Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting need 243 load for grandson for white tail

Interesting. I haven't clocked mine (Rem factory barrel cut to 20") with that combination, but I can certainly see how getting the charge weight down compared to the 4350 class stuff reduces the blast. My 250 Savage burning 35 gr. H4895 under 100's is like a pop gun.

My 10 year old daughter was fine with Federal Blue Box 100’s. More accurate than they should be.

$15 at Walmart.

& they do the job very well, in our experience.

As do federal fusion 95gr & Hornady Superformance 95gr SST & Winchester PP 100gr, if you are looking to factory loads.

When he was younger and smaller one of my nephews started out with 95 grain SST's on top of 41 gr. H4350 and did fine. Good hearing protection kept the blast from bothering him, and the stock fit and good recoil pad meant the minor kick of the 243 was no issue. These days he's a wrestler and JV defensive end so maybe I should see if he'd like me to bring my 300 Wby. out of retirement.

I can attest to the good effectiveness of these.

To be perfectly honest about it, I don't think a 243 generates enough recoil to warrant having to reload "mild" loads for. Having said that, I've dropped back a few grains of powder on a load that the grandkids were using when they were practicing, but when loading up a hunting load for them, it may not be a max load, but neither will it be downsized either. Accuracy first, but then I'll go for the fastest load I can get and still maintain the level of accuracy I'm after.

As can I....

I get just under 2700 fps using Hornady 95 SST over 44 gr of h4831sc in compact 20" bbl. Good success on deer and recoil is not offensive. I always use ear protection so can not comment or recoil blast. Yes, that is below book stats.

Been down this road with grandkids several times. Hodgdon says in their reduced loads section that you can load as little as 60% of the maximum load listed of H4895 for a given bullet. I have found this to provide very low recoil and accurate ammunition.
Phil

Yep. My nephews have been killing deer with Factory 80 gr Remington Corelocts since they were 7 or 8 years old.
Plenty accurate, low recoil, and kills whitetails DRT.

OP

the 243 is hardly marginal for Virginia deer. I've killed lots with that cartridge.

For a youngster I like loads with 85 and 90 grain bullets and starting loads with either 4895 or varget. Plenty fast enough and noticeably less muzzle blast than slower powders. I've used 85 Sierra gamekings, 87 hornady soft points and 90 Sierra gamechangers to good effect on that weight class.

The 70 nosler ballistic tip does a good job too on my experience with very little recoil.

Factory 80s or 85s work well too, just make sure it's not too soft a bullet

Best of luck to the young fellow.

Getting in late but my daughter-in-law killed her first buck yesterday with a 243. She uses 80 grain. TTSX. The exit wound was impressive to say the least. Deer was broadside at 60 yards and she hit right behind the front shoulder. I could have stuck 4 fingers in the exit wound. She said that the deer never moved. I believe it

Fed Fusion 95 is dang good stuff !

Rem CL, Win PP, Federal Fusion, Hornady American Whitetail l will work very well.

Sierra 85gr HPBT over 24gr of IMR or Hodgdon 4895.

Any factory 95 or 100 grain works but if loading I like hornady sst and nosler bt.. My grandkids have had success with both

my 9 yr old son shoots a tikka t3 compact in 7mm-08 shooting factory nosler 120 bts. so, i'd figure yours could handle factory loaded 95 bt's just fine and dandy.
Big Ed

FWIW, I used some reduced loads with 90 gr Speers and Blue Dot for my daughters when the were each 8 years old to practice with. They would have been plenty potent to a couple hundred yards, but just substituted 85 Nosler SB full power reloads for hunting (with proper sight in of course) and they never felt the difference when shooting game. The reduced loads had low noise and good accuracy and velocity with very minimal recoil in a Model 7.

Loaded 80 TTSX for granddaughter at reduced load with H4895, increased as she got older. She is 17, now, shoots full power Creedmoor loads. She went to range with her Dad yesterday, liked his 270 with 150’s. She is 5’4, maybe 110 lbs.

I found the factory Remington ammo and Winchester combined technologies (95 nbt) were easy for the kids to shoot I typically reload so I don’t have tons of experience with factory ammo for kids on this

Any of the above will be plenty for deer with recoil easily managed by a kid

I will say a 95 nbt above 2700 is capable of putting even the big deer down In a hurry. Never left me feeling under gunned