flavor...

LOL. It was ground alright.
Old habits are hard to break sometimes - will see if the 90gr Accubond can stay together a wee bit more this year.

When I hunted with a 243 I hunted with Federal,Remington, and Win 100 gn factory loads. I had the best results with Winchester and worst with Remington.

Was looking to buy brass when Shooters Pro Shop sent an email stating they had .243 WIN 90 gr Etips (Blem) on sale for 16.95 a box!

Ordered 5 boxes to use for this year and will start reloading using the Nosler brass.

Poyfect!

This x2 is what I'm loading. I stocked up on 95 grain partitions way back when the 100 grainer was a sort of semi spitzer. I have not found a 100 gr. bullet that was not a go for the 243 but this is one time that I recommend a premium bullet for deer hunting. The sub 6mm calibers will do fine most of the time except when they don't so in smaller calibers the added assurance of a premium bullet is nice to have.