What bullet for a 243?

[Tnwhip]

I just bought an old 788 rem. in 243. It is in great shape. Has not been shot much.This is going to be my walk around rifle. I have some old boxes of Hornady 70g sp, Hornady 80g sp, that a friend gave me, and just bought some 65g V max. I shoot more crows than anything but take a coyote and ground hoq every chance I get. I look at the drop charts and the 65s shoot flatter but they drift more. Anyone shooting the 65v max ? Also thought about the 75 and 87 v max. I know I will have to shoot them all to find my best load. So many choices and so little time LOL

 

[B23]

I don't have a 243 Winnie but I shoot 75gr Vmax in my 6-284 and they turn coyotes inside out and leave VERY large messy holes. To say they are not fur friendly is an understatement but they shoot extremely well in my 1-12tw 6-284. As can be seen by this pic, they sure do make a mess of things.

 

[velvetant]

I shoot the 55 NBT, very accurate, very flat shooting. You can push them at 4000 fps and at that velocity it does pretty good in the wind out to 300 yards, much past that the wind really moves them around.
I also sight this load in at 300 yards.
That gives me point blank bunny out to 330 yards. Been my go to 243 varmint load since that bullet came out.

 

[Tnwhip]

I don't have a 243 Winnie but I shoot 75gr Vmax in my 6-284 and they turn coyotes inside out and leave VERY large messy holes. To say they are not fur friendly is an understatement but they shoot extremely well in my 1-12tw 6-284. As can be seen by this pic, they sure do make a mess of things.View attachment 78856

Yea that is what I am looking for. Our fur isn't worth skinning anyway.

 

[FAIRCHASE]

The vmax is in fact a great bullet for the fur bearing type BUT shot placement is key. Hit a large bone or low in the guts and its not good.

 

[gj]

Its hard to beat a Vmax bullet !

 

[grovey]

I just bought an old 788 rem. in 243. It is in great shape. Has not been shot much.This is going to be my walk around rifle. I have some old boxes of Hornady 70g sp, Hornady 80g sp, that a friend gave me, and just bought some 65g V max. I shoot more crows than anything but take a coyote and ground hoq every chance I get. I look at the drop charts and the 65s shoot flatter but they drift more. Anyone shooting the 65v max ? Also thought about the 75 and 87 v max. I know I will have to shoot them all to find my best load. So many choices and so little time LOL

Some of those old Hornady 70 gr sp bullets were fairly tough. I have some here, and I'm going to shoot a deer with them from my PPC just to say I did it. Horandy made two kinds back in the day ,and the others were sxsp's I believe. The sxsp variety are pretty explosive.

 

[LDHunter]

I simply love the 70gr NBT and it shoots well in all three of my 243's with great velocities and fair wind bucking capabilities. Terminal performance is quite explosive but not as good at with the 55gr Ballistic Tips but I don't get the accuracy with them that I do with the 70gr Ballistic Tips.

 

[68w]

I've used 58 superformance VMAX on possum and raccoon with luck. Head shot was a bloody mess, split possum in two from nose to chest cavity. Raccoon I couldn't find enterance or exit wound with chest shot. Skinned him and found a 4" enterance with no exit lungs and heart pulverized, but hide in perfect condition. It's all in how and where you hit with the blow up pills. Haven't gotten a coyote with this round yet, but should be point and shoot to over 300 with my zero, just gotta stumble across one.

 

[ATH]

I like the 87 VMAX. People get to too tied up in velocity; I miss a lot more from wind drift with lower BC bullets than from drop errors due to wrong range.

My all around favorite bullet WAS the 105 AMAX (discontinued). But the 87 VMAX in my 243AI can be pushed fast enough to ALMOST duplicate those ballistics to over 400 yards.

 

[Tnwhip]

I just got back from a week up at my cabin shooting rifles and working on loads. I have worked up a good load with the 70g sp. got 20 left. So I tried working up a load with the 75 hps. just so so groups. I started working with win. 760 and Varget and the 65v maxes, and the groups are just a ragged hole with a max charge of Varget. I am going to stick with this for now. When I run low on the 65s I may try the 75v max or the 87 v max. There is one thing. After I got the 65s dialed in. The next day I shot a group with a cold dirty barrel around 100 shots through it. The first shot was 1 inch low then 5 in one big hole. Then the next day I shot out to 300 yds and the first shot was 4" low then shot a 1 1/2" group. I guess it could be me? but I will have to see what it does the next time I go out. I seems like the first shot on a cold barrel is always low?

 

[68w]

Fouling shot it is sometimes called

 

[Tnwhip]

It was already fouled. It was a cold fouled barrel from the previous day. Have not cleaned it in over 100 rounds.

Fouling shot it is sometimes called

 

[Outlaw6.0]

My favorite is the 87vmax. It's light enough to be pushed fast but heavy enough to have somewhat of a BC. Heck, my GF even killed her deer last year with the 87. While it isn't ideal for muleys, it killed it DRT.


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