.243 Questions

Bearcat 74

Bearcat 74

New member
I have been doing some longer ranges (for me) shooting with some guys 300-450yds, and I am wanting a rifle to take for these times instead of my hunting rifles. My rifles shoot good enough groups and I know that practicing with them is a good idea, but my hunting shots on deer are always inside of 100yds. I have a Savage .243 that shoots as good as anything I own and I never do anything with it because I have a .223 and a .260, I have several magnums I could work with, but they are more expensive to shoot and a .243 will punch paper, milk jugs and water bottles at the ranges mentioned. I may have a few runners with the milk jugs though, /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif. Anyways, I am thinking of making the .243 the time killing longer range rifle, I have been looking at the 87gr V-Max, the 95gr NBT, and the 95gr Sierra MatchKing, would any of these be better than the other? What powder would you guys reccomend for a 22" barrel with one of the bullets above? I have floated the barrel and I am going to bondo the channel to strengthen it and probably glass bed it. Another question is what glass would you reccommend? The SWAG's on holdover is for the birds. Turrets would be nice, I had 2 VXII's with turrets that would not hold zero, I have heard the 3200 and 4200 lines do well and are repeatable?? Or would something with a ballistic plex be better? I was thinking 3x9 or 4x12-14 power.

If I am leaving anything out, correct me please.



Thanks!
 
I shoot a 6mm Rem, which is ballistically very similar to the .243 Win. My antelope load is 95 grain NBT's over H4350.

My accuracy load is 95 grain NBT's over RL22. The best 3 shot group I've fired in my life was with this combo. Three into .09", and although there was a ton of luck involved and I'll likely never duplicate it, it will routinely stick 3 into less than 3/8" at 100.

Your mileage may vary, but the H4350 gives a bit more velocity, while the RL22 gives a tad more accuracy in my rifle. They're both very close, though. In fact, I'd hunt or "plink" with either load.

Mike
 
i'm shooting a 243 short mag. but i really like the hornday 87gr BTHP, it seems like the perfect all around bullet... but as far as scopes, check out nikon! i have a monarch 6-20x44AO w/ turrets on my 243wssm and it tracts perfectly! i love being able to hit dead on at 300yds then adjust back down to 100yds /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
I shot 5 deer this year with my 243 using Hornady 95gr sst's. 340, 320, 280, 200 and 120 yds. None moved an inch. For yotes I'd use the 87gr vmax but the SST would work fine too.
 
I have a Rem 700 in .243 w/ a 22" bbl. I'm getting 3/4" groups w/ Varget and the 65gr Vmax. It also loves the el cheepo Rem 80gr PSP's w/ both IMR 4350 and Varget. Haven't tried the 87gr Vmax, but did see around 3/8" tighter groups w/ the 65gr vs. the 58gr Vmax.

As far as glass, I'm a big fan of the Bplex. Once you learn how the stadia correlates w/ a specific load, a good piece of that "Kentucky windage" is eliminated. Be sure to keep good notes when you start and you'll be dialed in pretty quick.
 
H4350 for heavier bullets, Varget for lighter ones. Your bullet selection mentioned is pretty good, any will do, the Matchking is probably best of course.

If you are zeroed at about 250 and know your trajectory in 50 yard increments, and know the target distance and target size, you can actually swag pretty well out to about 350-400 with a little practice.

One trick with a standard duplex reticle is to track the distance on the target from the crosshairs intersection to the thin wire/thick wire transition, in minutes of angle, at different scope powers. Quite often you can use the lower wire thick/thin point at a specific power as a long-range sight for a specific distance, if you work the numbers out for range, trajectory drop, and scope power.

Oh by the way, it's not the milk jug runners you have to worry about, it's the spinners...they throw water all over the place...
 
