243 whitetail bullet

Barnes 85g triple shock.

IMO the best 6mm bullet for whitetail. Very accurate and very, very deadly. I have used partitions with varying results. Beyond 150 yards they sometimes did not expand well leaving pin hole exit wounds. The Sierra 100g always expanded well and were accurate, but on angling shots sometimes did not exit.

The Barnes triple shock are not cheap, but one heck of a bullet.
 
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...I have used partitions with varying results. Beyond 150 yards they sometimes did not expand well leaving pin hole exit wounds...



Many people misunderstand how the Partition is designed to work. It isn't unusual for a Nosler Partition to leave a small near caliber size exit hole. The expansion takes place early on and through the middle of the critter. The quickly expanded frontal section of lead and copper peels back and folds over the solid shank below the “partition” and that is the cause of the small exit. The bullet worked as it was designed, lots of internal damage throughout the beginning and middle of the animal and a reliable exit from the shank of the bullet. Dead critter… /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
 
GC

I am fully aware of how the partition is designed to work, and I am not knocking John Noslers invention. It is a good bullet and I have used many of them.

About five years ago I helped a buddy field dress his deer that had been shot with the Barnes triple shock. I could not believe the internal damage. Everything anywhere near the bullet path was mush. I switched over to the triple shock and have not looked back.

I have dug several triple shock, and partition bullets out of my target box and they both do work as advertised. While the partition normally works as you described, with most of the frontal folding back over the shank. The triple shock folds back or pedals but not over the shank. It looks more like a fan blade with the shank driving it foward. That fan blade spinning through internals is devastating.

Don't get me wrong the partition is a good bullet. But for a small caliber .243 diameter bullet the triple shock would be my pick for deer size game.
 
I have not heard any bad reports of the 85 TSX bullet in 243. They shoot pretty accurately in my rifle so this is the deer bullet I've decided on. Since I usually hunt deer/elk combined seasons, I haven't got a chance to shoot any deer with my 243 yet, opting to carry my 7mag instead.
 
You are right; the TSX is a great bullet, no doubt. Occasionally the petals will break off the TSX and it too will exit with a pencil hole wound. But like the Nosler, that is ok, at least there is an exit.

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That fan blade spinning through internals is devastating.



One thing though, bullets do not rotate through the body (spinning) as you describe. Rotation from the rifling spin stops very, very, soon upon the entry of the bullet, nearly instantly. I'm not nitpicking your post, but that is a common misconception about how bullets react and/or do their work inside a body cavity. That was one of the points raised by people about the old Black Talon, remember them? The anti gun crowd envisioned the "sharp talons" spinning and ripping through flesh, thus the clamor to ban the Talon from production or make their possession illegal. Those ignorant claims lead Winchester to remove the Talon from production. All Winchester really did was drop the back coating and redesign the bullet into the SXT self defense loading and the later and much better improved Ranger Talon LE ammo. The new loads are considerably more effective than the old Black Talon. But none of them spin through the internals.
 
littlepig,
I hear really good things about the 105 gr. Speer HotCore. I worked up some loads with this bullet to test just for kicks. I've had a box of these sitting on my bench for several years and always seemed to use something else instead. If these are accurate I just may see how they do this fall! But from what I can tell the Speer 105 HotCore has a good rep.

buck,
I don't see it spinning. I can't see it spinning inside the gel block at all. To me it appears to begin to wobble as it clears the gel block and hits air. There are many that discredit the Barnes video and the composition of their gel blocks. Supposedly the gel is far too light to represent anything near animal muscle mass. I don’t know about all that… I won't argue the TSX isn't a good bullet, no argument from me about that at all. But every bit of information I've ever seen documented by credible sources state bullets stop rotating nearly instantly with impact. Perhaps what they impact has something to do with that too. I would think tough hide and hair, and then dense muscle and hard bone would be considerably tougher on a bullet that pink lung tissue. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
Every 6mm bullet listed thus far will kill a whitetail with no trouble.

FWIW, I usually use Sierra 100gr GK out of the 243 and an 85gr XLC out of the 6-06.......
 
i've used the winchester 100grain sp(factory's), they seem to work real good. my buddy's been shooting 105 grain a-max's. he took down 4 deer this year, all but one dropped in it's track. the one that ran only went about 40 yards. next year i'm going to be trying out the nosler 95 grain BT.
 
littlepig,

As you can see everyone has an opinion, and that's good. "If it ain't broke don't try to fix it". That is also why we have several good bullet manufactures still in business. Reloading is fun, trial and error is rewarding. Shoot what works for you in your gun and go from there.

GC,

Thanks for the cordial exchange, and good hunting.
 
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GC,
Thanks for the cordial exchange, and good hunting.



You bet and the same to ya! Hopefully this fall we both get to post some pic's of a couple of buckzilla's! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
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