Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters .243 Win. Factory Hunting Ammo Pecking Order

My first South Dakota deer rifle was (still have it) a Winchester 670 .243. Paid a whopping 125.00 bucks for it going on 19 years ago.

Took probably a dozen deer using 100g psp, ranges from 5 yards to 300. Anything over a hundred yards I seldom had a pass through, which I prefer but than again none of them went very far either.

[ I just looked at the Barnes Vor-TX 80 gr. TTSX and compared it to the Federal Blue Box 80 gr. soft point. I didn't see any BC data, but the published velocity of the TTSX is 3350 fps and the Federal 80 gr. SP is 3330 fps. With a 200 yard zero, the TTSX is 1.1" high at 100 yards, and so is the Federal Blue Box SP. At 300 yards, the TTSX is 5.7" low, and the Federal is -5.6".

They almost look like ballistic twins with this limited data as a guide.[/quote]

They are very similar. Both shoot lights out from my 10 twist 243. The blue box uses a spear hot cor which, if you believe the data, has a slightly higher BC than the ttsx. I shot the blue box ammo to 500 yards last summer and have no reason to dispute the published velocity or BC of .365

PS - both the 80 and 85 barnes have shot great for me. Can't speak to on game performance but I'm hoping to do some testing on some pigs in the next month or so...

I've also heard good things about the federal 95 ballistic tip but haven't shot it

The question is about relatively short-range deer hunting. Instead of obsessing over which factory loads had the deepest-penetrating bullet, or the bullet with the highest ballistic coefficient, or even accuracy, I'd probably look in all the local stores for the 100-grain .243 factory load that cost the least.

My experience with the .243 is fairly extensive. It kills deer well with plain old bullets, and I have yet to find a factory load that doesn't group well enough in almost any rifle for most deer hunting.

Over the last 26 years I've shot a lot of antelope and some deer with the 243 mostly handloads using the 100 Hornady SP, 100 gr Nosler Part and 100 gr RP Corelokt plus factory loaded 100 gr Corelokts.The rifle was a 700 BDL with a 22" barrel and loads were based on IMR 7828 running over 3000fps at the muzzle. The Hornady's allways gave me an excellent wound channel and an exit hole with short blood trail to a dead animal. My experience with the 100 gr NPT was also good but a smaller wound channel and occaisional a recovered bullet. The 100 gr Corelokt loaded faster than factory loads I had also did a good job and exiting. Some of the animals shot at even 150-250 yds with the lot of older RP factory loads that chron'ed at avg of 2920fps rarely gave an exit hole but killed well.Used to find the well mushroomed Corelokt just under the hide on the far side too many times to be a coincidence. Not samples of one either. Same with any other cartridge you need to put the bullet in the right place.Well tuned handloads with the 100 gr Hornady IL SP are hard to beat in my book. Never saw any of the 100 gr Corelokt come apart either.
Never shot any bears but the next time I go like the last time, I will carry a rifle chambered for a heavier cartridge than 243 win. JMHO Magnum Man

If they shoot well in your rifle use the 100gr Remington Core-Lokts. The plain old core-lokts kill them just as dead as any other bullet out there. They shoot under 1.5" in all three of my .243s too.

The Federal Fusions give as large of a wound channel as PowerPoints and CoreLokts, but penetrate deeper. I've not recovered a Fusion yet, and have busted a few shoulders and taken angled shots that exited. At $3/box more than the cheapies, they are the way to go, especially since they tend to be more accurate in more rifles.

I have shot most of the older bullets on your list and my experience is the standard cup and core 100gr. bullets may kill faster than the premiums.

Only way to get into trouble is to shoot 80 grain varmint bullets.
The 85 Nosler and 80-85 gr. X's are not varmint bullets and work very well.

An old Handloader's Digest had a good comparison of 6mm bullets, the tester liked Barnes, Trophy bonded and Nosler as well as the old style Speer Grand Slam.

The cup and core and others like the Nosler that have a limited amount of fragmentation seemed to kill faster than the stoutest controlled expansion bullets. A hard driven X bullet might be an exception. Next loads I test will be the Accu-bond as I think it may be the best compromise.

When I go factory I get the Green & Yellow Remington or the Fusion and save the fancy stuff for reloading. This includes use on all but the biggest Hogs which to me are similar to Bear or even tougher in their reaction to being hit.

So, if I am reading this correctly, the majority consensus is that premium bullets offer no real advantages over 50 year-old bullet technology in normal hunting situations. They just cost more.

Arguably, the .243 is mainly considered a deer/antelope cartridge, with the ability to do varmint work as well. I imagine the premiums would provide an advantage on larger/tougher game, but the vast majority of the work for the .243 will be medium game and varmints.

