243 Ammo for whitetail

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When I inherited my Dad's .243 I naturally had to hunt it. It came with rwo boxes of 100 gr Core-Lokts. Worked out som me bugs in the rifle, mounted a proper scope (Dad was bad to cut corners on optics) and went afield.

First deer I killed, a 1-1/2 year old spike at about 50 yds, went down in a pile, shot through the near shoulder. Bullet was recovered on the off side, under the hide. Absolutely perfect mushroom.

Bamaboy went on to kill several more, all with the CL's, but we did not recover any slugs. I have since moved on to reloaded 100 gr Partitions, but I have no doubt that factoy CL's will be plenty for whitetails. I've set a Mossberg Mannlicher 810 with a fixed 6x, up this year with 100 gr Partitions.

NOte that with the .243, I think that the partion , bonded bullet or other premo, is not a bad idea. I'm inclined to believe that with calibers above .243, you do not need a premium bullet for a typical deer. But I believe 243 is near the cusp of "just enough" for deer. Combine its high velocty with its lighter bullets and you may have problems. The premo gives you a slight edge.
 
I've killed a lot of deer with a 243 and 100 grain Remington Cor-lokts. Standard cup and core jacketed lead bullets have been around for a long time. Why? Because they work very well on deer sized game. Go ahead spend 50 dollars a box on bullets for deer but you won't kill them any deader.
 
What does the gun shoot the most accurately should be the question to be answered. Because unless you can put it in the right place out to those distances the bullet construction, manufacture and all the other stuff means nothing.
 
SaltyDog35 said:
What does the gun shoot the most accurately should be the question to be answered. Because unless you can put it in the right place out to those distances the bullet construction, manufacture and all the other stuff means nothing.
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That's true, but it lives in the realm of theory more than the real world, in most cases.

I have yet to see a gun in any cartridge (that's generally accepted to be an acceptable cartridge at range) that wouldn't shoot any bullet with any powder more than accurately enough for shots to at least 300 yards on deer.

I'm sure they exist, but it's got to be close to having something broken to be that bad.
 
not all accuracy

The above mentioned Mossberg 800 will stack 85 gr (?) factory poly tipped varmint slugs in spooky sub MOA groups.......but I will not shoot a deer with a coyote bullet.

The Noslers go about 1.5", but I would not hesitate on a quartering shot on any whitetail with the combo.

I think the "any bullet" theory is what gets the .243 its bad knocks. Above .25 caliber, you can get away with light bullet construction on most deer. With the .243, I believe it becomes more important.
 
My next bullet experience in .243, will be the 90 grn Accubond.
We will see if this ole man can tuna fish.
I will post a new thread when its ready.e
 
id go with winchester super X, or remmington core-loct. altho, i just shot a sub 1/2 MOA group with rem. 80 grain hollow points.
 
All the other bullets that have been mentioned here besides Core-Lokts cost more than Federal Fusion ammo. Since bonded is better than non-bonded in all instances, I guess I will soldier on.

BTW the first deer killed with this rifle was a big-bodied 5 pointer by my son. He shot it in the shoulder with Win 'greybox' 100gr PPs. They performed better than the corelokt too :D
 
I haven't shot any deer with any of the .243's I've owned, but load deer rounds in that caliber for my grand-kids. I used Barnes TSX 85 grains a couple of years ago and grandson #1 shot a nice doe at 150 yards high in the heart-lung area and the deer was dead when it hit the ground. That's decent performance in my book, especially when I was concerned that it might not expand adequately on that type of shot.

For deer, I now load only Hornady GMX bullets in my .270 Win and .243 Win. Being hollow-point gilding metal bullets, they expand well and we don't have to worry about lead in the deer meat, or in gut piles that eagles or other scavengers might eat.
 
Many an elk have fallen to the lowley .243 win. I killed one last year using a .243 and 100gr Sierra Game Kings.

Those who don't like the .243 will find any argument to cut it down.

For small deer, I wouldn't hesitate to use 75-80 grain bullets designed for hunting.
 
All the other bullets that have been mentioned here besides Core-Lokts cost more than Federal Fusion ammo. Since bonded is better than non-bonded in all instances, I guess I will soldier on.
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Here's an instance in which a non-bonded bullet is better than a bonded bullet:

A deer facing you, or worse coming down the trail to you, at 50 yards or less. Either bullet will kill the deer. A 150gr soft point cup-and-core bullet at .270 WIN velocities will penetrate the chest about 3-5 inches and disintegrate before it gets to the diaphram. A bonded bullet, or one of these GMX/all Copper/Partition bullets will make field dressing that animal a crappy affair, opening up the guts in multiple places, and probably the bladder as well ..... YOU go ahead and spread that stuff all through YOUR animal if you want to ..... I won't.
 
Ditto many of the 80-90 grain opinions here, especially if the 243 in question is one of the many short barrel youth/compact offerings. On a cold December day out of an 18" Rem 788 or 16.5 Ruger Compact the 100's are no where near the red hot mama many think, and may spend more energy in the tree behind the deer than in the deer.
 
If a deer were coming straight at me at 50 yards, I'd probably wait for an angled shot, but never shoot for the brisket, no matter what I'd be shooting for bullet or caliber. If it kept coming at me, my shot would be higher in the neck, about the height of the backbone.
 
more on .243 and Partitions

Bamaboy dropped a doe yesterday at 150 yds with his Grandad's .243 and a reload using our now standard .243 Nosler Partition.

Bullet went in on the edge of the near shoulder, and out through the middle of the off shoulder, clipping the top of the big heart vessels and upper lungs.
Deer went straight down and did not even kick. I've only seen that once before...same shot, same rifle...but with a factory 100 Core Lokt that time.
The CoreLokt did not exit, but all the deer we've shot w/ .243/100 Partions have been through and through. Not all have dropped in their tracks either, but that is the norm I think.

The wound damage was impressive, a quarter size hole through the ribs into the chest cavity on the in side, a golfball size exit on the other. The exit through the hide was not all that impressive, by that time the Nosler was done. I'd have to say you could not really tell the damage from anything done by a "deer rifle" that was of a larger, heavier caliber. Certainly I've seen '06, .270, .308 wounds that were no more impressive.

I used to be a .243 basher, but I was ignorant and mouthing remarks from others that were as well. I'm sold on the .243 and 100 gr Partitions (for our deer) .
 
Federal Fusion would be my go to factory ammo if you dont like ballistic tips. I have always had pretty good luck with ballistic tips. Never lost a deer with them. I switched to Berger VLD just because b.t. became trendy and if its trendy I run from it.
 
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