What is the effective range for a 243 wichester

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NCVARMINT

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I think i am going to go with a 243 wichester, because it is a bigger heavier bullet with a bc of .400 or more. I want to shoot groundhogs and rockchucks way out there this spring and summer.
I will get a savage 12bvss in 243 win, will it be good for 500 thru 700 yard shots. what is a good bullets with a 9 1/4" twist.
thanks for any help

trevor
 
I would say a .243 is a little light for that long of a shot. Try a .308 Seriously though 500-700 yards??? I cant remember the last time I had a shot that far but I would suggest a heaver bullet mabye 75 grains. Good luck!
 
500-550 yes. You are going to see a significant drop of 6-7 inches every 25 yards after that. And at 700 yards you will be 84 inches low with a 250 yard zero.
 
The ultimate .243 bullet for long range varmints is the 87 grain V-Max. The B.C. is exactly .400 and it hits harder than any other bullet I've shot out of my 6mm Rem. I don't know what kind of glass you shoot, but without very accurate turrets hits at 500+ are 90% luck. With a good scope with accurate click adjust I've shot a lot of milk jugs and rocks at 700-800 but hits on live targets are maybe 15%. LeadPoison is right about the 6-7" of drop every 25 yards after about 550 so knowing EXACT range and EXACT MOA adjustment is critical, without that information it's just like launching a scud. Good luck, ~6mm
 
Which .243 factory load for coyotes at less then 500y? I'm just getting into it so I'd rather by factory loads for now. I doubt I get many shots past 400y, but.....
 
i disagree on 500 yard being iffy. i know of a guy that has his longest kill with a 6mm rem and its not much different form the 243 (just a little more FPS) although his is a custom made benchrest rifle his longest kill is still 912 yards on a groundhog (i and two others witnessed it) i also have my longest groundhog kill with a 243 benchrest rifle made on a mauser action at 628 yards.
 
I'm not debating the "effective range" of the .243 is good on coyote size game at 800 yards or further. My debate is the practical ability to make first shot hits on game that same size at over even 400 yards. At 500 yards your talking a foot and a half of wind drift at 10 MPH ( 87 V-Max @ 3250). Now, is it 10 MPH or 15? Is it exactly 500 yards or 522? What's your margin of error off shooting sticks (not the concrete bench with bags and a 13 pound gun)? Is that wind exactly perpendicular or is it quartering? All of these factors come into play when shooting coyotes or chucks or Osama. Fact is at 500-700 yards, even when everything is perfect, the caliber of rifle is not usualy the deciding factor on clean one shot kills. That being said my furthest shot on a Yote with the 6mm and 87 V-Max is 692 yards. One shot right through both sholders, however; there was no wind, laser rangefinder, M-3 optics, and I shot it off the hood of the truck. I shoot a lot, and I still miss the vast majority of the time at over 450 yards. ~6mm
 
The .243 is a .308 necked down to 6mm. Pick the bullet with the best B.C. and you should have a good long range combo.
Last fall in Wyoming, I shot a nice Antelope buck at 370 yds. with a 95 grain ballistic tip boatail bullet.
 
25-06 is a substantial increase in recoil compared to the .243. The 25-06 will shoot 90 grainers pretty fast (around 3400-3500) but it takes 53-60 grains of powder to do it. The .243 or 6mm will shoot 90 grainers at around 3100-3250 with only about 45 grains of powder. That's about a 20% increase in powder to do the same thing because of the advantage the 6mm's have in BC when the same bullet weight is used. I haven't seen a 90 grain bullet in 6mm with a better BC than the 87 V-Max, I still think it's the best. I shot a 25-06 for years with 90 grain Sierra's and 85 Ballistic Tips and it dropped coyotes with authority, but it was just too loud and the recoil got anoying when hammering 25-30 rounds in couple of hours. Stick with the .243, it isn't as good a big game rifle, but it's a much better yote and chuck gun. ~6mm
 
The .25-06 will have a bit more felt recoil, and use up a lot more powder too. The .243 87 VMax is simply the best bullet out there in either .25 or .243 in my opinion (don't know the .25's that well, so I could be wrong). I think Hornady makes a .25 VMax at 87, and the .25-06 will launch it faster than the .243, but its BC might be a tad lower, not sure.

