Which Caliber to use this Weekend?

[SBruce]

I am kinda suprised that bullet didn't exit. My son's 243 has been shooting 85 grn Barnes on big muleys and some whitetail for quite a few years now, they almost always pass completely through on a broadside lung/heart shot.

Curious, did it hit the shoulder bone on either side?

What did the bullet look like on recovery, was it well mushroomed but still all in one piece, or had it fragmented and blown apart inside the carcass?

Do you know the muzzle velocity of the round?

Nice Buck and beautiful Fox!

[scsims]

The 95 grain berger didn't hit anything on the way in. It went between two ribs and stopped on the skin on the off side shoulder. Lungs were destroyed and I could find anything but fragments.

We've taken maybe 10 deer with the 243 using mostly the 85 gr Sierra HPBT. It does kill them, but I always feel a little under gunned when using it.

It leaves me a blood trail about half the time.

I think I'm going back to the larger calibers for big game.

[SBruce]

At only 80 yds, I would guess that bullet was still going pretty darn fast. Which would probably explain you finding nothin but fragments. Would also maybe explain why I see more pass throughs (generally, our close shots are twice that far). IME, alot of bullets can be going "too fast" to do what they're supposed to do. They've gotta expand, but they've also gotta stay together in order to penetrate and give an exit wound that will bleed.

A bigger bullet surely does give us more room to play with though. Cant argue with that logic.

[scsims]

Sorry forgot, the MV is near 3K. Shooter says it will be close to 2700 fps with 1597 ft-lbs.

[SBruce]

IMO, 3000'/sec shouldn't have been too fast. I was thinking more along the lines of 3200 possibly being too fast.

I'd be curious what Bergers reply would be to the bullet coming apart at that speed. Seems it should've held together better than that.?

EDIT:

Seems after reading this thread berger and no expansion?
It appears alot of people have witnessed fragmenting. Sounds like they're more prone to fragment than I've seen and come to expect. Probably even designed to do that by the sounds of it.

Just passin on some info.

[sendero72]

I think the 243 is a fun round and easy to load for. You may want to try the 105 Amax if you have the correct twist rate. It as worked well for me out to 300yds with complete pass thru's.

[7 loader]

Flip a coin. either will work fine with a good shot. good luck.