243 non lead bullets
- Thread starter bogwelly
- Start date
Brighty3006
Well-Known Member
Barnes ttsx. Brilliant
Yew Tree 80.5gr. I can get them to 1750ft lbs out of an 18” 1:10 twist barrel and they are accurate but have required a bit of playing around with primers to get velocity spread down (you wouldn’t notice by group size mind). Have some Barnes and Fox 80grains to try at some point.
Seating depth won't straighten it out that much. Probably requiring a different bullet
Essexsussex
Well-Known Member
Got a load ready to try in my 1:9.25 twist savage.
What primers did you end up with? Mine loaded with CCI
Deermanagement
Well-Known Member
Don’t expect any improvement if they are that bad
the prowler
Well-Known Member
Fox 80grain
devon deer stalker
Well-Known Member
Barnes TTSX 80g
What species do you mostly manage with these bullets please.
A quick look at the number of 243's for sale on Gun Trader (with a last Century twist rate) will tell you all you need to know about their ability to shoot all-copper ammo.
K
K
devon deer stalker
Well-Known Member
Mainly roe and fallow, but I have taken reds,and a couple of big stags
Engine room shot
I just don't push it beyond 200m
Heym SR20
Well-Known Member
There are and always have been lots of 243’s for sale. They are and always have been a very popular calibre.
Most have a 1 in 10” twist rate. These struggle to stabilise bullets over 100gn, indeed, many will only stabilise short flat based 100 gn lead cored bullets. Certainly that’s the case with my 30 plus year old Heym SR20. It shot the 100gn RWS Softpoint very well. But them RWS changed the load and it would not group. It never shot the Norma 100gn at all well.
The 243 Win was designed as a fast flat shooting cartridge with a twist rate slow enough to allow bullets to go at well above 3,000 fps. It’s sweet spot is the 70, 80 up to 90gn bullets. In Scotland we did have a legal requirement to use a min of a 100gn bullet on all deer other than Roe, this was dropped about 2 years ago to 80gn.
Like most high velocity over bore type cartridges, the 243 does require a longer barrel to allow sufficient acceleration to get sufficient velocity to get stability and sufficient energy to meet min legal requirements. The current fad for 16 to 18” barrels probably means that many 243s of that barrel length don’t meet the legal energy requirements do not meet the legal energy requirements regardless of whether a lead cored or monolithic bullet is used.
However, if you are shooting deer (other than Roe) in Scotland, choose an 80 gn flat based monolithic bullet and drive it fast. They will work well, and given bullet construction should penetrate well enough. The impact velocity will give plenty of wound channel.
If you are south of the border or just shooting Roe you might be better using a 75gn ballistically more streamlined bullet.
The older 6mm Remington never gained much popularity as it just used a 1 in 12” twist rate that could not stabilise any 100gn bullets.
There are lot of myths about the 243. It is, and always has been a little 6mm calibre, shooting a small sub 100gn bullet. It has always been a predator, vermin and smaller deer cartridge, but that has been used on much larger game on occasion. In many jurisdictions in Europe, the 6mm is a Roe deer cartridge. For bigger game you need a min of 6.5mm with 2,000 joules of energy at 100m.
And many are being encouraged by members of gun trade to get rid of the 243 and buy something newer and “suitable for lead free”. We have a nice 6.5 CM here for you sir. Same story with nice older shotguns - not suitable for steel, we can dispose of it for you sir, here is a nice new steel proofed Berretta or Browning. It’s called business and generating a sale.
Started using 80gr Hornady cx in my 1:10 twist 243. Very good accuracy and terminal performance so far. I don’t reload and based on box velocities it’s not going to get over 1750ftlb so I’m having it cut down a bit to make it a handy lightweight roe and fox rifle. Using 85gr Winchester extreme point in my other 243 which does get over 1750ftlb and have been perfectly suitable on hinds and staggies plus roe over the last couple of years.
Nimrod1960
Well-Known Member
Hornady CX 80g , no problems at all through my S&L 1:10 twist 24”.
Group well, not tried beyond 200m, have even taken a Sika hind at 125m, ran a bit but dropped
.
Group well, not tried beyond 200m, have even taken a Sika hind at 125m, ran a bit but dropped
.
Scotty99
Well-Known Member
Seating depth won't straighten it out that much. Probably requiring a different bullet
Will have see how it goes. Barnes say that the TTSX needs to be seated at least 50 thou off the lands and then working back from there. Having checked the distance to the lands and the ogive depth on the ammo I tested, they were almost touching the lands.
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