243 Special Sauce?

About to start reloading some ammo for my Bro-in-Law's rifle, and was hoping to get a few data points.

This is a Marlin X7, 22" barrel, and I'm not going for extreme range, or frankly extreme accuracy. Honestly, he's not much of a shooter. I corked up a box of 50 Speer SPBT for him about 5 years ago, but have no idea what recipe I used, or the velocities I was getting. I remember I didn't put much effort into it, but the rifle shot decent, perhaps just over an MOA. If I can reproduce that, I'm fine, but if I can eek a bit more out for him, that would be good too.

I have 2 bullets to try.

1) 100 gr "Spitzer Boat Tail Factory Seconds" from Midway. They were stupidly cheap at $0.12 each. Figure they're Sierra or Speer. I'm leaning towards Sierra, as they have a pretty substantial boat tail, which matches Seirra's website picture better than Speer's. Also, I think Speer calls theirs a "Soft Point Boat Tail", and Sierra does actually call theirs "Spitzer".

2) 103 ELD-X

So...

What's your favorite powder and charge for a ~100 gr pill? What sort of velocity should I expect out of a 22" barrel? I have gobs of H1000, so hoping that works well. I have some scraps of other magnum powders (RL22, S780, Retumbo, H4350, I7828, and maybe H4831) that could get me a handful of scouting rounds to try, and could be convinced to buy a pound (if available), but only if it's magical compared to H1000.

I'll obviously work up myself, and have thoroughly perused available loading data, but it's nice to have real world ideas of what to skip, and what to shoot for (pun intended) as I start collecting data.

I would be inclined to give the 103eld a try with a drop tube and Retumbo

That rifle probably has a 1-10 twist, a 103eldx probably won't stabilize. I would also never develop a load with seconds, It's a waste of time.

Somewhere in the neighborhood of 41.5 grains of IMR 4350 and a 90 or 95 grain Nosler BT is what I shoot out of my old A-bolt with a 22" bbl. Puts a whoopin' on Swamp Donkeys.

Dont be afraid to look at H414

90gr Nosler BT and 41gr of IMR 4451 gave me 5-shot group of 0.5 out of my Tikka !

Tikka have a 22.4inch barrel with a 1:10 twist

Reloder 26 is the .243 velocity king

~3,200 fps with a 100 grain....hello !!

Wedgy said:

View attachment 162151 View attachment 162151 ~3,200 fps with a 100 grain....hello !!

Click to expand...

I would think that would be enough to convince you to try another pound of powder!!! 200 fps over H1000.....

Wowsers. Too bad RL26 is made with unicorn tears...

In the process of bedding the rifle and waiting on a new scope, so I've got a little time. If I run across a can of it, I'll definitely grab it to try.

Been using RL22 with great satisfaction. If I ever see RL26 I will be giving it a try.

It must only be in certain parts of the country. I can get 1 lbers or 8 lbers literally any time I want....

Figure out where the lands are so you have a coal start point.H4831 and H1000 are going to shine with the 100grn and up bullets. H1000 depending on your coal should run about 3050 work up from 45grns and use a mag primer. I haven't bought 243 brass in at least 15 years. If your looking for consistent inexpensive brass starline is very hard to beat. I ran H4831 with 85-105's It was fast but not Rl26 fast. More importantly it shot very very well.
Today I run 100V with 87 vmaxs in both the 243 and the AI version at 3320-3350. I have run them up to 3500 in the ai but it wouldn't shoot.
Rl26 is all I use for the 105's now in the ai version. The others have a 9.25 or 10 tw so I am using the 87's almost exclusively