243 - 55 grain - free bore

[ballistx]

I picked up some 55 grain Nosler SHOTS bullets for the 243's. These are only 0.595" long. Don't have a chance to get to the range yet. Thought I would try and get some others' experiences with them. My concern is the free bore. With 1 caliber neck retention the free bore on the 4 rifles is 0.578", 0.295", 0.292" & 0.351". Pushing the bullet out some wouldn't have any significant affect on that kind of free bore.

What has your experience been with extended (won't say excessive) free bore with these tiny pills?

Thanks.

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

With little pills like these I like to seat the bullet deeply enough to square it up with the case, one caliber seems to be a good number if you can get it there. A bit of free bore isn't going to kill accuracy, but it will make the rifle a bit more fickle as to what it likes.
I shot a ton of nosler 55 bt's through my last 243 pistol. Great accuracy with 4895. Blew prairie dogs' minds how accurate it was.

 

[AZShooter]

Seat them and shoot them. You will find out quickly if your rifle likes them. I have shot them in two Rem 243s barrels. One was a 243 @ 4075 fps the other became a 6mm-284 at 4175 fps. Knew they would have plenty of jump but it didn't affect the accuracy. When one of these hits a rodent it is very messy. It shoots so flat it might be the perfect yote calling bullet. Just aim and shoot out to 325 yds or so.

 

[ShootnMathews]

I loaded for yotes with my marlin XS7 .243. Varget powder. I'd have to check my book for how much but I'm thinking its 51 grns. .002" off the lands which only gives me about 3mm in the brass, but it shoots a solid .75 MOA. Sometimes .5 MOA at about 4050 fps. It is a terrible mess when you shoot a yote or fox. Looks like they got hit with a grenade. Last fox I shot with it you could hide a softball and probably an extra 2 tennis balls in the exit hole. Baffles me how that little bullet does so much damage.

I loaded them thinking I would save the fur.......had to change bullets for that. gun)

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

I loaded for yotes with my marlin XS7 .243. Varget powder. I'd have to check my book for how much but I'm thinking its 51 grns. .002" off the lands which only gives me about 3mm in the brass, but it shoots a solid .75 MOA. Sometimes .5 MOA at about 4050 fps. It is a terrible mess when you shoot a yote or fox. Looks like they got hit with a grenade. Last fox I shot with it you could hide a softball and probably an extra 2 tennis balls in the exit hole. Baffles me how that little bullet does so much damage.

I loaded them thinking I would save the fur.......had to change bullets for that. gun)

in a 243 a 80'ish grain fmj at 2500-2600 fps is a good ticket to save fur. Little pencil hole on both in and out. Learn your load and you can kill WAY out there with a mild load like that.

 

[ShootnMathews]

My thinking was that the 55 BT would let me yote hunt to about 300 or 350 without dialing which would cover 90 % of where I hunt. Now I don't have time to tend the fur anyways. More about thinning the totes out now.

 

[ballistx]

What I am trying to figure out is how much freebore is really being applied. This is with the Nosler 55 grain SHOTS bullet. It is only 0.595" long. There is only 0.175" (4.32mm) from the base to the beginning of the ogive. Inserting 3mm (0.122") into the case leaves only 0.053" from the front of the case to the beginning of the ogive.

The freebore on my four 243's is 0.445", 0.205", 0.217" & 0.248" (front of case to beginning of lands). With 0.240 buried in the case, my 55 grain SHOTS bullets are set at 0.520", 0.270", 0.282" & 0.313" from the lands.

I'm still not able to get to the range but have a number of these loaded up to try as soon as I can. Can't change much on how I am loading. Will just see what the results will be.

 

[ShootnMathews]

Never heard of a Nosler SHOTS bullet. But let me know how it does.

 

[ballistx]

As I understand they are for the Australian market. They are not available directly from Nosler dealers. The only place I've seen them is at the Shooters Pro Shop as 2nd's or over runs. Make for cheaper target shooting and are pretty devastating from what I have read.