Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles best powders for light bullets in 243

I have a couple boxes of each of 55gr NBT and 60 hp Sierras and 58/65 Vmax and wondering what is the best powder to use for these bullets in a 243Win?
I have several powders on hand but reloading books list a bunch of powders and wondering where to start.

VARGET.

I reload for 4 different 243's. From bullet weight 85 grains on down to 58, I use one powder in all of them with very good success.......W760.

Something near Varget or a hair slower to 414/760, is going to give you top speed with the light bullets, so good recommendations above. I ended up trying H380 (inherited a few pounds from my dad) with some 65's (got several hundred, again from dad) and got near 3700 and acceptable accuracy, so I use that. Mostly just for practice, but I bet it would be hell on predators if I ever got out to hunt them.

I've used Varget and W760 for light bullets (55g NBT and 70g NBT) in my .243 with good accuracy and some smokin' velocity. If I remember correctly I'm using the Varget for the 55g and the 760 for the 70g.

I have chronograph the 55g at 4050fps out of a Rem 700 CDL and 70g at 3715fps out of the same shooter.

The 55g has been used on some average sized mule deer bucks with immediate results and the trajectory is super flat.

Good luck in your search.

IMR 4064 works very well with 55-80 grain bullets in the .243.

414/760 will always be the go-to powder for pure velocity.... though you gotta be careful with warm/hot loads when it gets above 85* or so.

The OP didn't say exactly what he is trying to accomplish....

do you want the fastest velocity possible... or

fast velocity and dead nuts accuracy...

or casual plinking loads? maybe for the kids?

good choices have already been listed for the first two scenarios...

H 380 will break 4000 fps with 60 grains and under...

4064 and 4895 give fast velocity and dead nuts accuracy in my 243s...

then there is the casual plinking loads, practice loads or for taking the kids out shooting..

for that, 25 to 30 grains of 3031... or 20 to 30 grains of 4198...
and that is for bullets weights from 55 grains to 100 grains....

Varget worked well for 55s and 60s for me.

IMR-4064 or RL-15 should be top contenders. Always had good luck with the 4064 myself.

The 243 is one of those cartridges that work with a number of different powders.

With 55 grain bullets, 41.5 grains of Varget is an accuracy load. It's not a hot load, but is very accurate. Back around 1995 I switched from IMR 4895 to Varget, as Varget gave me equally good accuracy and was less temperature sensitive. I liked that feature when I was shooting woodchucks in 90 degree temps.

I have always liked Varget in the 243 with bullets up to 75 grains. I have loaded thousands of rounds of the 55 grain/41.5 grains of Varget loads for several shooting buddies. They all like it. However, I think I will try the new IMR 4166 in my 243. I like the copper-removing feature.

Thanks for all contributing to this thread. I have Varget but trying to see other powders that would work since everyone lists Varget as the powder of choice for many calibers.I also have H414 (same as 760) and I-4064 to try.
I found a pound of W760 that I have not opened and the price tag was $17.95 from my LGS. So that is what I loaded developed loads with the Sierra 75gr HP.
Will try the W760 with 70 NBT, and eventually 55 NBT, 58/65 Vmax with other powders and see how it shoots this weekend.

Seafire: of course we all like velocity and accuracy but I would pick accuracy at this point.
I have plenty of legacy powder..have none of the powders that are the newer fangled powders everyone is using.

I am trying out the new SPS Stainless 243 so we'll see...

I shoot 62gr varmint grenades with IMR4320 out of my 243, works really well.

I used to use IMR-4064 for lightweight bullets in the .243 Win., but stumbled across Ramshot Big Game a couple years ago, and now that is all I use with 70 gr Nosler Varmageddon tipped bullets or Speer TNT. The current .243 likes flat based bullets. In my past experience, I seemed to get better accuracy with IMR-4064 than Varget, and for all the advertising and word of mouth about Varget's temperature stability, I have blown primers with below max book loads with Varget, something that has yet to occur with 4064 or Big Game. And there is no comparison with consistent thrown charges with Big Game and the stick powders. Big Game is pretty much set it and forget it with the Uniflow powder measure, just like Ramshot TAC.

For general plinking and small varmints Seafire has some very nice Blue Dot loads. Everyone should have that data and at least try them out.

This^^^^

My best was RL15 with 55-60 grain bullets. 414/760 is pretty fine also,.

HM

380 and 760 sure throw nice.

I was testing a load with W760 in my 243 Winchester with FC brass. This FC brass I got all the brass at the range but all 20 of the brass was in a box that was bought at the LGS that owned the range. This is the first time I loaded with FC brass and the fact they all were in the box to me is better than getting from the trash can.

I loaded the Sierra 75gr HP (#1510) with W760 and Fed 210M and the brass had really black necks when cleaning the brass. I recall in previous post where maybe a magnum primer should be used to burn all of the powder. Does the extreme dirty neck indicate powder did not all burn completely? I have a box of CCI magnum that I can try.

My load consist of this:
243Winchester
44.4 W760 (One book/one caliber indicates 45.4 as max load)
Fed 210M
Group was around 1.5" or so but it was windy that day. Maybe Sierra will not work in my rifle (Rem M70 SPS) and I have the NBT 70gr to try next (with Rem brass) but I am going to increase the load to 45.4 and along with seating to see if it can group better.

My question for this post is does the extreme dirty neck indicate not all powder is burned up and that I should try the magnum primer? After all W760 is ball powder...

I have tried several different powders in the 243, and I reload for 4 of them. I use more 760 than anything else combined, primarily because I shoot more of the lighter weight bullets than I do the heavier ones. Most of my loads for 58-85 grain bullets are either at max, or slightly above the listed max, and I 've yet to see any pressure signs. I have also worked up some very accurate loads with the lighter bullets using H-380. I have never used magnum primer. In my deer loads, mostly 95-100 grain bullets, I'm not 100% satisfied with 760. I've used IMR4350, IMR4064,Big Game, along with 760 and another powder or two that I can't recall at the moment. 4350 seems to work the best, but I'm going to try some R-26 and see what that does.