Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 243 Bullets for Deer

Well Im going to shoot a .243 for deer hunting. What bullets do you all prefer, like & use? What type & how many grains should I be looking for hunting deer?

Basic 100 grain flat base Hornady is excellent, and Ive heard good things about 95 gr. NBTs.....

thems good choices ^ like the 85grn. partition also

It would be nice of Hornady to produce them.

80g TTSX

80 TTSX and 80 GMX for me.

I would not down grade the 80g TTSX, I just have not shot them.

I have shot a lot of the 95g Nosler partition and killed a lot of deer and antelope with this bullet, great blood trail.

Also, the 100g Hornady Flat base or BT is an excellent bullet.

My old push feed Winchester likes 85 TSXs. and they have worked well on deer. My Remington that my son now has likes 95 Nosler Partitions. They work well on deer too. I have shot 85 Hornady Interbonds that have worked on deer, but harder to get to shoot in my rifles.

I just picked up another 243 for the wife and daughter to use. I will start with TSXs and Noslers to see what it likes. I have some 80 grain GMXs to try, but haven't used them on game.

Any bullet 85 grains and up, that is not meant for varmints, works just fine on deer in the 243. It's what they were designed for. My personal choice right now is the Hornady Interbond 85 grain.

Since nobody has mentioned factory ammo, if you need it, Federal Fusion 95 grain is as good as it gets.

For my money the 95 grain nosler Bt is the bullet to beat but just about any decent conventional bullet in the 90 to 100 grain range works well.

I briefly used the 85 tsx but behind the shoulder shots didn't wreck the vitals like the heavier cup and core bullets did and I had deer run further than I was used to seeing although they left a fair blood trail and always resulted in a dead deer.

For me I prefer the conventional bullets in the 243 because I feel they expand more and destroy more tissue than the mono bullets although I haven't tried the tipped monos.

The last deer I killed with the 243 was with a 105 berger vld and it pulverized a shoulder, shredded the top of the heart and a lung and the jacket was lodged under the skin on the off side. It did a terrific job but for general use I have seen nothing that beats the nosler BT

picked up a box of nosler BT cant wait to see how they perform

95gr NBT

My son has used the 85 Partition and the 85 TSX and deer are dead.

How about a Sierra Game King?

95 NBT is a hammer! Im gonna try an 80 ttsx this year too.

I have used Sierra 85 grain HPBTs in the 243 on deer. I have shot two, all inside of 100 yards. Nothing big, just does. I believe MV was right at 3000fps. They were very effective. IMO, a tougher bullet would be a better choice to reduce the chance of error and any of the forementioned bullets would be fine.

We generally use 95-100 gr cup and core. I especially like Hornady's as Ingwe suggests.

I do load 100 gr NPT's if someone aims to use them on an eik.

I'll be using the 80 grain TTSX.

My rifle really likes the 100 grain Flat base Hornady, but they quit making it.

I've tried the TSX, but accuracy was ho-hum compared to the Hornady. Still useable, but ho-hum. The Sierra Pro-Hunter 100 grain was accurate, but doesn't punch through as good as the Hornady or especially the TSX. But it was nearly as accurate as the Hornady. The TTSX has the accuracy and penetration I like at only twice the price of the Hornady.

I am waiting to try the Nosler 95 grain Partition and Ballistic Tip, which I'll do after the season.

Since you wanna extremely light kicking rifle due to your shoulder issue, I'd strongly consider running 80-85 pills at around 3-3.2K.

There's a noticeable reduction in shoulder nudge compare to 100s and they kill just fine.

Use the 95gr CTBT and the 95 BT's in two 243's now. I've used mostly the 90-100 grain cup-n-core bullets for years with great results on game up to mule deer.
Took my largest feral hog with a 100 gr Speer at 175 yards or so. DRT! Hog dressed out at 375 lbs.