.243 ackley recipe

[Mr.Smith]

Hi folk's and hello from the UK,


I shoot a .243AI and would like to know your opinions of which bullet and load recipe you would choose for some long range shooting/varminting.

I am currently shooting 80g Precision Ballistics LBT's at 3488fps with a great deal of success and, I have to add, a great deal of fun!

My set up is a Remmy 700 action, 24inch Border cut R2 profile with 5R rifling, Timney trigger and a Predator 8 Wildcat moderator all sat in a McMillan Remington Varminter stock. On top sits a Nightforce NXS 8-32X56 in Third Eye Tactical rings. If I knew how to post a picture of it I would.


EDITED TO ADD: I suppose I should have posted this in the reloading section, apologies!



Thanks in advance,

Mr.Smith

 

[Mr.Smith]

I guess being the new boy doesn't warrant a reply. . . . . . .

 

[liltank]

I guess being the new boy doesn't warrant a reply. . . . . . .

Yes, it warrants a reply. I just don't own one, therefore can not give you an educated answer. However, I know there are some guys that use them on this sight. So hopefully they will chime in soon. Another LRH forum to post is the Varmint forum. Don't know if you have looked into it yet, but the 6mmbr.com has some very good info on the 243AI and some load data. That is about the best I can do for you. I know the heavier you go in bullet the slower you want to go in powder. For instance if you shoot the 105grn through 115, you want to look at powders such as IMR and H4350, IMR and H4831, I know I have seen some guys using as slow as H1000. I have a sneaking suspicion if you use RL17, you are going to get some awesome velocities with heavier weight bullets and good accuracy. Now granted these are on longer barrels than yours, so it gives a little more burn time.

I would say with your 80 to 100 grain bullets you want to use powders such as RL15, Varget, IMR 4064 and powders of the same or close to burn rate. You could probably even use IMR 4895. With all loads even if experimental you want to work up slowly in charge. For an Ackley Improved you can probably start at a grain below max of a normal 243 load and work up from there in 1 grain increments until you start noticing pressure signs. Not sure if they have the 243AI listed, but you may want to look at reloadersnest.com also.

Hope this helped some,
Tank

 

[Mr.Smith]

Thanks for the reply Tank, much appreciated!

I was jesting about not warranting a reply, no malice meant!

You know your powders cos' you are spot on with the 80gr bullet and the use of Varget, I load 41gr of Varget with the 80gr heads I am using now, I just wondered if there was a recipe for a heavier bullet that is tried and tested out at long range, I guess there is and it's just a case of trying different loads!

To be honest I haven't had the proper search of this site that I should have so I will plough through the threads in different sections and see what I can find.


Thanks again.


Regards

Mr.Smith

 

[liltank]

Good info on rifle with heavy .243's and load data.

.243 Ackley Improved Match 1000 yard Varmint Rifle with Farley Action & Lilja Barrel

.243 Win + .243 AI Cartridge Guide


Tank

 

[Mr.Smith]

Good info on rifle with heavy .243's and load data.

.243 Ackley Improved Match 1000 yard Varmint Rifle with Farley Action & Lilja Barrel

.243 Win + .243 AI Cartridge Guide


Tank

Thaks for those links Tank, much appreciated!

 

[mike33]

What did you use to fireform your brass? I played a lot with the 250/3000 AI but got tired of fire forming. I found with ai sometimes it take s a few firings to actually blow the case to full capicity.
mike

 

[Mr.Smith]

I used 41 grain of Varget and a 68gr Berger FB match grade to fireform the brass with very good accuracy. Some will fireform by shooting the rounds into the ground just to obtain the fireformed case, I used my load to hunt! I then, with the fireformed brass, loaded 46.5 grain of varget with the same bullet head and it was running at 3850fps, very accurate too!


Now, with an 80gr lbt I'm back to 41gr Varget and getting 3488fps, very accurate too!