Well, I bought some Federal 85gr BTHP's and went to shoot today. Zeroed the gun .5" at 50yds to rough it then on to 100yds. Shot a group at 100yds, nice group too, it was 1.5" high, I turned the turret down 1.5" to center the round zero at 100yds. The 1.5" drop on the scope moved the bullet 3" and now I am 1.5" low, again with a great group. As I moved the turret back to to get it zeroed, it ended up with a great group at zero at 100yds at the original setting?? Anybody have any ideas about what was going on? I never reset the cap, just diled down and back up.


Today I shot $65 worth of ammo and never got anything figured out with the target turret.



Thanks
 
Some scopes will do that, you never know until you try. I've seen it many times before. If your scope won't track true then you can't use the knobs to adjust for dead-on at longer range. If it is a new scope try running the elevation and windage through their full range of motion once or twice. Also when you make an adjustment, it might not actually 'take' until the scope is jarred a bit by recoil or by thumping the butt on the ground once or twice (simulating recoil). Sounds nuts but sometimes that's what it takes to get the scope to move where you thought you sent it.

Why zero at 100? 2.5" high at 100 will get you on at about 250 yards, with about a 2.3" high rise at 200 and about a 2.5" drop at 300. At least, that's what my old Sierra manual says.
 
Well, I was going to zero at 100 and just use the turrets to adjust at various ranges. Zeroing to 2.5" high at 100 would be to easy and make too much sense, the way I am trying to do it gets me good and mad like yesterday and allows me to basically burn money. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif I am going to give the turrets one more go and if it fails I will be zeroing 2.5" high at 100 and going from there.


Thanks
 
Bearcat,
It is very possible that your scope is not tracking correctly. What are you working with? What are the click values on the ele knob?

Since the gun itself shooting accurately, do a "box test" with the scope to test it. Then you will know for sure if the scope is the culprit and have the evidence to prove it for possible warranty issues...
 
The scope is a Bushnell Elite 4200 4-16x40mm with 1/8" adjustments, not crazy about the 1/8". I have owned the scope for a few years, it lived its life on a Bushmaster Varminter until this bug bit me.

The gun is a Savage 111 .243 that has been floated and the stock strengthened to help with the flex. The rings are weaver and they have been lapped. Accuracy is very good.



Box test, shoot a group, then go up, shoot a group, then go over shoot a group, then go down shoot a group, then to zero and shoot a group?


Thanks!
 
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you got it!

Just make sure you are shooting at the same spot for each group. 3 shots is plenty for each...
5 moa (40 clicks for your 1/8") in each direction should tell you what the deal is.

You always want to be dialing the knob down into the scope so when you make your adjustments for UP and RIGHT(counter clockwise), dial past where you want to be and then back down to the actual setting. Some guys even tap-tap lightly on the knobs a bit to settle in the adjustments.

There is a slight chance that you actaully have 1/4" clicks and your scope is labeled incorrectly. That would make sense since your initial adjustments were fully double what you thought they'd be, hmmm......

Shoot the box & you'll know...
 
I shoot a model 70 varmit ss in the .243 with a bushnell 6x18, and it is sighted in 1-1.5" high at a hundred yards, it's favorite ammo seems to be 58gn hornadys they leave the muzzel at a published 3750fps, at 200 yrds I have put 5 shots into an inch, on 18 power at 300 yards though the targets still seems very small, mind you we are shooting at pop can sized targes, but for true long distance OVER 300 yards I wish I could have a 24power, my eyes arn't what they used to be, I have no doupt that that the gun/ammo is up to the task of a 400+ yard shot, but for myself, I think I need to eat more carrots.
Try figureing out a good drop chart and zero you rifle at 200, then work with a good range finder.
 
when POI doesn't equal the amount clicked in,..the scope is not tracking correctly. You can run a box test,..but you'll prolly be right back at boxing the scope up and sending it back.

also,..lean it up in the corner,..lay it down a few times,..give it a slight bump or two,..then go back to the range and see if it still impacts where it was when you left the last time.
 


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