Win .243 twist and Berger Bullets

[azsugarbear]

I'm looking at purchasing a Win .243 rifle. While most manufacturers offer the .243 with a 1-10 twist, the Rem 700 has a 1-9.3 rate of twist. The Berger website lists the required twist for their 95 gr. hunting vld bullet as 1-9. I'm sure the Rem is close enough in twist to stabilize this bullet, but I would love to get some independent confirmation on this assumption. Additionally, has anyone been successful in getting the 105 gr. to stabilize in the Rem 1-9.3 twist? And finally, what other non-custom rifles should I be looking at in a .243 caliber with a twist rate of 1-9 or better?

 

[ZSteinle]

my buddy has a .243 remington sps with the same twist and seems to do very well with the 105 bergers and 105 amax. i wanna say his load is 40 or 41 gr. of H4350 mag primer with a OAL of 2.82 But dont quote me on it. it will shoot under half inch. his name on here is sidthekidd i beleive.

 

[darrindlh]

I have a 243 rem pump. Talked to berger and they told me that the twist of my barrel would be fine. the rate of twist on my barrel is 1-9 1/8. I am personally going to look to change the barrel and the trigger.

Darrin

 

[roninflag]

i have not tried a 95 berger in my .243's. loaded a bunch for a friend in a vls. never got anything under and inch . they did stabalize though.

 

[BryanLitz]

Stability can be a tricky thing because it can depend on your altitude and air conditions.

You can be confident that the 95 VLD will stabilize from your 1:9.3" twist.

The 105's ... it depends.

If you're shooting in warm summer conditions at high altitudes (low density air), then they might work. However, if you're at sea level in the winter, they won't. If you decide to try the 105's, I recommend testing them in the lowest temperature, and at the lowest altitude that you expect to hunt with them in to insure they'll work when you're hunting.

Worst case scenario is that you work up a load in the summer that shoots great, but is borderline stable. Then you don't shoot again till winter, and your bullets are not stable in the colder (denser) air.

I've seen some terrible arguments between people who claim that a certain bullet/twist combination is stable in certain conditions, where others claim it's not. The root of the disagreement is that the people are all shooting at different altitudes! I know a guy in Pueblo, CO (~5000 feet above sea level) who shoots the 105 VLD's from a 1:10" twist barrel with great accuracy. Don't try that at sea level!

If you're interested in calculating bullet stability for a particular set of atmospheric conditions, I can email you a free simple program based on the Miller stability formula. Send me an email at: [email protected] and I'll reply with the program attached.

Take care,
-Bryan