Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 243 Winchester factory ammo for Antelope.

Good to read that "Any of the inexpensive factory 100-grain loads, whether Federal, Hornady, Remington, Winchester or whatever." which I suggested in my first post have all been endorsed by others since then.

JB, years back I had a Sako Deluxe Sporter AII, had a sporter bbl, thinner than the Foresters, it also had a 'ring' about a foot from the muzzle you could see on the outside as you looked down the bbl. I fired a 7 shot group one afternoon using red and white box Federal 100gr, and put 5 of 7 in 1.1"....oh, at 200 yds. '

Never shot a BAD group with any 6mm bore, or 243 for that matter. Shot many groups around 1/2" and some better around 3/8" - handloads at 100 yds. Yes, factory ammo works fine in most cases.

Mine really likes the 95 grain Federal Fusion. It worked really well on the only antelope we’ve shot with it. About $21 a box.

Since my reloading stuff is still packed away, my son will be using the same load this fall in WY. It's been great for us on whitetails, so I'm confident it'll do fine on pronghorn should he steer them in the right direction.

Haven't used it on Antelope, but they work very well on feral pigs and coyotes for long shots in both my .243 RAR Predator and my .243AI. Accurate and consistent. Not the cheapest, but great factory ammo.

Ed

Federal Fusion 95 grain is the most effective and consistently accurate that we have used on deer-sized game.

Quite an endorsement, must be great stuff.

The 95 Ballistic Tip has been my fave Go to bullet in BRs and 243s. Killed using several others, all work when put in vitals no doubt. Some just do things better, it's a balance of expansion which is needed in small calibers as we know, and penetration/weight retention to take out vitals from various angles. The 85 Barnes has quite a reputation, but so does the Sierra GKHP...just prefer more weight for longer shots, and tougher bullets for bad angles when one cannot get a broadside shot.

Jack O'Connor man-splained it about 50-odd years ago. People simply shoot better when they aren't worried about getting whacked with recoil. The most common cartridge fitting that requirement is the .243, though there certainly are others.

Yup. Same here, but in 6.5 Creedmoor 125gr. Really accurate and kills like a lightning strike.

I’d buy a box each of Browning BXR 97gr, Federal Fusion 95gr, Hornady American Whitetail 100gr, Remington Core-Lokt 100gr and Winchester Deer Season XP 95gr then let the rifle tell me what to use.

All of these factory loads offer nearly perfect performance for these applications and all are widely available and easy to find almost anywhere.

6mm Rem factory Fed blue box 100 grainers fired from a Rem 760 pump. Works fine on TX whitetails. Going to whack a pig with this load the next Campfire pig hunt.
Bob

Scoped and sighted in my uncle's 760 6MM w/same ammo and experienced similar accuracy. I was very surprised.

I tried the reg 100gr SP WW stuff in a 20.5" Ruger #1 RSI.
Deer was 50 yards, double lunged, almost broadside.
Rib hit on entrance.
Little hole in and out, he ran 50 yards, stopped for a couple seconds, and then walked 75 more yards and fell over.
So I went over and popped him again.

The ammo shot great in my rifle (cloverleaf at 75 yards.........only had 4X and was woods hunting so zeroed for that).

Switched to 95gr Deer Season XP and saw nothing big enough to test on the following yr.

Sold that rifle ( a little too pretty to push the creek bottoms) and got a beater .35 rem 760.
Still have a 700 in .243 though.

Reg 100gr WW.............only one kill. Not impressed.
Bought a few boxes of their 150 gr .30-06 stuff.

If raining I'll take my bad weather rifle out and give one a whirl.

+1 348, that is it in a nut shell. They are so easy to shoot well, you do. Only factory 243's I've ever used were 100 gr Corelokt's a guy could quit right there for 243 ammo. I didn't, I used to buy component 100 gr Corelokt's and load them to an honest 3000fps and they were even better. Over the last 40 years I've used 100 & 95 gr Partitions,105 gr Speers, 100 gr Corelokt's , 100gr SP & BTSP Hornady's. Far as I'm concerned the 100 gr SP Hornady was the best of all, I regularly ran them over 3000 fps by carefully loading them with H4831 and IMR 7828 with loads that are no longer listed in newer manuals. Not paper velocities but chrono graphed. Between the 243 and the 6mm Rem I've taken over 30 antelope and 1/2 doz deer. I've never noticed that the 25-06 kills them any deader only causes more meat damage.
I've a double antelope doe tag for this fall, my old 700 BDL in 243 with a M8 6x Leupold is ready to roll with whatever load I use. Just 1 month away and I can see, smell, and taste those bacon wrapped loin stks on the grill with a Bullit rye in hand. MB

An update on this 243........

I mounted a 3x9 Leupold and as suggested by several tried four factory 95 - 100 grain loads, 2 Federal, one Winchester and one Hornady. The 100 grain Hornady Whitetail was the best by far in this rifle with several 3 shot groups at 1/2 inch, some slightly less. And this from a $279 Savage Axis rifle! Performed well in the field also. One shot at just under 250 yards.

Nice job and antelope. Looks like you found what worked!

Congrats on the buck! I've killed several antelope and whitetail with the 100 grain Hornady Whitetail load.

It's a bit slow at 2784 from a 22" barrel, but it's cheap, groups well and has always left a quarter sized exit. I suspect it'd work well on cow elk too, but I haven't had a chance to try that yet.

yup....fully agree

Another vote for Hornady American Whitetail ammo.......And I've never even owned a 243..... This is based on a couple guys who shoot 243's at my clubs rifle range and that stuff really impressed me...... Accurate stuff that's affordable. If they were here they would highly recommend it.

Another vote for Winchester XP 95 gr..! Good stuff.