Light bullets in the .243 - What's the rationale?

C

CDR

New member
I have a .220 Swift, a .25-06, a .223 Rem. and purchased a .243 Win. for coyote hunting. The .25-06 was set up as a deer rifle and the .243 was to be my walking rifle. I tried some 55 grain, 58 grain and 65 grain bullets in the .243, but never got the accuracy from them I got with the 70 grain Nosler BT, that I had previously used in a 6mm. So, I have stuck with the 70 grain bullet, which I had used to kill many groundhogs over the years.

I knew it's terminal performance was significantly better than my .22-250 and Swift using 55 grain Nosler BT's, and because I was to be shooting larger animals, coyotes, I felt getting the .243 and using the heavier bullet was probably superior to getting the same rifle in a .223, or .22-250 and using 55 grain bullets.

But, as I have never used the lighter bullets in my .243 on coyotes or on groundhogs, I was wondering what difference in terminal performance could be expected from them, as compared to 55 grain Nosler BT or 55 grain VMax .224 diameter bullets. I know the muzzle velocity will be higher and it should shoot flatter for some distances. But, is there really any appreciable improvement in downrange terminal performance in a .243 using a 55 grain bullet, over using a .22-250 or Swift using a 55 grain bullet of comparable design.
 
Not when compared to the 22-250. If using a 223 and the same bullet there's going to be significant more "Mess" when shooting little critters /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
To get the "243 effect" on coyotes, stick with a 75 - 87 grain bullet pushed at the upper end of the recommended manufacturers powder charge.

Otherwise, I'd just use my 22-250 for light bullets.

CDR - that 70 grain Nosler will deliver great performance on coyotes. Shot super accurate from my 243 as well. I've only used the 70 grain Nosler hunting a couple times, but the results were impressive. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
 
I've tried the light bullets in my .243's. The faster twist barrels don't like them as well as they do the heavier 85 grain bullets I normally shoot at coyotes.
I guess that's why I have to also own a couple .22-250's. If I want to shoot coyotes with 45 or 55 grain bullets I'm set to go.

Coyote 6974
 
I set my .243 up as a deer/ pronghorn/ coyote rifle. I wanted something that could harvest deer and pronghorn, yet be effective on coyotes as well without too much pelt damage. One thing you have to consider is the twist rate, typically most .243's have a 1-9" or 1-10" twist. For these you need something in the high 80's to 100 grains. I shot 85 grain Sierra Gameking BTHP's and 85 grain Barnes TSX. I also shot Win. Supreme 95 grain Ballistic silvertips and they shot pretty good. They shot well, but not as good as the 100 grainers. The Fed. Prem. 100 grain Sierra Gameking BTSP's and the 100 grain Hornady Custom Interlocks shot extremely well. Both are under 1/2" at a 100 yards, but you will lose fps ( flatter trajectory ) when shooting these versus a 55,58 or 70 grain pills. Joel
 
I have Winchester Model 70 .243 Super shadow Elite Stainless, and It shoots 55 through 100 Grainers Sub Moa.It is 1 and 10 twist.What we found with the 55 Grainers is we tried to seat them out as far as we could. Not very good groups. Then I shot some winchester and Black Hills ammo and got .625 groups @100. We duplicated their case length and things got much better.
 
My heaviest bullet is the 70 gr Siera MK in my Rem 700, it shoots very small groups and I load the 65gr V-Max also. I set this gun up as a 300yrd+ coyote gun but I've had it almost 20yrs and it always gets left behind for the 6x45mm, I see far more coyotes at 20yrds than 300yds.

AWS
 

I have a 6mm Remington chambered custom barrel(1:10) on a
Savage Model 16 action. It sends 65 gr. V-Maxs down range at
3700 fps, MV+15', and puts them into well below 1 MOA
groups. As for damage, as expected, the splatter effect
is somewhere in between my 22-250, with a 50 gr. V-Max,
and my 25-06, with an 85 gr. NBT. The 6mm definitely
kicks the 22-250's butt in wind drift, and red mist.
The 25-06 raises the bar one more notch.

