Just got the wife a Browning X bolt in 243 Win as her first hunting rifle. I have only owned hunted with 308 and 30-06, just wanting to get some factory loaded suggestions for the 243 for deer and antelope sized game.

Thanks

Bullets for hand loading or factory ammo?

Swift 90 gr Scirocco and IMR 4064 makes the 243 ready for anything up to Elk

95 grain nosler BT. hands down. awesome load for anything the .243 is legal for

For handloading:

Sierra 85 gr BTHP or Nosler 100 grain Partition (can't go wrong).


For factory loads:

Federal Fusion.

Good suggestions, all.

If it was mine, I'd try different loads, leaning toward heavier bullets, looking for the combo that shot best.

NPT's and NAB's would be on my short list and I'd try TTSX's, although in lighter weights than the others, pushed hard.

Lots of load info on line.

DF

The 100 grain Nosler Partition is a great bullet. Although I use a 6MM-06; I've killed Mule Deer, Whitetail, Antelope, BigHorn Sheep and Caribou with them --- Never a problem.

Good answer.

+1. They have worked great for me on deer and antelope

Sorry, to clarify for factory ammo options. I have not started reloading yet. I was unsure if the smaller diameter caliber would be any different from the 30 caliber choices. Seems to be about the same as far as suggestions go.
Was wondering if anyone preferred bonded or mono metal to keep the retained weight up.
Thanks

At this point, any brand you can find would probably be a good start.

100 grain Federal Blue Box and 95 grain Federal Fusions.
We shoot a lot of them and they are accurate and inexpensive.
Best of all, they are deadly.

stumpy

For factory ammo... just to repeat myself, using somebody else's words :



In factory ammo, I favor Federal Premium in the smaller cartridges (groundhogs, etc), and Federal Fusions in big game stuff.

I've never been disappointed.

In a factory load, this would be my preference:

http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/...-np-20-rounds.aspx?a=148333&bi=39509

...and we shot a lot of 95-grain SBs and BTs before switching to 100-grain Partitions in our .243s.

My single most favorite is the 95 grain Nosler Partition. It probably isn't required for shooting deer, but it is a good one.

I have seen a bunch of whitetail killed with 100 gr. Winchester Power Points.

Not a .243 shooter, but I think you can get the 100 grain Nosler partition factory loaded from Federal. That's where I'd start if I were in your position.

I've always had good luck with the Hornady 100 Spire Point in both my 243 and 6mm Rem handloads. It's available in 243 factory ammo.

Dale

Can't find 95 gr partitions in a factory loading, just 85s and 100s. Has anyone used the 85 gr partitions? Or the newer xp3s? I researched the fusion and do far allot of people are liking them, good price too.

That would be my first suggestion too--if you can get them to shoot accurate.

Is Federal offering the 95gr NBT?


Casey

We have killed a ton of deer with 95 grain Ballistic Tips. If you don't hand load Winchester loads them in their Supreme loads.

Hornady 100g Interlock BTSP

Plain old Hornady Interlock 100 grainer. Superb bullet.( sorry but my rifle didnt like the boat tail...oh well...it happens)

If you don't like tracking deer and ya get an exit assuming you don't shoot em up the dark star then the 95NBT is it.

From what I have read the .243 BT is built a bit like an accubond as far as tje jacket goes. Same forum also has cut aways of the 120 bt vs 140 bt in 7mm and you could see a difference in jacket. Maybe less prone to blowing up? Here is the link as I do not want to steal their pics

http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?t=583530&page=2

Another good factory offering is the 95gr fusion. It's been accurate in several 243's and performs well. Federal is now coating the .243 fusion bullet with Boron Nitride instead of molly. I didn't know much about Boron but learned something from D Tubbs site. http://www.davidtubb.com/boron-nitride-coating-bullets

85 Barnes hands down does anything ever needed.

Before that I always ran the 105 speer after loosing too many cores to the 100 nos solid base bullets.

Never a real fan of BT bullets though they have come a long ways since the exploding ones.

Never had a failure with Nosler Partitions, always recovered the deer and never recovered a bullet. Used the 95gr Partitions since the 100gr often sold out and the shelf would be empty - but the 95gr would be full.

I like the Partitions.. may not drop the deer as fast as something like a BT, but gives more leeway for a bad angle or bad shot getting the bullet to where it needs to go.

Interestingly Boron does have some advantages over moly, but my wife and I have shot well over 200,000 rounds of moly coated bullets. What we have found, no moisture issues( we live in a humid area to start with). And we dont' have a zero chasing issue either, BUT you do have to learn how to clean the gun and it ends up never being TOTALLY clean but works just fine for what we shot which was same game David does.

Eventually I'll swap all over to the boron for sure. In the meantime there have never been many issues with moly for us.

Sorry, a bit OT there.

