wbm
Well-Known Member
Second that. Also have been impressed with Winchester's Deer Season XP 95gr Extreme Point...accurate and very effective.
.243 for Whitetail
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Second that. Also have been impressed with Winchester's Deer Season XP 95gr Extreme Point...accurate and very effective.
Wedgy
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- Feb 9, 2013
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- 3,216
Try Reloader 26, it is like a miracle powder in this cartridge with people getting over 3400fps with Berger 105's. A couple threads on here and the Hide about people thinking their chrono's are broken. How it can get that much more velocity w/o pressure is amazing. I have 4 firings on my WW brass and it's still holding up.
Test results with RL26 and 105 in a 243 at 3400fps! update DTACS
#yiv7970028198 #yiv7970028198 -- P {margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;}#yiv7970028198 http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f19/chronograph-speeds-not-working-out-drop-167934
Test results with RL26 and 105 in a 243 at 3400fps! update DTACS
#yiv7970028198 #yiv7970028198 -- P {margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;}#yiv7970028198 http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f19/chronograph-speeds-not-working-out-drop-167934
Waynzee
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- Joined
- Jan 21, 2016
- Messages
- 732
Savage 243 and 100gr. Rem. core lokt bullets were made for each other. Years ago at about 50 yards, I shot a nice 8 point buck as he turned quartering away and hit him high in the rear hind quarter from my tree stand, that bullet went all the way through that deer and split his heart and came out just under the front shoulder. He jumped, took one step and dropped right there. That same rifle and bullet combo my Dad at 83 years old and the last year he hunted dropped a 9 point buck at 237 paces through the woods and across the corner of a field. Yep, some day when I can't take the recoil of bigger calibers I'll be taking that Savage and a box of Rem. 100 gr. core lokt bullets to the woods with all the confidence of any rifle I've hunted with.
I'm 24 and have been using the .243 since I was 9. My dad got me a .243 NEF Youth Model then when I was about 14 he got me an adult model .270 NEF. I had no problem with the .270 but ended up putting the .243 barrel on the .270 Frame. Made for a compact gun. I have killed most of my deer with the .243 though a stick and string are slowly catching up. They never complain it's too little gun. My current build is a .243 Savage that I'm rebarreling and restocking and getting rid of the horrid Tasco Varmint Scope the PO had on it.
WildRose
Well-Known Member
Saw this thread and it made me smile so I had to add my own bit. I also came across this rifle which is pretty well the twin of the rifle I carried on my first Pronghorn Antelope hunt some forty years ago this month although this one is chambered in 30-06.
While as a rule I consider the .243 to fit best in the category of a varmint caliber I can't even imagine how many thousands of us including me started out with one.
We had a Remington 742 semi auto that was the first "deer rifle" for each of us boys.
The proudest moment of my young life came about in 1974 when as a 12yo I was fortunate enough that both my dad and I drew a very hard to get Antelope tag. Even more fortunate was that one of dad's best friends and a man who proved to be a great mentor in my life and continues to be a man I have endless respect for drew a tag as well and came along with us.
My dad liked getting off to do his own thing on these hunts and Homer decided he'd take me. We drove and glassed and glassed and drove looking at hundreds of Antelope on this ranch in the absolute middle of no where some forty miles or so from the Claunch New Mexico general store and Post office along with a tiny little church and that was pretty much the extent of Claunch, NM.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/C...a241cab821865!8m2!3d34.1432994!4d-105.9942433
Since the age of six or seven I'd sat in typical Texas "deer blinds" with dad on deer hunts but this was a whole new world for me. Huge, wide open plains and rolling hills and ridges where sometimes you could literally see almost forever.
After several hours of the driving and glassing Homer spots a very nice buck a mile or so away so we parked the truck down low bailed out and thus began my first stalk.
In that era the only Antelope hunts were on Labor Day weekend and the entire season lasted only three or four days so we were in the middle of the rut with scorching 90 plus highs and forty plus lows and dry, dry, dry like folks who have never been in high desert type terrain can imagine.
