Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints New to 243

I have always hunted varmints with a 22-250, but just bought a 243 and will be using it for fox and such. What is a good factory cartridge, that won't tear the hide all to hell? I am not a good seamstress.

Don't know about AK foxes, but VA foxes get torn all to hell with just about any .243. You might just want to go with the 100s and 105s in the deer loads, and try to avoid bone.

Not sure why you would go to the 243 for fox, but you will not find much for fur friendly. A 222 is a good choice but still you will have damage. Try a TSXs I have had good luck with these on bobcats. HAPPY HUNTING

They have bigger dogs here also. I usually shot a 52 gr hornady hollow point in the 22-250, and never had an exit. Just wondering if there is such an animal for the 243. Damn things must be made for elephant.

Nope. The .243 will just unglue a fox.

Ditto above comments.

Best choice is a heavier deer bullet that will not POOF about 9/10 of the way through that little critter and take a lot of hide with it. I tried 70 BT's in a Fed load for a while and it was spectacular on crows (read feather pillow and dinamite) but was no good for small things you wanted to save.

B

What Sean said...or perhaps a TSX...
If you can slow the bullet up to about 2500fps. it'll go a long way towards "fur freindly" as it is the speed as much as bullet type that damages the little guys...

Ingwe

Like others have said, a fox isn't very big and it doesn't take much to open them up and make a mess.

But, I'd go with a 55 NBT and or a 85 TSX and I'd do my best to avoid spine shots, shoulder shots and shots where the critter was looking right at you and you'd hit the breast bone.

If you can get him sideways and miss the bones then either of these two bullets won't tear him up too badly.

Dober

90gr FMJ

No way no how any FMJ's for me

Dober

I would give those new Hornady bullets a try! They are copper with a fiber insert for the tip. I suspect they will leave both an entry hole & exist hole but small in size.

We use a .223cal, .243, 25-06 but don't care about the pelt damage, just eliminating those song-dogs from the country side. They play a sour tune on the rabbit population in my area.

Can't see a lot of difference in ballistics.
22-250 55 gr HP MV 3700 ME 1654

243 55 gr HP MV 3800 ME 1763


Guess we'll see.

Mark,
Fair enough. I do respect your opinion, but IMO if I'm going to shoot a fox with a .243 and expect to salvage the pelt, I'm going to try and thread the least-expanding bullet possible and not hit any bone. I have a hard time believing that I'd be able to keep any sort of bullet inside a fox, so I might as well keep expansion to a minimum.

I've seen some God awful FMJ wounds when the bullet hit bone at an angle and tore a hell of a gash when it tumbled. I've also seen it pencil through as a FMJ should and the animal run a hell of a long way leaving very little blood to trail. Thick fur soaks up blood and soft footed animals don't leave much for tracks unless in snow or sand. FMJ's will also whine away across the landscape when the ground is frozen. All in all I think they are a bad idea and my experience with them convinces me to not mess around with them anymore. One other thing, I've never found FMJ's all that accurate either.

I think JS hit the nail on the head Dober...though I dont know anyone making a 90 FMJ...does Speer still do it? I know when they first came out I was doing some hide hunting with the .243 Did as the instructions said and kept the speed at 2500fps....one tiny hole in and one tiny hole out ( on coyotes). Only problem was coyotes didn't react much to that little damage and there was some wicked tracking going on...a fox is smaller and it oughta put them down right away...jmho.
Now...that being said, the Speer was a semi-pointed thing..shot welland went in a straight line when it hit something.If all you can find is a pointed FMJ nowadays...I'll go with what Dober said..my experience with them, not only shooting, but performance wise, has been, well..."wonky"...
Ingwe

100g Hornady Custom Ammo is the best on yotes, I can't say for foxes. If the 100g Hornady does not work well for you on foxes, search for ammo loaded with the 85g Barnes tripple shock.

For foxes, a 22/250 loaded with blue dot with the 40g Speer Sp at 3000 fps + is a really good load= the 22 Hornet.

the .243 can do everything the .22-250 can do, and do it better. it can also put a deer down nicely, as well as being a hammer on coyotes.

it uses only a bit more powder than the .223 class of cartridges, and is generally said to be an inherently accurate cartridge, if there is such a thing.

i just know mine have been tack drivers with only a couple exceptions.

try the 60 grain sierra hollowpoint for explosive, cheap varmint fun.

I have a hard enough time keeping the hide on a fox intact using my .222 and 40 grain bullets. A .243 seems to be a little over kill, so to speak. FMJs = lost foxes and coyotes in my limited experience using them.

FMJs = lost foxes and coyotes in my limited experience using them. [/quote]

Big time Amen to that! They do deserve better.

Dober

a lower velocity handload will work wonders on not exploding a fox, particularly using a heavy for caliber bullet..