My initial reasoning (which most seem to not agree with) was that a caliber/cartridge which is on the smaller side of what is commonly used for a specific category of game is one area where premium bullets may provide some extra measure of useful performance. However, if the majority reasoning is correct, which I assume it is, shouldn't/wouldn't it apply equally to all cartridges and not just the .243? In other words, premium bullets only provide an advantage when a particular cartridge is pushed to its extreme limits, whether that be range or size of the quarry.

If there is not much reason to use a premium bullet from a .243 on deer, then there should be not much of a case to be made for using a premium bullet from a .270 Win on elk, or a .300 WM on moose, or a .338 WM on brown bears, etc., etc., uless extreme distance is a factor. Am I wrong?

Do premium bullets ever offer an advantage in the .243 on deer-sized game? Maybe at long range?

No.Black bear deer caribou ect are made up pretty feeble compared to a moose elk or brown bear.

I used to follow that argument for the 6mm's but the more I shot the less it seemed to hold water. That is a small caliber needs all the help it can get.

Premiums = insured exit wounds and reliable penetration from all angles. Also more likely to break both shoulders on a double scapula shot.

For longer range shooting a more frangible and aerodynamic bullet like a Berger VLD or Noslet Ballistic Tip is called for, not a tougher bullet.

Most of the 6mm bullets premium and conventional alike are pretty good as all the heavier bullets are designed with Deer in mind and they only have to perform in the relatively narrow velocity range of the .243 Win. to .240 Weatherby. A much narrower design parameter than say a 30 caliber bullet that may get used in a 300 Savage or a 30-378 and used on anything from Coyotes to Grizzly Bear.

It is more difficult to design a good smaller caliber bullet and even the best can fail.

Accuracy trumps all else. With that in mind, try the Federal loaded 85 grain HPBT gameking.

If you rifle won't shoot that one well, you probably aren't going to have much luck with said rifle.

Dave

I've liked the XP3 out of my .243. So far, two shots, two dropped in their tracks.

The "problem" with premium 243 bullets is that they generally don't expand all that wide. In a larger caliber this doesn't matter so much, but if you are shooting lungs with a 243 it helps to have a bit more expansion and maybe a little bit of fragmentation.

For example, I perfectly double-lunged a decent buck this fall with the 80TTSX at about 125 yards. Obviously, the bullet exited. It left no blood at the hit site, and once he did bleed the trail 'dried up' before he went down. It took me awhile to find him in the brush. A bullet that expands a bit more probably would have kept the blood flowing when using a small caliber.

The 'perfect' lung bullet is a balance between opening enough to give a decent wound channel and enough penetration to get to the vitals from most angles. Most heavy 243 projectiles have been tuned to offer that over the years of development.

Was reading every post and thinking I was gonna slap down the trump card, but iddave beat me to it.

A TWRA officer turned me onto it: his .243 loved it so he had his brother with an FFL get them for him by the case. Killed everything with it, no problemo.

Once that barrel shot out, the next one took a likin' to Federal's 70 BT, and he turned around and killed everything with that!

"I will be looking to settle on factory ammo for a new-to-me .243 Win. The most likely use will be for short-range whitetail deer."

That's the opening sentence of the original post. I fail to see how super-fine accuracy will make the slightest bit of difference.

I guess I'm going to go against the majority on this one...

If the premiums shoot well, I would absolutely hunt with them.

I like to bust shoulders and anchor deer when possible, and I don't worry about a little meat loss or bloodshot meat on shoulders that I'm going to grind anyway. There are too many situations where wounded deer can be lost....places where predators, or poor tracking conditions, or weather, or public land with lots of hunters, or small parcels with no access to neighbors property for tracking wounded deer, or a host of other factors make it tough to recover deer.

Moreover, even if I didn't prefer to shoot bone, I might be required to depending on shot angle. I rarely get a pure broadside, and am almost always lined up on a shoulder on one side or the other, if not both.

To me, cost is a non factor on hunting bullets...and I'm far from rich. That bullet is the least expensive part of my hunt. IMHO, it is a no-brainer to practice with something cheaper, and hunt with the best bullet your rifle will shoot accurately.

The 243 is a fast stepping little round, and you ask about close range shots with it. Again, this is where premiums shine and cup and core sometimes suffer. Another reason to shoot the best bullet you can.

The cup and cores will get the job done just about every time, but I want two holes and enough penetration for whatever shot I may need to take, and the one time I don't get an exit and a blood trail or have a cup and core blow up on the shoulder of a buck I rattled within 10 yards is one time too many.

The insurance provided by good bullets is just too cheap. I'll gladly pay it if they shoot.

DJ

DJ,

Do you consider the Fusion a "premium" bullet for the scenario of the OP?

I know you've used them a bit.......

Dude...you're overthinkin this chit...ANY caliber bullet will work, it just has to have enough git go to either drill the shoulders (drive gear), take out the motor (heart), or the electrical system...(brain/neck)...putting the bullet in any of those "systems" will have good results...looking to "lung" shoot an animal is not your best option...

why isn't shutting off the air supply (lungs) just as good as stopping the motor, electrical system, or drive gear?