We played tag with this guy from around 9:30 until around 4:00pm and I was on the verge of heat stroke when Homer signaled me to be as quiet and careful as possible because he could just barely see the tips of horns just over the little ridge we were following hoping to get ahead of the buck we'd been after all day so we could hopefully cut him off and if lucky enough work into a range at which Homer was confident I could make the shot.
Unlike my dad Homer didn't even carry his own rifle, he was there "for" me and indeed he was. Dad's standard plan when we were young was that he would always be the "back up shooter just in case", which of course we learned as we got older was he was going to shoot no matter what and try to time it with our shot so that we really couldn't figure out what he was doing.
Homer was intent on relying on his skill as a hunter to put me where we had to be to get the job done and by golly did exactly that.
Being a kid with very limited hunting experience I really had no concept of range. We'd already established that he'd get me set up for the shot and tell me where to aim, dead on if it was a hundred yards or higher/lower for closer or farther.
Unfortunately we ran out of ridge and the buck popped up again herding his nine does and trying to keep the bachelor bucks at bay. There was just nowhere left to go and nothing other than some very thin and scraggly cholla to hide behind and the buck had us pegged. He couldn't see much more than the tops of our heads and eyes but knew something was moving over there.
We crouch as low as we can trying to close a little more distance and to hopefully find some place where I could get prone on a rock or something to attempt the shot. Of course that didn't work out because of the terrain, it was impossible even after belly crawling a good ways to find such a shooting position.
Finally Homer squats down with his hands on his knees telling me to put the rifle on his shoulder for a rest and see if I could get a shot.
Just as we get set up where I could even see through the scope he pops up on a little mound just tall enough for me to see my point of aim for a heart/lung shot.
I've got a fatal case of "Buck Fever" going of course and Homer talks me down, gets me relaxed and ready to shoot. The little 3-9x40mm Weaver had tiny wire thin cross hairs which did a good job of blending in with that crease and disappearing so it took me what seemed like forever to finally get on him.
Homer tells me to hold about a foot high, right along the top of his shoulders and when I was ready to do so squeeze it as gently and smoothly as possible and let a round fly.
I took a couple of more deep breaths letting them out slowly and about halfway through the gun suddenly goes off.
Everything looks perfect except for the fact he was still standing there looking at us trying to figure out what happened. Homer is telling me to try again sure I'd missed and I did so. I swore I could see it hit and hair fly but all he did was trot a few steps to get a better view of us.
Homer was getting a bit frustrated telling me to keep shooting till I hit him and I pumped off two more as quick as I could get back on target after the shot.
Finally he starts to wobble taking a few more steps and piles up in the grass. Hooray, finally I hit him and I have my first Antelope.
Homer paces it off and it's a bit over 320yds and at the end of that walk lay a beautiful 15" buck with wide cutters and very symmetrical.
We're both elated slapping each other hand to hand and then a huge bear hug, he was so proud I'd finally put the last round in the right spot.
It's a long drag back to anywhere we might get the truck into so we decide to field dress him right there to lighten the load.
We roll him up on his back with all four sticking in the air when Homer notices that all four shots were right where they belonged in a group smaller than his fist.
This is the man who taught me to shoot and mentored me throughout most of my young life and who to this day is there if I ever need a shoulder to lean on (pun intended) or to answer any question I could possibly come up with related to hunting or the outdoors.
At that moment I could see in his face the kind of pride almost always reserved for a Father and Son. We'd pulled it off and done it together every step of the way.
The moral of the story? Yes the .243 is more than adequate to take medium sized game like a White Tailed Deer or Pronghorn antelope but Antelope are extremely tough animals for their size and even with a perfectly placed shot unless you interrupt the CNS with a head or spine shot you may very well feel the need for a follow up or two or four before they go down and... .
When we mentor young kids and get them into the outdoors we may not realize it but those are the moments that can change the life of a young man or little girl and still mean so much to them forty years later they can still remember it as clearly as if it were on film.
