243 shot placement question

[Outlaw6.0]

Thanks for the feedback. My rifle has 1/9 twist but favors 75-85 grain bullets, will clover leaf factory ammo. 95 and 100's open up to around an inch or better @100 yards. Still plenty usable, just always tried to shoot what the rifle likes the best.

When I had my 6mmAI built I made the mistake of having a slow twist barrel put on it. After a lot of frustration, I finally settled upon the 85grn Partition. It's not sleek, it's not new, it's not fancy but it completely penetrated the below buck inside 100yds. With a conservative muzzle velocity of 3450, I was pretty surprised by the performance.

t

 

[68w]

I have some 95 gr fusion and SST on hand that shoot ~ an inch at 100. Since my rifle likes them better a little lighter I thought about premium bullets 80-85 gr. Like partitions, Barnes, etc. Of course there's no guarantee they will shoot good and I'm really not sure white tails justify the extra expense, maybe elk or black bear. My thinking may be wrong, but the bullet if anything performed quite well full penetration, exit 3-4x size of entrance, heart in pieces, easy to follow blood trail. I'm just inexperienced enough to question if there's a better place to put the bullet without sacrificing a lot of meat. If I was to go for the neck I'd probably adjust my zero a bit and limit to closer shots. Anyone had a long runner after a neck shot/ where exactly on the neck is point of aim.

 

[jpretle]

I stay away from neck shots. There is only about 3" of vital area, that being the vertabrae. Anywhere else could end up in a run-off, leaving a wound that is non-survivable. Same w/ head shots. A miss to the vital area may leave a broken jaw. How long do you suppose one could go w/ a broken jaw, or a lethal injury to the neck, not being able to consume feed or water????

 

[WildRose]

Thanks for the feedback. My rifle has 1/9 twist but favors 75-85 grain bullets, will clover leaf factory ammo. 95 and 100's open up to around an inch or better @100 yards. Still plenty usable, just always tried to shoot what the rifle likes the best.

Doc if you'll play with powders and charges you should find it likes heavies just fine. When you have a load you start liking I prefer to get it as tight as possible tweaking the charge first in half grain then .2gr increments and then I will work on seating depth.

It seems at least to save me a lot of time and ammo.

 

[WildRose]

I have some 95 gr fusion and SST on hand that shoot ~ an inch at 100. Since my rifle likes them better a little lighter I thought about premium bullets 80-85 gr. Like partitions, Barnes, etc. Of course there's no guarantee they will shoot good and I'm really not sure white tails justify the extra expense, maybe elk or black bear. My thinking may be wrong, but the bullet if anything performed quite well full penetration, exit 3-4x size of entrance, heart in pieces, easy to follow blood trail. I'm just inexperienced enough to question if there's a better place to put the bullet without sacrificing a lot of meat. If I was to go for the neck I'd probably adjust my zero a bit and limit to closer shots. Anyone had a long runner after a neck shot/ where exactly on the neck is point of aim.

If you draw a horizontal line from the point of the shoulder across the body the spine on most animals is just above it.

Right behind and just below the base of the ear will drop them in their tracks every time but you have very little margin of error.

I prefer above all the shoulder/spine shot so I prefer non fragmenting bullets. The best I've found so far are the Peregrine VRG3 and VLR's. I get the same two to three fingered exit wounds with them no matter what caliber or velocity I'm shooting.

I have yet to have an animal take more than two steps with that bullet be it small does or really big hogs or anything in between. Even my big Kudu, Black Wildebeest and Sable all dropped dead in their tracks with them.

 

[WildRose]

I stay away from neck shots. There is only about 3" of vital area, that being the vertabrae. Anywhere else could end up in a run-off, leaving a wound that is non-survivable. Same w/ head shots. A miss to the vital area may leave a broken jaw. How long do you suppose one could go w/ a broken jaw, or a lethal injury to the neck, not being able to consume feed or water????

As long as a week or more, it's pretty gruesome.

We've had to put some head shot animals down over the years that wandered onto our places or neighbors and it's obvious they'd been suffering quite a while.

