Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters .243 Winchester bullet advice

Do you want holes are dead deer? By going to a stouter or mono bullet the kills may not be as dramatic and slower. The Partitions have a soft nose and so to the Accu/Interbonds but the others especially the monos will do less damage. Good for saving meat but not necessarily for quick kills. The opposite approach would be to use even more frangible bullets like the Scenar and Berger. I will be giving this a try with the Berger 95 grain Classic Hunters. But I will also have the 95 BT as a back up. I am also uusing this concept with the 150 BT in the 300 WM. This ought to keep S Tex. deer out of the brush.

Yeah, and it also depends on where you're hunting. Plains or bush?

We don't get many shots beyond 300 yd. Wyoming is gonna be different, I think. Most of the deer in Onterrible are probably taken at 100 yd.

I've had a 243 for most of my adult life because we cannot use a bullet larger than .275 dia.(yeah, I know) south of the French River. I've taken six deer with my 243 using cup and core bullets. Nothing farther than 200 yd. Most went down within 25 yd or so with either a 90 gr. Speer or a 100 gr. Rem CL.

What about an 85 gr. Speer or Nosler? Just putting that out there.

That's actually a fair bit more sane than the idiotic "shotgun only" zones found all over America...

Especially since many of of today's "shotguns" (and muzzleloaders) are essentially at least 200-yard rifles.

At the other end are the "traditionalists" who blast away with slugs and buckshot in smoothbore bird guns.

Have seen both at work. Dunno what the point of the regulations might be anymore.

I should further explain that this calibre restriction applies if you are hunting small game, which includes coyotes. A small game license is required to hunt them. As a result, when I went deer hunting, I carried a 243, just in case I spotted a coyote. Or, the reverse. When hunting coyotes during deer season, besides having to purchase a deer license, you needed a rifle less than .275.

It’s a montage of regulations and legal cartridges to be sure. For example, I would have loved Iowa to legalize cartridges like the 30/30 and the 35 Rem when as you say, John, we have muzzleloaders loaded with smokeless to make 200-250 yd loads and even longer to hear tell..


The whole idea in Iowa is to prohibit longer range weapons. I don’t see where those two old classics would be much more of a potential thread than all the other stuff roaming the river bottoms. Plus would have had the opportunity to use some older classic lever guns. But so it goes.

Another vote for 95gr or 100gr Nosler Partitions... Have never caught one in KY WT's...

Steve, I think you may want to clarify your statement regarding the restriction on the use of bullets of more than .275 calibre. The most recent copy of the hunting regulations I have are for 2018. In that copy on page 79 it states that the restriction applies to counties which are south of Highway 7 which would be 125 to 150 miles south of the French River.

The section covering Firearms has to be read carefully to avoid confusion.

Jim

Yes, you're right. I'm almost always north of Parry Sound.

There are more changes for Ontario hunters this year. Mandatory reporting of more species. A license summary must be carried, and they have replaced the tag system with seals.

I quit hunting deer with 243 many years ago for just that reason....
No doubt the better bullets of today may work better but I found the 257 Roberts more reliable with 117 gr bullets...

I've not used it, but if I was looking to get the most penetration from a bullet out of the 243 Winchester, I'd start right here.

100g Hornady FLAT BASE with a load of R#26 and federal 215's will exit deer most of the time, speed is a minimum of 3150 out of a 24" barrel and some barrels are most accurate at 3200 fps.

We shot a lot of large bucks in Nebraska with the 95g Partition which we found to be more accurate than the 100g partition with IMR 4831 and 9 1/2 primers. The deal on the 95g Partitions is complete penetration, breaking bones all the way.

I have total confidence in the 100g Hornady flat base bullet with R#26, and those Nebraska large corn fed white tails weighed 200+ lbs were shot no closer than 300 yards with a load at 3000 fps with IMR 4350. We have killed a Lot of deer and hogs with the 100g Hornady flat base and bt. The flat base is a stouter bullet in the hornady.

