Fur friendly .243 load

J

jsmith76

New member
I am picking up a .243 in the next couple weeks. Does anyone have any suggestions for a fur friendly load for utah coyotes?

Be safe and shoot straight
 
I shoot two 243's for coyotes and as long as your using full power loads fur friendly and the 243 is problematical. I'm shooting the 55 grain Nosler Ballistic tip and sometimes it will not exit just making a small hole going in, but when it does exit it's dramatic.

I've shot both these guns for more than five years and tried a bunch of different weight bullets and all are not fur friendly.

Perhaps if you handload and load down you may run into a fur friendly load. I'd caution against using full metal jacket bullets. Many states have outlawed them and from my experience you will get lots of run-offs.

Best I can tell you is Richard Lee's new Modern Reloading manual has a really good section (chapter 10) on loading modern cartridges down. You might check that out.
 
I shoot 58 GR.vmax and 43.gr varget and 65.gr.vmax and 40. gr.of varget out of rem. VLS 1/4" just shot some today off of sand bags at 150 yards calm wind today I thank varget is hard to beat out of a 243 just my two cents
 
Generally speaking, .243 and fur friendly cannot really be used in the same sentence. The .243 will drop Coyotes like the Hammer of Thor but more than likely will make a mess. If the .243 is your Coyote rifle of choice and you plan on saving fur, you would be wise to learn how to sew hides. I am quite certain several folk will chime in about how they shot Coyotes with a .243 and got no exit and it may be true, but my experience tells me its the exception and not the rule. Your best bet for coming up with a less than destructive load for the .243 is to handload. I dont think there are many choices out there for factory ammo that I would consider a consistant fur load.
 
I've found the best fur loads are 100 grain PSP's. They seem to drill a hole and don't over expand unless you hit a heavy bone.

Coyote 6974
 
I have been using 70 gr Blitzkings out of a 6mm Rem with 47 gr IMR 4350. They are messy but shoot super flat. Exits almost everytime with some serious blood spray. I had better luck with the fur and 100 gr core lokts. Heavy bullet meant less expansion with a smaller exit hole.
 
I would use either a heavy softpoint or a barnes tsx or run the lightest most frangile bullet available, not sure which that would be but the 58 vmax would be my first try. I don't know offhand what the lightest speer tnt bullet is in the 243 caliber but they ususally have a speed limit on them lest they blow up.
 
70grn is the lightest Speer offers in the 6mm class for the tnt bullets. I think 3500-3600 fps is max. I use em in my ruger VT and is the most accurate so far in this rifle(1/2"). I'm running them @ 3400fps. I've popped a few good sized porcupines with them....they just puff up for a millisecond, shed a few quills and it's over. No exit hole.
Pdogs/crows is a different story. Never shot any coyotes with em. For what I use the 70grn tnt for it is a GREAT bullet and reasonably priced compared to simular varmint bullets.
 
A great fur friendly load for yotes in 243:

Rem brass
Win primer
42.3g of IMR or H 4350
100g Hornady BTSP seated to touch lands

Good luck!
 
I just loaded up some Berger 68 gr. Match hollow and some 62 gr. Barnes Varmit Grenades...Missed a chip shot with the Bergers last weekend, so I haven't drawn blood with either load yet. The VG'gs should be good on fur as the bullet SHOULD just blow to pieces on contact.
 
My limited experience is w/ Winchester Factory 80gr PSP's. I you keep you shots OVER 300yds, and off heavy bone, you shouldn't have an exit. Inside of 150yds all bets are off and most likely you'll have an exit large enough to slip a Yugo through.
 
Thanks for all the advice. I really just want a few nice pelts for personal use so I guess I wll just give some different loads a try. Tough goin on coyotes this time of year so it may take me a while. For all of you who own the .243 how do you feel about your gun?
 
Love mine! It's a Rem 700 synth ("tupperware" stock) this one loves 65gr Vmax's over Varget. When I finally got this load dialed in, I had a .670" 5 shot group. That's plenty good for MOC (minute of coyote). Haven't tried these bullets on pelts yet, the AR has been getting the nod all season thus far.
 
Winchester Supreme 55 grain ballistic tip, super fast, super flat, drops them in their tracks, rarely exits! But now if you hit the shoulder, thats another story!
 
Quote:
I shoot 58 GR.vmax



I shoot the factory Hornady 58 grain v-max and have had excellent results. Very accurate in my REm 788 and NEF.

Most of the time, I didn't get an exit, even on bobcats.

I highly recommend them.
 
I own two rifle in .243 Winchester. The first is a Remington 700 BLD. I got rid of the shiney BDL stock by replacing it with a CDL stock. This rifle shoots .75 inch groups with several different factory loads and the same with my reloads. My favorite load is 85 grain Sierra Gamekings over IMR 4064. Great load for coyotes IMHO.
My second .243 rifle is a Remington 7400 Semi Auto. It has the satin finished wood stock. It doesn't like light bullets so I shoot 100 grain PSP's through it. It'll keep three rounds in just over an inch. For some reason I seldom use this rifle and have only taken one coyote with it.

Coyote 6974
 
I shoot a Rem 700 BDL in left hand. I load 75 gr V-Maxes and have shot two coyotes with it up here in NH. First one was a gut shot and had no exit. He ran less than 10 yards. Shot a 26 lb female about 5 weeks ago and it went in behind the right shoulder and out in front of the left hip. Quarter sized exit hole max. This one was DRT. I hesitate to use anything else, including my 223 (unless it's nite or super close quarters...).
 
Does anyone have any experience with the Stevens model 200 in .243? Also, thanks for all the info, cant wait to get out and do some shooting!!!

Be safe and shoot straight
 
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