Squeeze
 
Both of my .243's - a Tikka T3 and a Remington 700 SPS shoot the Federal Premium factory 55 grain Nosler ballistic tips to the same point of impact at 100 yards as they do the 85 grain bullets. Well under MOA too. Nice to have one load for deer and another for varmints and not have to change zero.
 
I just got my 243. It a savage weather warrior. I got it for coyotes and maybe deer. I loaded some 55gr noslers. I started at the upper end of the spectrum with H4895. It shot wild. I then tried varget, I shot 4 different powder wieghts, I had the max load and loaded 3 others down from max at .3. The 2nd load with i think was 44.4 of Varget shot best. It got more wild the higher i pushed it. I got 2 of 3 touching and under half in. It only has a 22in barrel, so i don't think they are going to fast. Probly 3700-3800. Need to get a chrono. I got it becasue i have a 204 and i wanted something that wasn't hard on the fur and could reach out and not blow much. I also wanted another gun. Thats my rationale. It also thumps them with a little more authority.
 
I've had great luck shooting 60gr Sierra HPs out of my 243s (3 to be exact), shooting a max charge of Varget with WLR primers.
 
55 grain Nosler .243 Ballistic tips at 3950 fps kills better than the 55 grain .223 bullets at 3850 fps from my 22-250. No nips and spins, just DRT.

These are coming out of two different twist guns, a Ruger #1 with a 1 in 10 and a Rem 700 with a 1 in 9 3/4 twist. Here's a group from the Ruger.

Ruger12433shotgroup.jpg


It also shoot flatter than the 250 does. That's my rational anyway.
 
I am also shooting the Sierra HP's with 46.3gr of H380 and the shoot great out of my Stevens with a 1/9.25 twist. 5 shot groups under 1 inch. As far as terminal velocity goes

22-250 REM 55 GR V-MAX 8337
Velocity (fps) / Energy (ft-lbs)
Muzzle 100 yd 200 yd 300 yd 400 yd
3680/1654 3253/1292 2867/1003 2511/770 2183/582

500 yd
1880/432

Trajectory (inches)
Muzzle 100 yd 200 yd 300 yd 400 yd 500 yd
-1.5 0.9 0.00 -5.2 -15.9 -33.9


.243 Win., 58 gr. V-MAX MOLY 83423
Velocity (fps) / Energy (ft-lbs)
Muzzle 100 yd 200 yd 300 yd 400 yd 500 yd
3750/1811 3308/1409 2909/1090 2544/833 2206/627 1896/463

Trajectory (inches)
Muzzle 100 yd 200 yd 300 yd 400 yd 500 yd
-1.50 0.80 0.00 -5.00 -15.40 -33.00


Really similar to the 22-250 with the lighter bullets with the added option of using up to 105gr bullets!!!
 
I shot many, many coyotes with the 60g Sierra HP with a load of 47.5-48.5g of 760 with a CCi200 primer, velocity was in the 3700-3850 fps area depending on the rifle. The Sierra 60g HP is simply one of the very best bullets to be used on coyotes for shots 350 yards and under. You can even hit them dead center in the stomach and it will kill them DRT!

Now, if you are interested in shooting the 55g Nosler in a 243, look at the BC of a 55g 22 caliber bullet and compare it to the BC of a 6mm 55g Bullet...shocking, eh?

These lighter bullets are so flat shooting that you don't unzip as many in the ranges of 250-300 yards like you do with an 85g Bullet. I shot the 85g BTHP exclusively for a long time until I got tired of seeing them hopping in their own gut pile from being shot on the bottom of the stomach. It seemed to stop when I started shooting the Sierra 60g HP's.

In the 6mm Rem, a load of 49.5-50g of 760 will push the 60's at 3950-4000 fps shooting very tiny groups.

I have never had a 60g Sierra explode on the surface of anything that I have shot, and I shot them at 4400 fps out of a long barrel'd 243 AI which detonated large chucks!
 


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