In the 243 that I have, throat is getting a tad long, and I shoot 44.5g of R#19 with the 85g tsx with a Win primer. This is a very stout load and work up to it in your rifle. Jump the bullet .050 from the lands. I have shot several does from end to end with this bullet. I am NOT a true believer on mono's and like to break them down with shoulder shots. I once had a 140 lb white tail Buck stand behind a 8" pine tree and stare at me at a distance of about 80 yards. I was sitting in a root ball of a big oak tree that had been taken down by a tornado the year before. I slowly raised my rifle, and aimed right for his chest knowing that the bullet would probably be stopped in the pine, but that buck flopped at the shot with that 85g tsx going through the tree. I called Barnes on the situation and they said that the bullet is not made to open up on trees, but flesh.

I have a friend in Ca that has had great luck with the 80g ttsx on hogs and deer.

HUNT for R#26 in the 243 for 95-100g bullets, fed 215's, speed puts the 95g Partition at 3300 at the accuracy node.

Hunting is often a proposition where you don't have exactly text book perfect shots. Consider quartering shots, coming and going, make your choice.

I have shot a few animals with the older 85xbt Barnes, at 2900fps and it really needed some resistance. I killed Axis deer and even an heavy Oryx, but zipped right through 2 jackrabbits! The 100gr Corlokt was the ultimate in the 6mm Remington on Est Tx deer. I myself much prefer the faster 6mms over the 243 or similar wildcats. I just think they kill better, but "its sixes", as they say. I know one fellow who swears by the 95 Partition in his 240w and another who uses nothing but the 100gr Hornady Boat Tail, even on elk! The last animal I killed with any 6mm was 2001, a 90gr NBT from a 6mm/284 on a 150yd antelope doe. Fist sized exit, but it was antelope. Good luck to you Pard.

Thanks all. I found a couple of boxes of 95 grain Nosler Partitions on sale locally (they were out of the 100 grainers). I'll probably get them loaded to try next season. Thanks again.

Killed a nice weird antlered 8 pt last evening with my 243 and 100 Partitions. He was moving at a pretty good clip following some does across a small clearing so had to shoot quickly. Range was about 60 yards. At the shot he slowed and turned toward me then turned broadside and stopped. I was sure he was going down but shot again just to be sure. Last shot was about 30 yards. Both bullets exited doing massive damage to his lungs. Looked to me like the damage done by a 7mm08 or 308.


This bullet worked great! Now, what would an 80 grain TTSX have done?

I shot a decent size buck last weekend,first one with a .243. Distance was between 100-150 yards, quartering towards. Shot him with a 105 Hornady HPBT. Hit tight behind onside shoulder(I had intended to hit the shoulder) and exited near back of lungs on offside. He went about 40 yards, bled right away,not much for the first 20 yards but pretty heavy last 20. I'll try it again, was pretty happy with the performance.

So a 270 is not legal! The 6.5 are the biggest normal bore size, that is odd for sure.

I would have to check the regulations, but I believe that still applies.

So I could use a 264 Winchester magnum but not a 44-40, just not seeing the logic.

Couple of comments on a typical long-winded Campfire thread involving "calibers" and bullets:

Know an American woman who on her very first big game hunt, a safari in South Africa, killed three animals with one shot each, using a .243 with 85-grain Nosler Partitions. They were an impala (about the size of a typical whitetail buck), and a gemsbok and blue wildebeest, both of which are animals in the 500-600 pound class considered among the hardest to drop of the plains game. In fact many men advise nothing smaller than a .338 Winchester Magnum.

Have killed a bunch of deer from Texas to Montana with various cup-and-core bullets from .243's, and have yet to see one fail to penetrate sufficiently. This includes a 105-grain Speer Hot-Cor than lost its jacket just under the skin of a basic 4x4 Montana buck (the core kept penetrating and dropped him), and doe-culls where the 100-grain "blue box" Federal load broke both shoulders and the spine--and exited.