.243" at 1000 yds

biffa

Well-Known Member
I'm down at Bisley this weekend and will be shooting on the 1000 yd range with my Tikka T3 243".

I normally zero at 100 yds for stalking and have my zero points for 300, 500 and 600yds for on the range. I homeload and get nice groups at 600 yards with 95gn Sierra Matchkings but this is the longest range I have shot at to date. On new distances I normally find the bullet drop on websites, click this onto the scope and then fine tune at the range. The problem I am now having is that I can't find any trajectories for .243" beyong 600yards despite searching extensively.

Can anyone give me a starting point or point me to where I may be able to get this info.

Many thanks
 
2428 miles
has shot a T3 out to 800 yard but that is a 30-06. Are you home loading for those ranges? 1000yards would be quite a hot load in that cal I would have thought. Also unless you have a heavy type barrel I think the harmonics will play havoc at that range With that cartridge. IMHO there probably is a reason why there is no data on the drop for that. As the standard out of the box T3 has a realistic usable range of 600 yards. That being said you may be the first. Very good luck with it
 
I've read about quite a few people shooting the .243 well past 1000, but usually with 1:8 twist long heavy barrels, 105g bulls and slow burning powders.

Why would the barrel harmonics be different? the rifle doesn't know what distance you're shooting at?...
 
ask JCS, think he was loosing off at some vast distance with a 243 just recently, sure it was a 1000.

but a quick google produced this:
.243 Win + .243 AI Cartridge Guide

-232" at 100oyds

seems perfectly fine for those chaps, dont see why it would be any different to any other calibre
 
I've read about quite a few people shooting the .243 well past 1000, but usually with 1:8 twist long heavy barrels, 105g bulls and slow burning powders.

Why would the barrel harmonics be different? the rifle doesn't know what distance you're shooting at?...

thats fine i just didn't know if the standard barrel could do it i stand corrected thanks

"ask JCS, think he was loosing off at some vast distance with a 243 just recently, sure it was a 1000.

but a quick google produced this:
.243 Win + .243 AI Cartridge Guide

-232" at 100oyds

seems perfectly fine for those chaps, dont see why it would be any different to any other calibre"

again thanks for adding to my education, i have herd of lots of shooting done at that range with bigger calibers. i didn't know that a T3 was able to do it with that size round that was all. again good luck to the OP
 
I had a look at 2 libraries of ballistic data for .243 .95grn bullets and they really vary between -220 and about -400

I didn't have anything for the sierra match kings though.
 
I use:

http://www.jbmballistics.com/cgi-bin/jbmtraj-5.1.cgi

They've got the 95grn smk in their list of bullets. Muzzle Velocity of 3000 fps is easily supersonic still at 1000 yards, drop is around 30 MOA from 100 yard zero. I'm slightly sceptical as to whether the bullet will still be stable out of a T3, the twist isn't very fast, still you'll have to try it and see.
 
The best method is applying SWAG including Kentucky windage , or jbmballistics , with the round supersonic the range isnt the problem the wind will make things interesting though , have a goodday anyway ,

ATB
 
Use butt zero ask at the range office for a card, i don't think there is a charge. Shooting the card will give you a reasonable idea of where you need to be with your scope. If you have not shot at that distance before don't expect to get any reasonable group! Have fun though there is no better feeling at that distance than firing your own home loads and hitting an area within four inches of where you were aiming! I have used 95 grn bullets with H414 which was OK but the best results where with a 100grn bullet with VitN150 behind it!
 
If you've got a reasonable 600 yard zero, then adding 12 minutes of elevation should get you on target at 900 yards. Assuming you have a decent wind zero, if the wind is already blowing, you'll need to have at least a very rough guess of how hard it's blowing, correct accordingly before you put your first shot down or you might miss the target (if it's only a gentle breeze you should be able to get away without wind correction to get on target). If you buy a plotting card from the range office, then there's a little chart showing roughly how much wind to put on. (Also useful for recording your shots, don't bother trying to plot graphs or anything, but do record your sight settings and number the shots)

If you miss the target, if you're lucky then you might see a splash in the sand, but given the recent weather that's doubtful. Failing that, radio the marker and ask, hopefully they were paying attention and will tell you where it went! If the round falls short, then sometimes it can hit the top of the mantlet and throw mud onto the target, which the marker should be able to tell you. Don't make drastic sight adjustments or you could really lose the plot and start putting them over the top.