There are millions of kids out there just waiting for a "Homer" to come along... . Find one and step up. You will be enriching both your life and theirs and creating yet another generation to share our love of the outdoors, shooting, and hunting.
While as a rule I consider the .243 to fit best in the category of a varmint caliber I can't even imagine how many thousands of us including me started out with one.
We had a Remington 742 semi auto that was the first "deer rifle" for each of us boys.
The proudest moment of my young life came about in 1974 when as a 12yo I was fortunate enough that both my dad and I drew a very hard to get Antelope tag. Even more fortunate was that one of dad's best friends and a man who proved to be a great mentor in my life and continues to be a man I have endless respect for drew a tag as well and came along with us.
My dad liked getting off to do his own thing on these hunts and Homer decided he'd take me. We drove and glassed and glassed and drove looking at hundreds of Antelope on this ranch in the absolute middle of no where some forty miles or so from the Claunch New Mexico general store and Post office along with a tiny little church and that was pretty much the extent of Claunch, NM.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/C...a241cab821865!8m2!3d34.1432994!4d-105.9942433
Since the age of six or seven I'd sat in typical Texas "deer blinds" with dad on deer hunts but this was a whole new world for me. Huge, wide open plains and rolling hills and ridges where sometimes you could literally see almost forever.
After several hours of the driving and glassing Homer spots a very nice buck a mile or so away so we parked the truck down low bailed out and thus began my first stalk.
In that era the only Antelope hunts were on Labor Day weekend and the entire season lasted only three or four days so we were in the middle of the rut with scorching 90 plus highs and forty plus lows and dry, dry, dry like folks who have never been in high desert type terrain can imagine.
We played tag with this guy from around 9:30 until around 4:00pm and I was on the verge of heat stroke when Homer signaled me to be as quiet and careful as possible because he could just barely see the tips of horns just over the little ridge we were following hoping to get ahead of the buck we'd been after all day so we could hopefully cut him off and if lucky enough work into a range at which Homer was confident I could make the shot.
Unlike my dad Homer didn't even carry his own rifle, he was there "for" me and indeed he was. Dad's standard plan when we were young was that he would always be the "back up shooter just in case", which of course we learned as we got older was he was going to shoot no matter what and try to time it with our shot so that we really couldn't figure out what he was doing.
Homer was intent on relying on his skill as a hunter to put me where we had to be to get the job done and by golly did exactly that.
Being a kid with very limited hunting experience I really had no concept of range. We'd already established that he'd get me set up for the shot and tell me where to aim, dead on if it was a hundred yards or higher/lower for closer or farther.
Unfortunately we ran out of ridge and the buck popped up again herding his nine does and trying to keep the bachelor bucks at bay. There was just nowhere left to go and nothing other than some very thin and scraggly cholla to hide behind and the buck had us pegged. He couldn't see much more than the tops of our heads and eyes but knew something was moving over there.
We crouch as low as we can trying to close a little more distance and to hopefully find some place where I could get prone on a rock or something to attempt the shot. Of course that didn't work out because of the terrain, it was impossible even after belly crawling a good ways to find such a shooting position.
Finally Homer squats down with his hands on his knees telling me to put the rifle on his shoulder for a rest and see if I could get a shot.
Just as we get set up where I could even see through the scope he pops up on a little mound just tall enough for me to see my point of aim for a heart/lung shot.
I've got a fatal case of "Buck Fever" going of course and Homer talks me down, gets me relaxed and ready to shoot. The little 3-9x40mm Weaver had tiny wire thin cross hairs which did a good job of blending in with that crease and disappearing so it took me what seemed like forever to finally get on him.
Homer tells me to hold about a foot high, right along the top of his shoulders and when I was ready to do so squeeze it as gently and smoothly as possible and let a round fly.
I took a couple of more deep breaths letting them out slowly and about halfway through the gun suddenly goes off.
Everything looks perfect except for the fact he was still standing there looking at us trying to figure out what happened. Homer is telling me to try again sure I'd missed and I did so. I swore I could see it hit and hair fly but all he did was trot a few steps to get a better view of us.
