Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats 22-243 Winchester AI Info.

Looking for some basic info on the 22-243 AI. If you have anything to share as in what brass worked best for you, Ballpark loads/ballistics, forming brass ect. I would appreciate it. I dont seem to find much info around on this cartridge. I have found a couple of loads for the 22-243 winchester and think using the load data reduced a bit to start working loads for this would be the way to go.Any thoughts or experiences would be appreciated, or if you could link me to the info.Thanks Ron

The 22-243 Middlestead is virtually the same cartridge.

http://reloadersnest.com/frontpage.asp?CaliberID=100

I know a couple of people that use it for coyotes and swear by it out to 500 yds. They are running tight twist barrels and heavy 22 cal bullets. Sierra MK's 80 gns or something like that.

I will try to find out more when I get a chance.

I have a 22-243 Middlestead, but it was done before quick twist .224" bore rifles were as common as today, so it has a 1 in 12" twist.

I'd suggest starting with maximum 220 Swift loads and working up from there. My 22-243 Middlestead has a case capacity of 53 grain of H2O, so about 5 more than the 220 Swift, but you should measure you're cases before you start reloading. I have made all of my 22-243 cases from new Winchester/Olin 243 brass and Imperial Wax as the lubricant.

Frankly, if I had it to do again, I wouldn't. For me, the 22-250 and 220 Swift can do whatever I want/need done in a .224" bore rifle and they do it in a factory loaded configuration, so there is better potential resale value. If I can't do something with a .224" bore, I figure that I'm ahead of the game going to a greater diameter bullet, rather than just a larger case.

Good luck!

Jeff

Thanks Jeff. What dies are you using? And is it as straight forward to just use your FL resizer to resize the .243 brass or are you cutting inside neck too? Thanks Ron

Thanks Steve.

RCBS dies.

The necks get longer going from .243" to .224", so I form the cases and then run them through the trimmer. After being trimmed, I deburr the primer holes and segregate the brass by weight. I am on my 3rd set of 100 cases, so the rifle probably has 1300+/- rounds through it. The barrel is a Hart stainless and is shooting as well today and when it was new. The 55 grain BT is murder on coyote!

Jeff

Jeff, just the kind of info I am looking for. thanks Ron

I shoot a lot of coyotes with the .220 AI, which is ballistically the twin to the .22-243 Middlestead. It takes 4 grains more H414 than the Swift and picks up 100 fps with 55's. It also eliminates a lot of case trimming. If I were starting over from scratch and didn't have a bunch of .220 cases, the .22-.243 Middlestead makes more sense. The brass is cheap and available plus you don't have to be careful loading the mag. like you do with the Swift to prevent the semi-rimmed cases from hooking. It will surely kill 500-yard coyotes with 55 grain bullets. When I re-barreled last time, I put a 1-10 twist in mine.