 

[RockyMtnMT]

There is a lot of great advise on this thread. Imo the OP made a good shot and had typical results regardless of bullet or caliber. It takes 5-10 seconds for the animal to die when they lose their ability to move blood. Some stand there and some run. They can run a long way in 5 seconds at full tilt. Sometimes you will see a heart/lung shot animal drop to the shot. This I believe is just a coincidence in timing of impact relative to the heart beat of the animal. If hit at the right moment the blood pressure will rise to the point of stroking the animal and causing central nervous system failure instantly.

I too was trained by my father not to shoot the shoulder due to the meat loss. I still shoot lungs and expect to track the animal after the shot. Sometimes they drop or stand until dead. With that said the mono bullets do not cause the kind of meat damage associated with lead core bullets. A shot in the meat will result in surprisingly little meat damage. I say this confidently from testing of our bullets. Many whitetail deer have dropped to the .243 with our 80g Hammer Hunter. This bullet has the physical size of much heavier lead core bullets, so not a small pill. Short range impacts that are over 3000fps will show blood shot on the impact side. It always looks worse than it is. The blood will be under the hide and in the membranes between the muscles and can be cleaned up easily. The blood shot in this case is caused by the high vel of impact not by disintegrating projectile pieces like lead core bullets. Thus it does not actually tear the meat to pieces. Longer shots with impact vel below 3000fps will not show this. I do believe that an animal can be much more limited in its ability to cover ground if shot through the chest at the front edge of the leg. With our bullet you will get all the way through the animal even if heavy bone is encountered. They will shed 30% of the weight in 3 or 4 pieces that retain enough weight to continue penetrating and the retained portion will have a flat frontal area that displaces tissue perpendicular to the direction of travel. Properly stabilized bullets will stay on a straight line path through the animal creating a large wound channel in the soft organ tissue.

This is a long way of saying take our 80g Hammer Hunter and take that shoulder shot with confidence that you will stop the animal without wasting the meat.

https://hammerbullets.com/product/243-cal-80g-hammer-hunter-50/

Steve

 

[68w]

80 gr gmx or ttsx are over 60 cents per projectile. That's triple the cost per shot, but I guess it does have the payoff of being able to take the shoulder shot without losing meat or worrying about failure. Thanks all for your feedback

 

[RockyMtnMT]

80 gr gmx or ttsx are over 60 cents per projectile. That's triple the cost per shot, but I guess it does have the payoff of being able to take the shoulder shot without losing meat or worrying about failure. Thanks all for your feedback

It is an interesting phenomenon how guys get uptight about an extra $12 for a box of bullets. We spend huge money on our truck and camper outfit to hunt with. Hundreds of $'s on a pair of boots to hunt in. Same hundreds of $'s for waterproof clothing. Thousands of $'s on a rifle outfit to shoot the animal with. Then get uptight about spending an extra few $'s on the projectile. The one thing that in the moment of truth can make or break the whole deal. The true end result of all of the preparation comes down to the moment that the trigger breaks. We worry about the waste of meat from the animal that we respect yet the extra .25 cents for the cost of the projectile is too much to save the 10lbs of meat.

I can understand it if a guy is sending 1000's of rounds a year down range. This I can see as a budget breaker. But still guys are willing to spend a few thousand dollars on a better scope in hopes of shooting better with less expensive bullets that have known imperfections that require countless hrs of work to separate out in order to make the inexpensive bullets more likely to shoot the same. Each imperfect bullet discarded increasing the overall cost of the usable bullets left from sorting.

Or the hundreds of rounds sent down range in the quest for an accuracy load for the inferior less expensive bullet that is intolerant to seating depth and will only work in one or two specific spots. When it can be done with bullets that are an extra $25 more in a total of 20 shots load developed and zeroed.

A lot of tongue in cheek here, but every good joke is firmly related to the truth.

