Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles What's with the light (55-60 gr ) 243 bullets?

As an old 243 fan and groundhog shooter I wondering what 's the interest in the current crop of light for caliber bullets in .243. To put it more succinctly the 55gr.- 60 gr. bullets. Back in the day I was a big user of 80 -85 gr varmint bullets and they were the bomb. Sure you can push the lighter bullets fast but they have the BC of a jellybean and the extra velocity is tougher on your barrel. Drop at longer ranges is not sufficiently better and wind drift is much worse at least according to my ballistic calculator.

Check the balistics of the 55 grn nosler bal.tips against the 70 grns when the 55s are traveling in excess of 4000 fps you might be amazed.

The splat factor is high with those 55 gr ballistic tips also.

i use the 70 balistic tips for coyote. i have reports of good success with 55 too. see the nosler manual and h-414 powder

70 grain ballistic tips suck...

bangeye,

Its the new flavor of the day. I've been loading for the 243 for 42 years, Wow I'm that old ... crud. Well, the point is that I've tried a load of different bullets and found the old Sierra 75 gr Hollowpoint remains accurate, inexpensive and cuts cuddly critters in half. My father used the same bullet also. Another great bullet for the 243 is the 70 Matchking. Either works fine for chucks to dogs and both will shoot out of about anything and kill anything for the 243's "effective range". For wind bucking I'd stick with the heavier round also.

Secondly, if I want to shoot 55gn bullets I have a 22-250 for that and the 22's BC for that bullet weight is better than the 6mm version.

The best all around bullet in the 243 and 6mm is the Hornady 87 gr BTHP . Never owned a 6mm cal rifle that wouldn't shoot this bullet.

So why is it the .243 55gr has a higher listed BC then the .224 55gr? Doesn't make any sense.

243s faster twist then most 22 cal so they are able to add extra air space and longer ogive? Bigger plastic tip?

The 87 gr. VMax works for me. Good balance of velocity and bc.

Steelhead..

Are you running those out of a 243 or a 6 x 45?

Latter

If you check your BCs the the 6mm has a little better BCs check you book the 224 is 267 the 6mm is 276 looks better to me,and the speeds you can get with the 243 is pretty amazing had mine up to 4055 but settled on my load for accuracy moving at 4001 averaged over 4 days of shooting at differant times of day,do that with 22-250. I'm not knocking 22-250 I also shoot one and a 22-250 ack.imp love them all would'nt be without any of them.

well you see, in today's fast twist, slow and long heavy bullets,
someone has to hold the flag for super-bullet destructing speed !!



me I do like fast and light.

Dave, what barrel length you getting those speeds with?

Thinking of a 243 upper for my LAR-8 but it would only be a 20".

About 15 years ago, loaded up some 60 grain Sierra hp's in my
6mm Rem. Called in some coyotes, shot two back to back at about
250 yards. Sounded like popping someone with a wet towel when
they hit. Had to track one down and finish it, the other got away. No penetration. 100 grain Hornady bust em open like run over by a truck. Never shot anything but 100's since.

I got into the fad when they came out and shot some coyotes and smaller stuff with the 58gr VMax from a 243. The ranges were from 75 yds to about 200.

On broadside rib shots they dropped coyotes right there.

Today I am using a 243 for a walking varminter and its loaded with the 80 Sierra Blitz just because.

I have been shooting the 55s out of my 243s for as long as I can remember and don't see any reason to change. They will kill over 600yds and are a laser to 400. They are about as fur friendly as you can find unless you are going to compare it to the 17 centers. Hope they don't discontinue this bullet as I have shot others but nothing so far compares to the 55s. HAPPY HUNTING

I have a 26 in. rem vls only thing I did was trigger adj.shoots 1/2 in at 100

well, there is always another story..
My hunting partner shoots 58gr Hornadys at max loads of H380. I have personally witnessed this load take everything it hits. no runners.
Including hogs out to several hundred yards!

Before getting a 22-250 all I had was a 243 for both antelope & prairie dogs. I used 90-100gr stuff on antelope and after filling my tag, then adjusted the POI on the scope for the 55gr BTs. At ~4000fps, they were great on the p-dogs. Since I am not concerned with 400+ yd shooting nor larger varmints, the 55s did all I needed. I tried 70gr TNTs, which shot fine too, but I did not need the extra wt for p-dogs.