Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Anyone have any lighter loads for a 243 Winchester?

As it should according to my notions about physics. I’m not dodging recoil, but the OP is. My little Howa definitely has some kick at under 6.5 pounds. Totes well though. Its .223 little brother begins the trip home today.

Thank you, Seafire.

It’s been a while and I’ve forgot the exact load but I used H4895 for downloaded .243 Win for my son when he was just starting out.

I haven't posted for a while, but wanted to add something here. Long story short:

My 12-year-old son is hunting elk for the first time this year, and though he has shot his 243 with cast bullets quite a bit, I swapped triggers a while back, and he has been using his 223 for hunting deer. To get him used to the lighter trigger, and have him use his 243 for both deer and elk, I worked up a load using IMR's old data easily found online using IMR 4227, since it mimicked the recoil of his 223 deer loads. IMR recommended 25 grains of 4227 to get to 2700 fps with 80 grain bullets. I found that 25.5 got me exactly 2700 with 80 gr Ballistic Tips. These shoot great in his gun (less than MOA) and it was a perfect performer on a broadside buck at just under 100 yds.


It also turned out that sighting in these loads at 150 yards put his elk load (100 grain Partition using 38.3 IMR 4166 to get 2950 fps) dead on at 225 yards. THIS is why I handload. Took some experimentation to get there, but the results are exactly what I wanted.

As an aside, I know the 80 grain BTs are the "Varmint" version, but they performed perfectly at their modest velocity, with an exit on a slight quartering shot centering ribs on entrance and exit that blew lung blood in a 2-foot line out the back. Deer did a 30-foot loop and collapsed almost exactly where he was shot.

Both my boys started shooting my 700 in 223 pretty early. They practiced with their 243s starting at age 9. One was a Rem 600 Mohawk and the other a Rem760. With the 243 I loaded the cheapest 75gr bullet I could find. You could go lighter if needed. I used 35gr of IMR4895 but worked the load backwards from 37.5 (IMR's starting load). I had never light loaded before and heard you can get pressure problems with too light of loads. They both enjoyed shooting a "big gun" and never developed a fear of recoil. When I took them hunting, I handed them full strength 100gr ammo without telling them. They never knew.

Light loads for practice to avoid making him recoil shy and regular loads for hunting and when the adrenaline is going works well too. My son shot his first turkey at 8 yrs old, we did a lot of shooting with Walmart dove loads. He never noticed the difference when he fired a full house TSS shell at his bird.

Thank you for sharing your experience. Your observations with varmint bullets mirror what Paul Box from Sierra Bullets would say if you keep the velocities down they start to act like a game bullet.

I knew a guy who used an 18½" barreled Model 7 in 243 Win. His load was the Sierra 85 gr. HPBT over IMR 4320. He used it for years on whitetail with good success. He eventually chronographs the load and was surprised to find that it only clocked around 2,700 FPS.

But it worked.

I'm loading Federal brass 175gr, CCI 200, 95gr NPT, 33gr H-4895, 2.650" COAL @ about 2700ish, my WAG... Nice accurate easy shooting load. 20" .243 Ruger M77 MK II UL.

> Speer 13 lists multiple IMR4198 reduced loads.
> Hodgdon Website has multiple H4895 loads that can be reduced up to 40%. ... Hodgdon Load Data
> Sierra iPhone app shows multiple loads/powders under 2600 fps with a 100 gr bullet.

60% of a max load using H4895 or IMR4895 and a Sierra 85gr Gamekings should work.

Did this same thing with my nephews. It worked great. None of them seemed to notice the increase in recoil with full-power ammo. I took a different approach with my son, though, because I am also trying to teach him the philosophy of handloading.

Used to shoot the 75 grain Hornady HP or the 70 grain Ballistic tip with a medium range load of Varget. Both were accurate in my heavy varmit M-70, & it was a nice easy recoiling load.

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Speer number ten:
80 gr Speer- 16 gr IMR 4198....1789 fps; 17 gr IMR 4198....1891 fps; 18 gr IMR 4198....2009 fps

90 gr Speer- 17 gr IMR 4198....1766 fps; 18 gr IMR 4198....1873 fps, 19 gr IMR 4198....1990 fps

105 gr Speer- 18 gr IMR 4198....1852 fps; 19 gr IMR4198....1870 fps; 20 gr IMR 4198....1965 fps

Thank you to all for the information and experiences provided. It has been very helpful.

I have been shooting 34 gr of 748 with an 85 gr sierra, hpbt or sp.

I loaded some 8tg partitions for the wr3 700 uputh I had fora back up on my boys hunt. I tried my old h4895 reduced load but it didn't group that well. I tried a lighter load of 8208xbr because I've been using it a lot in other things and it shot great. IIRC I was at 35g and getting 2900 with the 85g npt from a 20" barrel.

Bb

I am not sure what you mean by light. I like a 60 gr Sierra over 34 gr IMR 3031 for longish range sage rats. It gets around 3200 out of a 22" barrel.

My pleasure sir... happy to help a campfire brother out.