I've shot a truck load of deer & feral hogs with my first real deer rifle, which is an old Remington 700 Classic in .243
Always used Remington Corelock 100 grain Factory Ammo before I started re-loading years ago.
Now all my nieces & nephews argue over who gets to use that rifle when they come home to the ranch during deer season. I still keep a box of 100gr Corelocks around for them to use. Never lost a deer with it, & never had to trail one more than 30 yards, either.
When I handload for that rifle, I use 85gr Sierra Softpoints, or 85gr Barnes Triple Shocks. It's still a very accurate rifle after over 30 years of hunting with it.

That's pretty much my experience with on game performance. The 7mm 140 BT seams to expand better than the 120 BT which has the thicker jacket.
The .243 95 grain BT was designed for whitetail deer.

In factory ammo, I'd run the 95 Fusions first. I can't see why you'd need anything else.

My antelope bullet/loads are Barnes 80g ttsx, 85g sgkhp, 95g NHBT.
All run under 1" @ 100yds and moa or a bit under to 400yds.

My 700 BDL will shoot both fine the SP and the BTSP, but the SP holds together and just about allways leaves an exit hole. Plain old RP 100 gr Corelokts are good also in factory ammo. Magnum Man

85 TSX with RL19 or RS Hunter. I plan to switch to Hunter when the RL19 I have is gone. I'm sure that for Deer and lopes any of the other bullets mentioned will work, but I have had outstanding results loading the 85 TSX for my brother.

My .243 loves this bullet and H4350.

I think I will start with the old partition and fusion and see what shoots better. Don't think I can go wrong as long as it's accurate.
Thanks

I shoot the factory loaded Barnes 80gr ttsx out of my x-bolt 243. The last buck I shot with the gun/bullet did a flip over backwards and drt.

An acrobatic deer? Sounds like ttsx might be worth a try too

I'm a 243 nut, and I'll try to explain why.

My children and I have killed deer with factory loads in 100g Federal Blue box, 85 Federal Premium TSX, 95 Fusion, 80 Hornady GMX, and 80 Barnes Vortex TTSX. We've also used some others, and 80 TTSX in hand loads.

All have worked well.

The Federal Blue Box 100's are cheap and accurate. We've recovered 1 or 2 from very dead deer.

The 95 Fusions have probably been the most accurate in a variety of rifles, and have performed very well on game. We haven't recovered any, including some shot through some fair sized hogs.

95 Fusion kills:

As you can see, the boy is fairly dangerous with his Faux Ti 243 and 95 Fusions. His rifle shoots them superbly, and I haven't seen much reason to change.






However, I will say that the 80 GMX, 80 TTSX, and 85 TSX put the 243 right there with lots of cartridges with a lot more powder and recoil.

Plus, they make the already flat shooting little cartridge into a bit more of a laser beam - especially at most hunting distances.

With these bullets, the 243 hits, penetrates and kills bigger stuff all out of proportion with its mild recoil.

Examples:

85 TSX

Free range axis that showed up at the right place at the right time (for me, not so much for him...grin).

Center punched both shoulders, bullet exited, went 70 yards on 3 legs with a good blood trail. He was at least 275 IMO. I expected to find the bullet in the off shoulder, but all I found was a petal and an exit hole.



80 TTSX

Daughter whacked this axis doe. Doe was quartering to her at maybe 75 yards, and she put it on the point of the shoulder and got a big exit behind off shoulder with a massive blood trail. So, close shot with great penetration and expansion. Never worried about shot angle with the 80 TTSX. They were spooky and fixing to leave, and she needed to shoot right now. With the 80 TTSX, I never thought twice about telling her to shoot. If we needed stem to stern penetration, we'd get it with that bullet.



One last example...

80 GMX

This big bodied buck (for our area) was quartering away at over 250 yards. My oldest daughter shot him prone off my pack, and I never worried about it busting that off shoulder and exiting - which is exactly what it did. In behind near shoulder, center punched the off shoulder. Buck staggered, gathered himself, and made it 75 yards on 3 legs before piling up.

With the flat shooting little 80 GMX and a 200 yard zero, just told her to hold a tick above half way up and she hit him perfectly.

[img]http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c...mFirstBuck1-2011NewYearsFireworks180.jpg[/img]

I could go on, but I might start braggin' on my kids instead of talking bullets!

DJ

DJ,

I for one don't mind you bragging on your kids as long as you include your superb write ups and pictures! Keep them coming...

Oh, and I've got my oldest a model 700 youth LH .243, loaded up some 70 NBT's with a light load for him to get trigger time. Somebody told me those will even kill the snot out of deer...

DJ

I dig the pictures of the kids!! The smiles are priceless.

Thanks, Kimber7.

I've been trying to find time to write a bit about this year's hunting adventures.

I enjoy doing it, and it is good to chronicle it. Glad a few enjoy the stories!

DJ

Have started to put together .243 components for future adventures afield. Have also been flinging Barnes X's at deer and elk since their inception, without fail. Some factory twist offerings have set limitations until modifications can be made towards final goals. Sadly, Kimber's SAAMI 10-twist precludes more desirable BC's in the 95-105 grain range, leaving the Barnes 80 TTSX and 85 TSX. Given their same-same BC's (0.331 v 0.333), I chose the 85 TSX, thinking that the cute little blue nose cone does no favors for the extra T. Ultimately, there will be a 3-groove, 8-twist Lilja dupe for the Improved version. Maybe even a 6mm LRX offering by then too. Hope springs eternal....