For cheaper shooting and less recoil (= more rounds downrange), the .243/6mm is hard to beat. What is said above regarding luck and skill is correct. Past about 400 shots get very iffy as to elevation and windage. You really need a buddy to spot your impacts for you when shooting way out there. A quality scope with excellent adjustment mechanism is a must as well, we're talking top drawer stuff here, not Tasco or Simmons etc. Weaver target scopes, Leupold with target turrets, etc. And learn how to read the wind mirage.
 
just so i don't sound like i'm bullcraping anybody i'll just repete that the guns used that i talked about where both custom fast twist benchrest guns. and that my best EVER is only 628 (and it did take 2 shots /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif )
 
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Federal's 85 grain BTHP might just do the trick for you Muddy Fork.


Those are the rounds I used before I got into reloads. In fact I roll with the Sierra 85gr bthp's. I might try the Hornady 87 gr stuff when I run out.
 
I shoot a lot, too. Last weekend, I finally connected on a pdog at 517 yds with my 6mm Rem, but....Only after I set a table up by an active looking mound and then moved the truck and my other bench back 500 yards and ranged it with my laser. (My laser won't pick up dogs much past 250 yards, and won't do mounds much past that, so I needed the table as a ranging marker). I gotta tell ya.....the one dog I got was about 30 feet from the table, but other than that one that was by a definate range marker, I couldn't tell the difference between 500 yds and 700 yds.
All variables considered, I've gotta agree a 500 yard shot on a pdog is as much luck as anything else. I'm officially lowering my benchmark to 400 yards! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Mike
 
If the Federal 85 gr BTHP uses the Sierra bullet and I surmise that it does that bullet is at best a compromise for any purpose and not an ideal one let alone for very long range shooting.

243 dia. (6mm) 85 gr. HPBT .243 85 .206 .282 @ 2700 fps and above
.293 between 2700 and 2000 fps
.311 @ 2000 fps and below

The problem is that it has a very poor ballistic coefficient and a heavy jacket. That means a fast loss of veloicty, lots of wind drift, fast drop and a greater propensity for ricochets.

Indeed a Ci of .400 is excellent. If you can't find that maybe the factories load the 70 gr bullets with sharp plastic meplats. They are a very good all around varmint bullet.
 
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Indeed a Ci of .400 is excellent. If you can't find that maybe the factories load the 70 gr bullets with sharp plastic meplats. They are a very good all around varmint bullet.



/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
 
Good info. on this 1. 6mm's dead on about the 87 V-Max. It's the highest BC varmint bullet made. Shame u're not reloading, it'd probably help some to "fine tune" things to put everything in your favor for those kinda ranges. For what u're talking about u're gonna have to have a good scope that has a reference system built in for those kind of ranges, either good accurate repeatable click adjustments, or u might be able to get away with a ballistic reticle if the magnfication's high enuf. I was gonna suggest a higher quality Burris model with Ballistic Mil-Dot, but i'd probably go 1 up on that with maybe a higher power Leupold Tactical like the 6.5-20, or maybe even the 8.5-25X with the Tactical Milling reticle/M1 turret. Forget about the std. ballistic reticles (with the exception of maybe the BMD as mentioned above) for those ranges, and go straight to the TMR. That will get u fine enuf reference for this kind of work to about 700 yds. or so. Std. milliradian system with dots replaced by line stadia, and .5 mil marks to 17.2 MOA trajectory compensation at the 5th mil stadia. Here's the specs. on it-

http://www.leupold.com/products/reticles_TMR.htm
 
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