Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints .243 viable as a "pd" rifle?

Derek ... sounds like you BTDT ... details? Rifle, velocity, groups, drop dope?

GE

Calif. Hunter: If you see your friends with the 308's and the 168 Sierra Match Kings out on the Prairies shooting Prairie Dogs please remind them the 168 SMK's are not an "explosive" (frangible) type bullet like your V-Max's!
And that means the 168 gr. SMK's are VERY prone to ricochet thus creating a hazard downrange for unintended targets.
I quit Varmint Hunting with the wonderfully accurate 22 cailber Sierra 52 and 53 grain MatchKings many decades ago for that very reason. They are very prone to ricochet!
Some time back I was Hunting Varmints in Idaho and stopped in at a ranch/dairy farm to get permission to Hunt.
The rancher was happy to see us as he had lots of grass eating Varmints. He did advise us of a situation he had just had to handle! One of his best dairy cows had a festering wound on her flank that would not heal. He eventually had to put the creature down. Then upon investigating the wound he dug out a 22 caliber H.P/B.T. bullet! It had been bent a little but had not mushroomed at all!
The instant I saw it I knew it was a Sierra 52 grainer!
I told him I only used the instantly frangible type bullets in my Varmint Rifles.
And I asked him if he would give me that bullet so I could do some more investigating of it.
He declined and advised me he wanted to keep it so he could show it to all the folks that Hunted his ranch as a reminder of the harm that tiny projectile had done!
I don't even Varmint Hunt with folks that use the wonderfully accurate (BUT VERY ricochet prone!) Sierra Match Kings in their Rifles.
The risk and the liability are just to great.
With the high number of rounds a Colony Varmint Hunter sends down range, that Hunter needs to use a much more frangible bullet than the SMK's!
Keep up the good work with your V-Max's!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I guess everyone has they're preference of what they shoot depending on how much they shoot and how much can one afford to shoot. I got a .243 this last year for dual purpose. Sage rat, rockchuck, yotes, etc. Can use it for deer although I bow hunt curently.

I bring the 10/22 with for the really close shots. The .243 gets the long distance ones. 75gr. V-Max does a messy job on those little critters. What I don't see in my scope is all captured on video. Most of the time we can get the long range ones on video providing they give us the time.

I would have all the calibers above but the wife likes it when one gun leaves the cabinet when another goes in.

Being from S.D. I can remember fields of PD's and LOTS of shooting. Here in Oregon the sage rats (gophers in the midwest) aren't as plentiful unless you hunt grass fields/private land. We hunt off roads and around rock faces which seems to give us a good mix of critters and long distance shots.

Love my .243 because it's deadly accurate out to long distance and can handle the wind.

If you want to see your shots, pick up a video camera. You can get a pretty good one for $300 or less.

Im currently in the process of putting together a new 243 varmint rifle but the one I was using last year was a Tikka T3 light stainless with a simmons whitetail expedition 6-18x scope, plain X reticle. I really didnt put much work into developing a load, with 21.5 grains it shoots consistently under 1 inch with occasional 3 shot groups near.5. I havent used it long distance, most shots were within 300 yards. It is fun to watch the splat through the scope, even with a light gun like that it was possible and the barrel didnt heat up fast at all. My buddy would usually take his 220 swift and after shooting for a while, he would have to take 'cool down' breaks and I didnt, not often at least. That is my go to antelope/whitetail gun so I really didnt want to do anything that was hard on the barrel. From what seafire has stated, it seems blue dots will extend barrel life a lot. My new savage I wont worry so much about and will work up some full velocity loads for longer distance.

I take a 243(tactical rifle setup) pdog hunting every year. 105 Berger VLDs and 105AMAXs @3100+ FPS do the trick for LR dogs. We only shoot off a bipod, and with proper shooting technique off a bipod, spotting/watching hits or misses is never a problem regardless of chambering.

Yah I'd really like to see that load and what manual it came out of.

Id say your really gonna flip when you find out that guys are running 115 VLDs & 115 DTACs @ 3150 via vanilla 243s. Since youve basically called BS on my data, heres the load-

243 Win
Lapua Brass
105 Berger VLD .010 in the lands.
41.5 IMR 4350
Fed210M
3115FPS via 25" Hart
Under .5MOA
Single digit ES.

Kind of strange I'm using 105 in a 26 inch barrel and 42 gr. of IMR 4350 and getting very close to 3000 fps. How are some of you other guys doing with these 105's?

Oh by the by what manual did you say you got that load out of?