This is an interesting thread. I bought my 9-yr-old son a Wby Youth in .243 to get him started deer hunting for the first time this year. I bought some Federal 85gr TSX ammo off the shelf when I picked up the rifle, because that seemed like the best they had. So, I sighted it in a week ago so that it would be ready for my son to start practicing. I was limited to a 50-yd range that day, but that rifle/bullet combo shot three-shot groups from a rest that all touched every time but one (and that was my fault). So, I was pretty happy. Then I looked and saw that Federal has stopped making that loading. It appears to have been replaced by Federal with an 85gr "Trophy Copper" loaing. What is that? Something new or just their name for an 85gr TTSX? It lookes like a TTSX on the Federal website. Is that lke how CorBon calls their TTSX lodings the "DPX Tip"? See http://www.shopcorbon.com/DPX-Rifle/243-Win-80gr-DPX-Tip/DPX24385-20/400/Product
I had a pleasant e-mail exchange with a CorBon rep, where they confirmed that these are TTSX bullets, and I told them that this was unnecessarily confusing and they should just call a duck a duck, or in this case a TTSX a TTSX. I love CorBon ammo, but that's a bit silly.

Anyway, I only had one box left of the Federal 85gr TSX after my range session, couldn't find any more easily, and wanted to get my son shooting something that would be around for a while. So, I ended up ordering some Barnes 80gr TTSX factory loads. I'm glad to read above that this performs pretty well. Hopefully, it will shoot as well out of that rifle as the 85gr TSX did. I'll find out soon.

Hi,I have used the 80 grain TTSX barnes factory load.
Shoots an inch or so for 3 shot groups at a 100 yards out of a Remington 7600 synthetic.Kills deer fine as well.
Bout $30.00 at local sportsmans warehouse.
Craig

Awesome pics there.

My wife, Cookie, does well on deer and pronghorn with 85 grain slugs. I borrowed it for black bear last year and tipped one right over. Face on and broke it's neck.

Wait, 85 gr. bullet on a bear? Really? I've been hoping to hear that would work. How big a bear? Not a cub, right?

Although I've not tried that bullet on deer I DO shoot it at ground hogs and Nosler lists it as a varmint bullet. Penetration might not be good.

The 80gr BT IS a deer bullet and as such, probably a much better choice and not much heavier if you're trying to keep recoil down.

Ive killed a ton of deer with 85 partitions ,that said may be easier to get something else with the way ammo is at this time .I hand load for all of my neads,good luck

I use them in my .243, great deer load.

Lots of great choices available today, however, make mine a Barnes.

Just about anything out of a .243 kills the crap out of deer. Stick to something 85-100 grs., put it where it aughtta go and get out your knife. It really ain't anymore complicated than that.

Cant disagree with that!

I used 80gr ttsx (federals I think), they worked great.

OK, but anyone have experience shooting black bears W/85gr. TSX's?

As a general rule, if it works well on deer, it'll work well on black bear.

I once shot a BIG Mule Deer doe with a 70 grain NBT out of my 6MM-06. Full frontal shot @ maybe 125 yards. -- The BT penetrated about 18" of Deer and exited the Mulie's back: which was in a straight line, as the doe's front legs were elevated. I was very surprised. Oh yeah, the doe never took a step.

great post, DJ Tex. you are raising some fine hunters there.

I have seen enough that I've decided a .250 sav (preferably ) or a .243 win is near bout ideal for whitetails. In the .243 I've used 100 g hornady SP's and sierra PH's. just got a couple boxes of the 95 g BT's to try. H4350 powder for any of the 3.

JMHO - Since you don't handload yet, I am a big fan of the Nosler Partitions if you can get your gun to shoot them (not usually the most accurate bullet). Federal Premium Ammo P243E -

http://www.federalpremium.com/products/details/rifle.aspx?id=214

The partition, fusion and accubond are at the top of the list to try out for accuracy. If I can find em may end up being the deciding factor

You don't need anything fancy - good old 100gr pointed soft point Remington works just fine for everything. My family has used 6mm for many years for whitetails. I would say over 95% were all one shot kills and most drop on the spot.

When a pet scoots its ass on the floor. Is that a bad thing? Heck if I know magen most floors would work. Just me thou.

95 gr Fusion.

My son and I load 100gr Remington corelokts. I wouldn't hesitate to use factory Remington 100gr ammo. We've never had a failure. My son has recovered two bullets and both were intact after busting bones and and penetration through a lot of muscle.

Wonderful DJ!

Love to see a dad involved with his kids like that! Super Kudos to you for doing a fine job..

love the smiles on the kids faces!

OH and BTW, nice job on the game also...

and to think I was raised that a 243 was a rifle that couldn't kill anything...