Homer was getting a bit frustrated telling me to keep shooting till I hit him and I pumped off two more as quick as I could get back on target after the shot.
Finally he starts to wobble taking a few more steps and piles up in the grass. Hooray, finally I hit him and I have my first Antelope.
Homer paces it off and it's a bit over 320yds and at the end of that walk lay a beautiful 15" buck with wide cutters and very symmetrical.
We're both elated slapping each other hand to hand and then a huge bear hug, he was so proud I'd finally put the last round in the right spot.
It's a long drag back to anywhere we might get the truck into so we decide to field dress him right there to lighten the load.
We roll him up on his back with all four sticking in the air when Homer notices that all four shots were right where they belonged in a group smaller than his fist.
This is the man who taught me to shoot and mentored me throughout most of my young life and who to this day is there if I ever need a shoulder to lean on (pun intended) or to answer any question I could possibly come up with related to hunting or the outdoors.
At that moment I could see in his face the kind of pride almost always reserved for a Father and Son. We'd pulled it off and done it together every step of the way.
The moral of the story? Yes the .243 is more than adequate to take medium sized game like a White Tailed Deer or Pronghorn antelope but Antelope are extremely tough animals for their size and even with a perfectly placed shot unless you interrupt the CNS with a head or spine shot you may very well feel the need for a follow up or two or four before they go down and... .
When we mentor young kids and get them into the outdoors we may not realize it but those are the moments that can change the life of a young man or little girl and still mean so much to them forty years later they can still remember it as clearly as if it were on film.
There are millions of kids out there just waiting for a "Homer" to come along... . Find one and step up. You will be enriching both your life and theirs and creating yet another generation to share our love of the outdoors, shooting, and hunting.
bschneiderheinze
Well-Known Member
Probably not the best load but my son uses the 58 grain hornday's loaded with varget. They are absolutely devastating on deer. Every deer he has shot with them has drop in its tracks with a big hole and everything the inside turned to mush. We chronographed them a while back and they were around 3500 out of hits short barreled CVA.
My Dad shot a few with that 58gr hornady out of my Handi-Rifle. He said it always looked like Jack the Ripper had slit their neck the way it blew up.
waltercrouse
Well-Known Member
To me you are wasting meat. With varmint bullet blowing up inside of the deer. I was a heavier bullet in 90 - 100 grain with a lead core bullet. I live here in Jerry Brown's tree hunger state and have to use copper bullets. With copper barnes makes 85 grain Tsx and 80 TTSX bullets. I prefer the copper bullets over the lead core.gun)
bschneiderheinze
Well-Known Member
They don't ussually tear up meat just the organs we use them because there very flat shooting and accurate. I do agree that a 85 to 105 is more ideal but my son is pretty light so I was looking for something light kicking that he can make easy shots out to 250-300 with and with load in his AR10 we was hitting a steel plate consistently at 500.
His new AR is in 308 with a brake but will probably get rebarreled to 6.5 Creedmoor so he can learn the finer points of long range shooting. We did test some 70 grain Seirra hunting bullets in his rifle but they were not near as accurate.
His new AR is in 308 with a brake but will probably get rebarreled to 6.5 Creedmoor so he can learn the finer points of long range shooting. We did test some 70 grain Seirra hunting bullets in his rifle but they were not near as accurate.
athanasios23
Well-Known Member
+1 on Barnes 80 TTSX. Great for deer and smaller game. My rifle only likes these and the Hornady 95gr superformance bullets.
waltercrouse
Well-Known Member
I have been trying Berger 95 grain hunter bullets. The pluses are ,you get 100 bullets per box instead of 50. The vld design of these bullets ,you get longer accurate ranges. I have been using H414 and IMR 4320 powder with CCI BR-2 primers with great results.
Sully2
Well-Known Member
waltercrouse
Well-Known Member
The Berger bullets are for target and there are some areas of California that do not require copper only. I purchased some Nosler comb. ballistic tip with the black finish and silver tip in 95 grain. I get back with the results.gun)
