Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles I went plain vanilla...243 Win

I have a fresh SS Tikka T3x chambered in 243 win on its way. 1-10 twist. I've got plenty of brass and primers.

This is going to be a dual purpose rifle. Coyotes and deer. What bullets are you using to hammer whitetails with your 10 twist 243's? I've got a bunch of 95 grain Nosler BT's, and was thinking about the TTSX. Any others? Good powder recommendations too!

Ive got good 223's, 6.5, and .308's. figured the 243 might be fun!

90-95gr Nosler BTs, loaded to nosler book length with 43.0gr of IMR4831 is tight in my .243 Tikka T3x.

Also, the cheap Federal Whitetail 100gr shoot single hole in that gun as well.

I might have some 4831 in the shop. I have a ton of Varget and H4350.

One of the best cartridges of all time. My buddies son dumped a northern AZ cow elk a couple falls ago at 160 yards with an 80grn TTSX out a ruger american compact (18" barrel), complete pass through. I bet Varget or H4350 would be perfect for those 80grn TTSX. I have an old M77 varminter from grandfather that shoots ragged holes with 37.0 of Varget and 87grn Vmax. Wouldn't be a good deer load but that load will blow the wheels off any coyote you can see.

Sweet! I'll be looking at load data tonight!

I have a buddy that has that rifle and has done well shooting the Fusion 95 grain ammo with it. Accurate and works well on both deer and antelope.

I load the 80 TTSX for grandkids and my 99’s. The grandkids haven’t lost an animal yet. I’ve killed a few pigs with 99’s. DRT. I would consider the TTSX

95 grain NBT and 4350 are a match made it Heaven for a .243.

I have a Tikka 243 (LH). For deer I shoot the 80 TTSX. 39.0 of Varget at 2.700" is how I run it. They shoot plenty accurate for what that bullet needs to do. I clocked that load at 3221 fps. Hammers the heck out of deer. The first time I used it on a deer, it seemed like it was hit with a much larger bullet, based on performance and blood trail. I have put a few through heavy bone, and not one has stayed in a deer. Works great on turkeys and coyotes as well.

The best accuracy load I have is the 70 grain Berger hollow point over 40.5 grains of Varget. That will stack as many bullets in one tiny hole as you want to.

I have loaded the 87 grain Vmax, but it really didn't do any better than the lighter bullets. I recently loaded some of the 65 grain Vmax and those shoot extremely accurate as well at 3385 fps.
Everything I load in it now is over Varget. The 87s were H4350, but I won't be loading any more of those.

Now BS will come on here and bitch about the "retard" twist rate and that fact that you can't shoot 137 grain bullets loaded to 3.58976543" out of a Tikka. I can't, I'm glad I can't, and there is absolutely no need to.

You want to use one bullet for coyotes and deer?

95gr Partition over an upper middling load of Varget.

Sierra 85 gr GameKing will work for both, I haven't shot a lot of coyotes with it but the few I have died right there with minimal hide damage, and it sure as heck is a good deer bullet.

drover

Looking for two different loads. Probably going with the 95 ballistic tip and the 80 TTSX testing for deer.

For coyotes, a lighter v max, or something like that.

Good info here, thank you!

I’ve had excellent performance on Southern Whitetails with the Berger 87 grain VLD. It’s a killer!

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...r-rifle-recipes-for-failure#Post14486972

See my comments in this thread. I'm a big fan of the 80 gr TTSX. But maybe they only work for kids......

I've got box of 90 Sierra tipped gamekings that I plan to try to use year around. If they act up, I'll simply go back to 70 NBT for 11 months 95 partitions for a month.

Plain vanilla?? My 243 is a used 700 ADL synthetic that I bought on the cheap for a donor. Shot it before tearing it down & it became part of the clan.

Not one of my favorites 30 years ago, but with the constant introduction of bullets the 243 becomes more versatile every year. A good one.

70gr Nosler Ballistic Tips over 42.0grs of Varget.
4 shots. Didnt want to shoot 5 so I didnt screw this up.
It's a 1980's era Remington Varminter HB.

100 grain partition for deer, best bullet I've found.

^^^THIS^^^................I've never had a 243 that would not shot this bullet accurately. For an "all around" bullet for the 243, you cannot find one better.