Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Do people buy Model 70 WSSMs in 243?

One of the local shops has one for over a year now, they've marked it down to 479, I think it could be had for less.

Spot

I believe it's a dud of a cartridge in terms of sales. I have one in the Ultimate Shadow model (crf action) and really like it. Accuracy is awesome with 55-grain BST's, but the complete opposite with 95-grain BST's.

I'd much rather have a 6mmAI. If I thought I needed a hot 243 cal.

There is a dealer near me selling Ultimate Shadow .223 & .243 WSSM's for $418. May be why that one is still around. Personally I paid them a little more for the .25 WSSM because I just don't like .243's of any flavor.

When the WSSMs first came out I asked a clerk at Cabelas in Ft Worth TX how they were selling and he said the .223 & .243 WSSMs were selling like hot cakes. The .204 Ruger was the hottest seller of all he said. They could not keep brass in for any of them. For a while all the WSSMs were on clearance, so I guess they cooled off big time after the initial rush.

-Lou

I have 2 Winchester/USRA stainless Ultimate Shadows in 243 WSSM, plus 1 for each of my 2 kids, for a total of 4. I also had a Winchester/USRA 70 Super Shadow in 243 WSSM, but I pulled the barrel and installed a 1 in 14" twist Shilen in 25 WSSM. To say that I like that rifle would be an extreme understatement.

I really like the 25 WSSM and think that the 223 WSSM might have been more popular if it had a quicker rate of twist, since all 3 WSSM cartridges share the same 1 in 10" rate of twist. The 25 WSSM seems like the most flexible of the bunch, but the 243 WSSM seems like kind of a 'tweener to me.

Jeff

I suspect the WSSM's are going to have a very small (read: tiny) following........but downright fanatical following.................

Give it a decade, and we'll be having awsome knockdown drag out debates involving the WSSM's

Casey

my barber bought one, and he is extremely happy with it... it is his long range prairie dogger, and if i'm not mistaken, i believe that i heard him remark that they are pretty popular amongst his crowd... he's got enough brass in captivity to wear out 2-3 barrels.....

Id think i would rather get the 223 wssm Hornady V-Max
BulletWeight 40 grs
Powder Alliant Reloader 15
PowderWeight 46.5 grs
Primer Federal 210M
Brass Make Winchester
Barrel Length 26 (inches)
Velocity 4500 fps
Group 0.25 (inches by 3 shot at 100 yds)
Also it has a chrome lined barrel maybe expesive to replace.

The looks of the WSSM's were a disapointment to me. I had hoped for a sharp shouldered WSSM like the WSM's and then the rifles themselves were too radical with the plastic stocks that I saw.

Winchester marketing had promised superior accuracy out of the WSSM's due to the short powder column. Perhaps they are very accurate but somehow the realization did not match the anticipation for me.

I would hate to have to make WSSM brass out of WSM's. Right now we can't get 300 HH brass or 358 for that matter. Seems the WSM's will go the way of the .225 Winchester which was a nice round.

At that price you could hardly go wrong. Even if you find you dislike that caliber you have a good action to build into something else..

What, another WSSM? Nuttin else would work...

The 243 WSSM wont do anything that the 6mm Remington wont do, but I would still buy one. Right now I own 2 of the 25 WSSMs and one in 223 WSSM. Once again those rounds wont do anything any better than other guns I already have but I just like to have different guns, calibers, Etc. even if it dont make since.

I kind of like the little short fat WSSMs even though we dont need them. They give me a reason to buy more guns.

Here's my M70 Coyote in 243 WSSM and my 84M Varmint in .22-250.


My M70 Coyote is my favorite long rang varmint rifle. I've had the bedding redone, and installed a Kepplinger adjustable set trigger. With the factory Win Supreme 55 grain BST's, it will shoot about 3/8" groups at 100 yards, and about 3/4" groups at 200 yards. With a muzzle velocity of 4000+ fps, I use a 250 yard zero which gives me a 298 yard point blank range, so that the line of flight is never more than +/- 1 1/2". Hold over at 400 yards is about 7" to 8". What's not to like?

If I could find a M70 Featherweight or a Coyote Lite in 25 WSSM, I'd jump on it in a heartbeat. If I don't find one of those, I'll probably get a Savage Long Range Precision Varminter in 204 Ruger next.

A Winchester/USRA 70 in 500 S&W might be kinda fun!

Jeff

That's funny, The owner of a gunshop I deal with on occasion told me when the .204 first came out he was selling all the ammo and rifles he could get his hands on. I was in there about a week ago and ask him if the .204 was still the hot ticket it was last year. He said he was going to buy a .204 rifle for himself in the next week or two. I ask if he was sold on the cartridge himself, He said "no" he had 5 cases of .204 ammo in the back and can't give the stuff away. It was hot for about a year and then nothing.


Terry

The 204 Ruger seems to be "hot" in the geographic areas that have the perfect 204 target, pdogs, if the wind isn't blowing too hard! I really like my 204, but my 25 WSSM is just special.

Jeff

Out of all the WSSM's the 25 would be the one I would pull off the shelf too. I've held one of those little purpose built WSSM M70 featherweights and thought it would be a great little whitetail gun. I think in a few years those little rifles are going to be very collectable.

Terry

The 22 and to a lesser extent the 24 WSSM never made any sense to me. Saving 3/4 of an inch and a couple ounces in the action don't matter in a 4000fps varmint chambering that is properly set up with a heavy barrel, heavy stock, bipod, 24X moon scope, etc.

Starting from a clean sheet of paper the shorter action may be slightly more accurate or more efficient. But starting with a 22-250 or a 243 in the safe to begin with, the trivial advantage isn't worth the expense of changing.

The 25 WSSM is starting to get interesting as a featherweight deer and antelope gun that truly does something no other cartridge will. A 7mm or .30 would have been even better - 308 ballistics in a 5.5 pound package without $1000 worth of titanium and custom lightening would be a perfect woods gun. I would have bought one.

Well, if anyone wants one, I've got a .25 WSSM Coyote, NIB w/all tags etc., that's for sale..