243 Win Youth Hunter Bullet ?

toasty

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So my son (60lbs) is going to WY for antelope this fall for his first big game animal. He'll be shooting a 243 Win loaded for youth shooter, something around 75-80 grains doing 2700-2800 fps. He is coming along nicely and progressing well with some smaller bullets, but a fully loaded 90g bullet makes him uncomfortable and his accuracy suffers. I've looked at all of the major manufacturers but don't want to be shooting varmint bullets because of too much expansion, but I'm afraid that bullet expansion will suffer on their big game offerings due to the lower velocities of a longer shot.

Question is can anyone recommend a ~80g bullet that will do the job on an antelope out to about 300 yards?
 
So my son (60lbs) is going to WY for antelope this fall for his first big game animal. He'll be shooting a 243 Win loaded for youth shooter, something around 75-80 grains doing 2700-2800 fps. He is coming along nicely and progressing well with some smaller bullets, but a fully loaded 90g bullet makes him uncomfortable and his accuracy suffers. I've looked at all of the major manufacturers but don't want to be shooting varmint bullets because of too much expansion, but I'm afraid that bullet expansion will suffer on their big game offerings due to the lower velocities of a longer shot.

Question is can anyone recommend a ~80g bullet that will do the job on an antelope out to about 300 yards?
I don't know of a specific load with that weight bullet, but with my grandson, when we moved him up from .22 to .243 we kept him practicing with reduced recoil loads. When hunting day finally arrived, without my grandson knowing it, my son and I substituted full power 95gr Winchester Ballistic Silvertip ammo. When the time came to pull the trigger on his first deer, he took the shot like a pro and with all the excitement of taking his first deer, he never even noticed the difference in recoil.

Since he never knew the round was different than what he was used to shooting he never got anxious or uncomfortable about the upcoming shot.

Just something to think about. Our technique worked for us... your mileage may vary. ;)
 
I've killed a lot of Blacktail bucks with the 95gr. Nosler BST and with the 85gr Sierra HPBT. The 85 Sierra will cause a lot of meat loss though, if you shoot em' in the wrong place. Most all of them in the ear or slightly lower. BANG-FLOP!
 
Might look at the speer deep curl in 80 grain pills. Also If your going to be shooting some lighter bullets, you might be able to get some higher speeds with less recoil than the heavier bullets. Also, have you thought about a different recoil pad? or adding some wieght to the rifle? But what every you do just don't make him recoil sensitive. Good luck
 
x2 on the 95 nosler ballistic tip. My 10 yr old uses a 243. We have killed many deer out to 300 yds with this bullet. Deer never knew what hit them
 
Might want to try Hornady GMX 80gr or Barnes TTSX 80 grain and they both are copper. That is what we will shoot. Done picked up ten of each for the GDaughter some day for deer and what ever. Good luck for your Son.
 
At that velocity a varmint bullet may well work perfectly but I would not let a youngster shoot them unless I had tested them on game first. We shoot a pile of antelope and deer with a 22-250 and 60gr Berger varmint bullets and they are perfect, I would be very tempted to load an 80gr Berger in a 243 for what your doing but I would be hesitant to let the young one take the first animal with them unless tested by yourself. The Barnes TTSX should open down fairly low but I would also test them on game prior to your son to make sure all is well, I've had Barnes open but not have enough velocity to do enough damage to even tell an animal was hit well till they fell over dead after quite some time.
 
I used the same technique as Dieselbuilder. Started my son out with 60gr Sierra Varminter bullets loaded to 3000 fps and then had him hunt with Nosler 95gr Partitions loaded to 2850 fps. When the time came he never knew the difference. Plenty of practice and shot placement are important also.

Bruce
 
Thanks for all of the replies so far. The gun weighs about 10lbs right now with a custom stock and bull barrel and he will be on a bench or prone rest when he shoots. I was going to try the barnes TSSX, but I think that sierra 85g hpbt looks like a better option, I've actually taken a couple animals with that bullet years ago, but forgot until it was posted up. I'll load it around 2600-700 fps and try out the recoil. We've got a long time to work up to it slowly.
 
With my son who shot his first deer with a rifle at age 8 this is what I did and it worked great. He is 10 now and has killed 4 deer with a rifle. He has fired his hi-power rifle 4 times. He has however fired his scoped 22 about 10,000 times. When the deer are in the crosshairs he doesn't even know the difference. I made the mistake with my daughter of putting her on the hi-power 243 at the range first. The noise and recoil scared her so bad that to this day she still flinches a bit. My 10 yr old boy just lets 1/2 a breath out and squeezes. His 22 groups are beating mine now.
 
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