Finally, if your shots are not holding a consistent elevation, then you're probably s*** out of luck and your rounds aren't capable of grouping.
 
The program I use gives the sierra's dropping 358.55 with a 100yd zero using n160 powder and -386 using h380.Hope this helps bud.
 
biffa,

for accurate ballistics data for beyond 600yd, it's essential to use the more reliable G7 BC instead of the G1 form quoted by all manufacturers other than Berger. The 95gn SMK has an experimentally obtained G7 average value of 0.232 over 3,000 down to 1,500 fps (Bryan Litz: "Applied Ballistics for Long Range Shooting 2nd edition"). The aforementioned JBM suite has a G7 facility. You can also download a little free PC program from the Berger Bullets website (written by Mr Litz who is now the company's in-house designer and ballistician) that runs either G1 or G7.

FWIW, if you're getting 3,000 fps MV from this bullet in your T3, the come-up in MOA is as follows for 1,000:

from 100yd zero: 30 MOA
from 600yd zero 18 MOA

A|t 2,800 fps MV, those values rise to 35.75 and 21.5 all under standard ballistic environmental conditions (29.92" mercury and 59 deg F).

You will be supersonic with this bullet at 3,000 fps, barely so at 2,800. You may also find you don't have enough scope elevation adjustment depending on how it's been mounted. The .243 95gn SMK has a similar BC to the best of the 0.308" 155gn match bullets used in Target Rifle and F Class (F/TR), and most competitors find a 20-MOA angled scope rail essential to 'get on' at 1,000yd.
 
How much adjustment do you have in your scope?
Trajectory is a bit academic if you can't get elevation to the target.
 
Use butt zero ask at the range office for a card, i don't think there is a charge.

It's about 3 quid from what I recall. You need to show a Safe Shooter Card or whatever it's called before they'll let you on it. I only mention that as a probabtioner in my club wanted to use it, and was turned away for that reason.
 
Many thanks for all the responses - some new sites I'd not come across before and a couple I had but where I'd missed the 1000yard info.

I'm not sure what the MV is of my best load so far but I think I'll try to get to 35 MOA and take it from there.

I'm expecting to run out of adjustment on the scope but I thought I would give it as much as possible and then rely on the graduated reticle. I only have the standard T3 which is a 10" twist and it seems to shoot best with 95 gn bullets so I wasn't going to bother with 100 gns and certainly not the 115gn which a couple of people have previously said are what I should be using at this range. One of the guys I'm going with has a 1:8" twist .223" which he groups at 1000 yards with the heavy bullets.

Thanks again for all the replies and let's now just hope there's no wind!
 
Am sure you'll have good fun. I find long range shooting a very humbling experience!

By the way, you can get a 20MOA rail for the T3 for about £40 from midway, EGW is the make.
Got one on my .308 and for the money it's well made. Plus you don't need optilocks so have a wider choice of mounts.

P.S. A probationary member should be able to go on the zero range if they're supervised. I think.
 
Thought I'd post a quick update. Driving around the M25 and seeing the wind turbine at Kings Langely spinning round didn't bode too well and when I arrived some of the .308" boys hadn't hit the board let alone the target. But I thought what the hell I've driven all the way here. Adjusted the scope up as far as possible which was only 20MOA of the 35 I thought I'd need. So with the cross hairs on the middle of the lane number to my left - I guess 15 foot high and 12 foot to the left I planted the 1st on the board. Bit of adjustment and I was planting them in the black for the rest of the morning which given I didn't have a precise aim point I was well pleased with.

To conclude I'm happy with my 95gn Sierra Match King and 33.5 gn of Hodgdon 4350 and am looking forward to having a proper go without a 15mph cross wind!
 
Thought I'd post a quick update. Driving around the M25 and seeing the wind turbine at Kings Langely spinning round didn't bode too well and when I arrived some of the .308" boys hadn't hit the board let alone the target. But I thought what the hell I've driven all the way here. Adjusted the scope up as far as possible which was only 20MOA of the 35 I thought I'd need. So with the cross hairs on the middle of the lane number to my left - I guess 15 foot high and 12 foot to the left I planted the 1st on the board. Bit of adjustment and I was planting them in the black for the rest of the morning which given I didn't have a precise aim point I was well pleased with.

To conclude I'm happy with my 95gn Sierra Match King and 33.5 gn of Hodgdon 4350 and am looking forward to having a proper go without a 15mph cross wind!

Well done to you so when you getting the night-force & a 6.5x284 or a 284 etc??
 
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