Steve

 

[old243]

I use 100 grain nosler partition bullets, load my own in 243. Prefer a heart lung shot, as meat damage is usually a broken rib, and some bloody clots. Most deer will flinch and hump up. Will drop within 50 to 75 yards. If It is getting later in the evening , I will hit them in the front shoulder, So they drop right there and you aren't looking around for them in the dark. 100 grain nosler partitions are more expensive than some, but if you only need one per animal they are quite reasonable. Buy some cheaper bullets to do your practicing, know your rifle and where it is shooting.That is the most important thing. old243

 

[68w]

Well I got a family of six with a new baby. My hunting clothing is second hand and my rifle is budget. I don't reload at this point so I'm limited to factory options though I'm saving my pennies for reloading equipment. My hunts aren't extravagant, usually less than two miles from home and usually on foot. That said I spend what free time I have roving the 1800 acres I have permission to be on and I do quite well. I understand premium projectiles give premium results, no question. When I reload I may lean that way. Of course if it isn't necessary I won't bother. From what I've heard even a premium round with my shot placement would've had no different result, but it's the best for saving meat short of all copper to the shoulder if that 40 dollar box of ammo decides to shoot out of my rifle, which is unknown. Neck shot may be better but could be unethical. I'll keep blasting the heart and lungs and tracking it's not a huge deal, just thought maybe there was a better option for shot placement without ruining meat or spending money I don't have. Many of the area's I hunt border treacherous terrain and it's a long drag near dark already so if there's just a different spot to put the round I'll move my crosshairs. I got a messed up back and don't appreciate the extra labor is all. All that said I thank you all for your input. I feel capable of CNS shots if I alter my zero a touch and hunt in known ranges, so I may give that a shot. Don't much care for wounded animals with no food on the table so I will keep it in ranges I know I can hit. Until I get my range time in I'll stick with the heart and lungs. May try some heavier more explosive rounds like SST and NBT also have some fed fusion on hand to give a try. Happy hunting

 

[RockyMtnMT]

I think you should stick with the boiler room shot. I too am not a fan of head or neck shots. I have seen both go wrong as well as encountering an animal running around with the bottom jaw hanging. Had a buddy take a nice white tail with a head shot. Went in one eye and out the other and the buck ran around in circles until the could get another in him. My dad used to neck shoot all the time until he shot a mulie doe in the neck and trailed her for miles until he finally got her. She had a hole through the bottom side of her neck and was breathing out of the hole like a tracheotomy. I head shot a buck once and dropped him on the spot. Went to recover him and grabbed his front leg to pull him up out of a tree well and he started waking up. Had to quickly shoot him again. I had hit him between the eye and the antler. All it did was go through his sinus cavity. Shot an antelope when I was a kid in the neck. Went to recover him and when we got there he started trying to get up. Dad was quick and stepped on his horn and cut his throat. That bullet just creased the top of his neck.

Keep shooting the boiler room and expect 80-100 yards of tracking. Sometimes, even often they will go down much quicker.

Good hunting,

Steve

 

[grovey]

You don't need all copper $$$$$ bullets to kill deer with a 243. If it were me I would definitely pass on the 80 gr factory stuff , no matter how well it groups. Use 100 gr ammo. The 100 gr core lokt is a fine deer bullet, and so is the 100 gr Hornady fb bullet. Those are both good old school cup and core bullets that aren't bone shy if you need to anchor a deer with a DRT shot.
I prefer rib shots, but there are times when it's now or never , so why compromise just because a so so bullet shots a fuzz better? Remington's 80gr sp .243 bullet is the only bullet I've ever seen not penetrate a 35 yd quartering away shot to the ribs after nicking a 3/4" sapling.
We shot that same deer two days later on my old lease with a 3 or 4" bald spot with the hair kind of rolled back and wadded up behind the shoulder, but no penetration. Hard to explain the ext damage, but under the skin..... Two broken ribs and severe bruising and blood clotted up like there was penetration. My point.... The 100 gr bullet isn't a "tweener" bullet like most 80's are.

 

[JASmith]

Even our ancestors knew by 7,000 years ago that an attempt to drop a deer-sized animal in its tracks was a futile exercise.

They did, however, learn the size of arrow head needed to reliably cause the animal to faint before running more than a hundred yards or so.

Amazingly, we see the same trends in bullet design today.

Read more here:
Ideal Bullet Weight