That seems way too slow for that charge weight. Granted I didnt get much faster with 42.0 grns and my ES/SD went to hell. IIRC, I was hitting 3K @ 40.0 grns.

A good bud of mine has a 243 with a 26" PacNor and is getting the same velocities I am. I know of a good many other shooters that get the same results.

Our chrono data is right in line with actual field come-ups, and wind correction.

What kind of bbl and brass are you running?

I worked up out the Sierra #5 manual. Granted I dont get too worried if I surpass thier lawyered up published maxes.

Well I think you better run that over your chrongraph screens again. You're nearly at the MV my 6MM 284 shoots that bullet. You exceed those limits anytime you want...... just know you won't be shooting around me.

Apparently reading comp isnt your strong suit... As I said,I have more than enough, not to mention I have actual downrange data to back up the chrono. Something you wont get on the bench killin paper @ 100yrds.



Its becomming quite obvious many things escape you. So if you want to let a bunch of lawyers load for you, considering your ability to comprehend its probably the best...



Laffin..! Dont worry... To think I would shoot with you is beyond funny. I tend to shoot with folks that actually have a [bleep] clue, not 'net know it alls.

Really you're beyond a joke.

Laffin!!! The joke is you. What this comes down to is youre upset because you have a dog of a rifle. In an effort to make yourself feel better, you call BS when someones well built rifle far exceedes your dog. Yet youve never seen this rifle or measured its performance, but still comment as if you have. Hell next time Im doing load devopment, Ill just leave the chrono at home because all I have to do is give you the load data and you will magically be able to tell me the velocity, ES and SD. This level of Divine Knowledge can only be found on the 'net. The frosting on the cake was your lesson in Safe Loading 101. Equally, this level of humor can only be found on the 'net.

Kudos for the good laugh!

I went on a PD hunt late last summer in Colorado and used a 243 winchester with 70 gr. Hornady HP bullets driven by IMR 4350 and all I can tell you was it resembled shootin lil pint cans of red paint,event was very explosive on the prairie dog end of the matter,my ol 243 Im sure is a "Dog",eye 4 an eye and dog 4 a dog I was impressed...........

Yes Coyo that was a fun day! and windy as I recall and you outshot me with your .243. promptly I traded one of my .223's for a .243


have you considered the 6x45?
.223 necked up to a 6mm.
the recoil is less and its still a quick round, not ideal for 400 yard shots, some would say even less I'm sure.
but from what I hear they are great out to 300 yards.
its starting to become popular again, was big 20 years ago in benchrest from what I understand. I'm in the processs of building an upper for my AR as an all around PD, coyote rifle

Man, this thread was good up until those two got all queer for each other!


The .243 is a fun varmint round especially with those light Noslers. I have been working up a load in mine and I am really impressed with the accuracy way out there. I would agree that it is the ultimate when it comes to long range varminting in the wind.

Colorado1135 , I think you maybe on to something good with a 6x45. Barrel life should be looooong . I'm thinking of rebarreling my CZ to that chambering. It would be more versital than the 223. 55 to 60gr. bullets for varmits and 80 to 87gr for deer.

I use 87 grain Hornady V Max bullets in my Savage 112 BVSS 243 for prairie dog shooting on windy days. I was looking to stay with a varmit style bullet for expansion reasons, yet wanted the highest bc among the varmit bullets to keep wind drift down. 70/75 grainers shoot a tad flatter at typical ranges, but have more wind drift. I find tradjectory easier to deal with than wind. I find it a very viable pd round and a nice step up from the 22 centerfires if you're not quite up to a 6.5-284. The 6x47's, 6br, and 6ppc are sleepers for a little round. Don't use much more powder than a 222/223 yet kick a 55 Nosler BT to velocities close to 40 grain 222/223 loads. They hit much harder on the bigger dogs than the 222/223 40 grainers. Dogs are airborn to levels normally seen with 22-250's.
dan

I do not hunt with Match bullets, myself. These guys want to shoot at dogs out there past 400-500 yards. I have, in their defense, only seen them shoot these with the high hills directly behind their line of fire and even slightly curving around them, so they have a backstop of sorts 1500-2000 yards behind the targets. I prefer the terminal effects of a real varmint bullet. I generally prefer Speer TNTs (in my .223), Ballistic Tips or V-Maxes. I can get all of them to shoot around a half-inch from my two .223s, my .22-250 or my .243. If the match bullets would beat that, I couldn't tell the difference in the field anyway.