Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting Sporter 243 A.I. Revisited

Mooner, if I was going to be able to run something at 2.9ish", I'd probably go 6-284 myself. There's a 243 AI inside every 6-284, but not vice versa... grin

If Archie would just buy himself a nice #3 Douglas or something to balance that Sako Hunter, I'd already have a stiffy over it, too.

Laffin'.

The whole point to this sako hunter was to be a rez build. Its got a 50$ barrel. I can't go putting a douglas, brux, kreiger etc on this thing...then it wouldn't be a budget build anymore

Hey, got bored with the Banana'tana so I ripped its flesh off. Say hello to the Catertanny....reminds me of gramps old D4



Wage' and Jordan....GFYs.

Pretty well how this ones going only with an Obama/welfare barrel, and no 1300$ MK4 on top

It will be THE ultimate road hunting gun. I will patent it and sell it to Cummins 1 ton owners out West and in Northern Ontario by the thousands.

Very true, but the magazine weight (especially the Atlas type 2 10 rounders), as well as the Sako Hunter having much of it's weight aft will push the balance point back. The 6x42 and Talleys will help some.

I say try to find a SAUM/WSM action, and throw the 7mm SAUM barrel on there.

Working up loads in a vanilla 243 with '17 and the 80 grain TTSX. Not much of a long range load, but I'll conjure up something with the 105 A-Max as far as that goes. Going to have this rifle punched AI eventually, just need to figure out when.

No pressure signs whatsoever. Safely worked up to 46 grains of '17 thus far, might see how far I can push it for the sake of curiosity. Hunted with this rifle shooting 45 grains of '17, which pushed the 80 grain bullet around 3350 fps. I can vouch that the deer did not appreciate this load in the least. Accuracy was there, too. Shot two groups at 100 yards in haste after getting it on paper before the season. First was off a pretty unsteady rest and was 5/8" center to center. Second group was a CH larger than 1/4". I highly doubt that I'll be able to replicate the 1/4" group, but I'm not going to complain.

That's scooting! My hunting load with the 80TTSX is 44.5grs of RL17. I get 3350ish from a 24" barrel.

I tried a few at 45 and 45.5, but the accuracy node for me was at 44.5.

We'll see how things pan out in the accuracy department, I'm hoping it works out.

If not, I've got no qualms gunning my 45 grain load at critters.

I've got a couple 80s on the way.... I'll moly them and I'm guessing I can probably run the charge up to 47-48gr in my gun...

Where are you guys seating the 80s? Big jump?

Seeing kind of a classic "2 in, 1 out" set of groups, but this charge looks pretty decent.

45gr '17
105 A-Max (moly'd)
2.810" COAL
W/W Hull
CCI-200

I never had any luck with them close. I run them .050 to .100 off, depending on the rifle.

Just checked my rifle, looks like my loads have about a 0.010" jump to the lands.

Have you ran this load over a chronograph yet? Just curious as to the velocity.

I haven't... Need to pick a chrony up.

Guessing is probably an exercise in futility, but 3150 would be my closest estimate... seems like moly really keeps the pressure down.

Here's what Quickload shows. I just got the program last week, so if there's anything I messed up on, please let me know. Wasn't sure on your barrel length, so I inputed a nice average of 23 inches.

Cartridge : .243 Win.
Bullet : .243, 80, Barnes 'TTSX' BT 24338
Useable Case Capaci: 49.229 grain H2O = 3.196 cm�
Cartridge O.A.L. L6: 2.710 inch = 68.83 mm
Barrel Length : 23.0 inch = 584.2 mm
Powder : Alliant Reloder-17

Predicted data by increasing and decreasing the given charge,
incremented in steps of 2.0% of nominal charge.
CAUTION: Figures exceed maximum and minimum recommended loads !

Step Fill. Charge Vel. Energy Pmax Pmuz Prop.Burnt B_Time
% % Grains fps ft.lbs psi psi % ms

-20.0 76 36.00 2705 1300 30994 9447 94.1 1.367
-18.0 78 36.90 2771 1364 33060 9717 95.3 1.333
-16.0 79 37.80 2836 1429 35271 9969 96.3 1.299
-14.0 81 38.70 2902 1496 37634 10202 97.3 1.266
-12.0 83 39.60 2968 1564 40161 10415 98.1 1.234
-10.0 85 40.50 3033 1634 42866 10606 98.8 1.203
-08.0 87 41.40 3097 1704 45762 10774 99.3 1.169
-06.0 89 42.30 3161 1775 48865 10917 99.7 1.135
-04.0 91 43.20 3225 1847 52193 11035 99.9 1.102 ! Near Maximum !
-02.0 93 44.10 3287 1919 55761 11126 100.0 1.070 ! Near Maximum !
+00.0 95 45.00 3349 1992 59592 11201 100.0 1.039 !DANGEROUS LOAD-DO NOT USE!
+02.0 96 45.90 3410 2065 63711 11273 100.0 1.009 !DANGEROUS LOAD-DO NOT USE!
+04.0 98 46.80 3470 2139 68139 11341 100.0 0.980 !DANGEROUS LOAD-DO NOT USE!
+06.0 100 47.70 3529 2213 72909 11406 100.0 0.953 !DANGEROUS LOAD-DO NOT USE!
+08.0 102 48.60 3588 2287 78032 11468 100.0 0.926 !DANGEROUS LOAD-DO NOT USE!
+10.0 104 49.50 3647 2362 83510 11526 100.0 0.900 !DANGEROUS LOAD-DO NOT USE!

FWIW -- Barnes lists 45.5 of RL17 as their max with the 80gr TTSX.

I dunno' if anybody else thinks this way, but it's tough for me to relate Barnes bullets with others when working up a load... meaning that sometimes I'll take a look in a manual, locate a given weight bullet, and use their data for another bullet (given that work up is involved)... but with TSX and TTSX, the charges just don't seem to line up, and sometimes it takes a bunch more or a bunch less powder to get where you want to be (maybe the shanks, or small bearing surfaces?)

Could just be very amateur handloading, as well... grin

One trend I've noticed with Barnes bullets -- they liked to be pushed. I've yet to find an accuracy node with any cartridge that wasn't near max using the TSX/TTSX.

Yeah, I'd say from the looks of it he's more than into the world of pressure. But, as one of my best friends likes to say don't let anything but fear and a bit of common sense guide you...

The Alliant site calls for 44/17 with an 80 @ 3362 fps. To date I've not found a load yet that wasn't pretty much top of the tier that was listed for them and I had no personal interest in going any further.

But, Powder River let er buck...


Dober

I've noticed similar results. For me they've shot ok with medium loads, and great when pushed to max pressure/velocity, in several rifles.