.243 reload questions

[boomtube]

Your new rig is obviously capabile of very good accuracy but it's equally obvious it doesn't care for your Nosler partions - try another bullt.

Stability has nothing to do with barrel lengt, as such.

 

[emp1953]

I got turned on to Partitions back in the early 70's. On my first Black Bear hunt I loaded Grand Slams. Shot a bear 5 times through the chest. Had the same size entry and exit holes it kept running. Another hunter in our group killed it with one shot from an old 30-30 shooting ammo from 1955. With that experience behind me, I tried Partitions and have never looked back. While I may not win a competition a Camp Perry with them, all my kills have been 1 shot kills. The ones that didn't drop in their tracks left a good blood trail. From pigs at 30 yards to mullies at 350.

Will Varget work in all my rifles. It may seem unreasonable to want only 1 powder, but it really does simplify things. There is an upcoming gun show this weekend and I can stock up on Varget and bullets.

 

[moombaskier]

If you already have loads that work for you in your other rifles using 3031.... why start over? Get yourself some 4350 this weekend and I'll bet your 243 will thank you for it.

 

[emp1953]

I plan to. Thanks

 

[roninflag]

My wife killed an elk with a 95 partition. may want to try those.

 

[emp1953]

I feel a little sheepish. I pulled the scope and the bases. I remounted the bases and mounted the bottom half of the rings. I put a 1" piece of pipe between the two and carefully tapped it down. This aligned the bases/rings perfectly. I tightened the bases and the ring bottoms. Mounted the scope and tightened it in. The max range in my yard is 50 yards. I shot 10 quick shots without adjusting the scope. All 10 shots were in a 2" square 2" high and 1" right of dead center. Apparently the scope was misaligned when mounted on the rifle and was not as tight as it should have been as a result. Kind of gives an explanation for the groups getting worse the more I shot, and the good grouping 80gr bullets having so little recoil that there was no scope movement during recoil. I think that with this kind of grouping I can work the load a little and get it tighter. I'd feel comfortable now with this set up for white tail. I'd be pressing to hit a groundhog though. I'll get it. Ground hogs beware.

 

[emp1953]

I took Moonbaskier's advice and procured some 4350 powder and some Sierra Blitz 80 gr. I picked a load out of the manual and loaded some up and started punching dime sized holes at 100yds. Thanks for the good advice.

 

[Leslie Sapp]

I love partitions but some guns just dont.

I have two model sevens, one in .260, one in .243. Neither one likes partitions.
The .260 will shoot 5 Sierra 120gr pro hunters into 5/8" at 100 yards from it's little 20" pencil barrel, though.
I'm still working up a load for the .243 18" barreled youth model, but I've got it under an inch at the present time.

 

[mooser]

I use 85gr. barnes in my ruger 243 and shoot 1 inch at 200 yards. It devistates whitetails.

 

[emp1953]

I trimmed all cases to 2.044"
I used Sierra 80 gr Blitz bullets.
With a completely cleaned rifle, I took one of those, lubed it and put it in an unsized unprimed case then chambered it slowly in the rifle letting the rifling press the bullet down into the case. Slowly cycling the bolt extracting that round, I measured the overall length. Sometimes this method can leave the bullet stuck in the throat of the rifling. A standard cleaning rod and a wooden mallet has always dislodged the bullet for me. If this happens, when you put the cleaning rod in from the muzzle, poke it around and get a feel for it settling on the tip of the bullet. You don't want it between the bullet and the barrel when you start tapping with the mallet. I did this with 3 rounds. I set my seating die to seat .001 shorter than the length out of the rifle. I loaded 10 of those. The next batch I seated .002 shorter, the next batch I loaded .003 shorter. Accuracy got better as the OAL got shorter. I stopped at .003 Apparently my model seven likes that spacing.

I worked up to a powder charge of 39.4gr of 4350. Maximum is around 41.5gr. I never load to maximum.

It is loud but has very little recoil and is dead on accurate. It is not very dirty either. Cleanup was easy. It has obliterated several groundhogs so far and a marauding coyote.

I am now working up a load using the Sierra 100gr SBT, following the same method as above. Hopefully the results will be as successful.

 

[moombaskier]

I'm glad that your 243 likes the 4350....most do. The sweet spot for most with 100 grain bullets is 39-41grs of 4350 but that is considered the upper end accuracy node(max). Of course, start lower and work your way up. Gotta love those "dime size" groups!