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.