.243 for Northern Whitetails

D

Dooger

New member
I've never hunted with this round. After a lot of searching, there seems to be a lot of love/hate for certain bullets. Many of it revolves around the size of the animal and the range of the shot.

My wife had me buy her a .243 Win and we've shot it with basic shelf ammo. I'm looking for good bullet though.

She'll be shooting 50-150 yards mostly in the woods. Our bucks range from 125-200# on average.

Any help?...with real life experiences?

I was looking at the Partition too, but all I can find are moly coated, which I'm trying to stay away from.
 
Find a box of Barnes TTSX and go forth and slay a whitetail.

Real life experience: I was hunting mule deer with a buddy. He used a Tikka in 243 with the 85gr Barnes TSX handload, and we had 2 bucks walking in our direction. He proceeds to shoot the bigger of the 2, and the buck just collapsed. The range was about 175 yds, buck was facing us, so the shot went in the right front chest, and we found bullet holes throught the right lung, stomach and the intestines. All told, about 3ft of penetration.

I thought I would recover this bullet, but, after opening the skin with his knife, my buddy uses his hatchet to open the sternum, but the axe hits his left thumb on the first strike. A bad hit, but he kept his thumb. So, I did not have time to look around the intestines for the bullet.
 
I have been using the Hornady 100 gr Innerlocks. They put down our little SE Oklahoma deer ok but don't leave much of a blood trail. Think I will stick with my .270 and 45/70.
 
TTSX is a good one. One you might find a little easier on the store shelves (least around my parts) is the Federal Fusion. A good round, but I would rate the TTSX tops.
 
Myself and friends have taken many N. Michigan deer with lots of different 243s/bullets. MOF, at least 1 of us kills one with a 243 every year.

Any 100gr softpoint will work. Powerpoint, Interlock, SGK, Core-Lokt, Fusion, etc. Even 80gr PSP's.

TSXs and Partitions, and other tougher "premium grade" bullets will also work well, but are in no way needed.

JME.....
 
I live in north east south Dakota we have big deer here. I have always shot 243 and my wife does to. I have only had to track 1 deer shot with it. I like either nosler partitions or Barnes 90 grain all copper x bullets both like imr 4350 I believe 43.5 grains of powder 3/4 inch groups out of a pump rem 7600!
 
Dooger- 95 or 100 grain partition ; or a 100 grain sierra or horn btsp. all are great. my wife shot an elk with a the 95 partition. i have a buddy who shot an elk with the 100 grain sierra.
 
Have to put my vose with thr ttsx's iv shot several deer with the old trust 06. But I built me a nice little 243 and wanted to use it. Iv never seen a deer hit so hard. Back in I diana all I had ever used was .50 black powder. Any way I shot that years buck at 100yards quarting towards me. Smacked him in the front left shoulder and it sat him on his butt. He never mived from that spot.
 
Originally Posted By: bigdog1Originally Posted By: Dooger
but all I can find are moly coated, which I'm trying to stay away from.


WHY?

JD

I don't want to introduce the barrel to Moly right now. On a side note, Nosler emailed me back and said there are no current moly Partition's in production.
 
The 95gr Nosler BT is a very good deer bullet. My younger brother had a good string (8 I think) of DRT's on WI whitetails with this bullet before he jumped up in caliber. I was amazed! I am currently loading the 85gr Barnes in 243 for my 14 year old but no track record yet. He hammered a few deer with the 53gr Barnes in a 22-250 but I suppose the 22 cal. naysayers would have a fit!
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There are lots of good bullets now days, so what ever you can get to shoot just go with it.
 
From memory I have used 100 gr. Remington Core Lokt, 100 gr. Hornady Interlock, 105 gr. Speer Hot Core, 100 gr. Nosler Partition, 85 gr. Barnes TSX and 85 gr. Sierra HPGK. All of those have multiple kills notched on their bullet boxes. Next on the list is the 95 gr. Nosler Ballistic Tip and I expect good things from it as well. Never had an issue killing deer with the .243 Winchester.
 
A little bit of both Tim. I'm more worried about bullet selection right now. I do understand velocity can make a difference too.
 
My .243s have killed deer with......

55gr NBT
70gr NBT
95gr NBT
80gr Rem HP
80gr Rem SP
100gr Rem SP
100gr NP
100gr X
85gr X
100gr Win SP
95gr Fed Fusion

Proly forgot a few others...


Up next is ....
105gr Amax
105gr VLD
95gr VLD
80 gr TTSX
 
We have killed a few LARGE Kansas white tails with the 243 with the 100g Hornady BTSP, 42.3g H4350, Win primer

I killed a slug of Nebraska White tails along with numberous Mulies in various states with the 95g Partition with 43.0g of IMR 4350, good as any 30/06.

I shot some big deer with both of these two loads above, and too many Antelope to count.

The 95g Partition will leave a blood trail.
 
Hands down the best factory lead bullet ammo is the Fed Fusion 95 gr.

You can shoot ribs or smash shoulders with it.

It does seem hard to find right now ,however.


95gr NBT has acounted for a bunch. Had a couple splash on shoulders out around 300 yards. I believe it was angle + hitting the " T or ridge" bone on the shoulder. Otherwise they kill and make lots of "jello"...lol

For a newer bullet to load, which you can get right now, the 80 TTSX would be my choice.
 
Thanks guys! Looking good....

Question about those TTSX's though. I've seen a lot of "banana bullets" or "bent" bullets with TSX's and TTSX's, posted online. Is this a thing of the past?...or just bad luck?
 
Without seeing the post about them I highly dought the "bent" ones are from animals. Like anything the bad stuff lasts forever online.

It can be rather tough to recover a TSX/TTSX ,since they penetrate so well. Shooting critters from nose to tail will get you a bullet or 2.
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I'd put any high dollar hunt in the hands of Barnes and never worry one second about it.

I've not loaded any 243 Barnes since the X bullet, but plan on running 80 TTSX soon.

Also have some 120gr TTSX for my 280AI ,that need tested too.
 


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