Ruger American .243 at 650 yards...

Well for most of us regular "joes", a .243 winchester is the Right choice for a super farm type rifle for yotes at any range, and deer up to 3-500 yds (with proper bullets). I like the fact that George Gardner like to use this caliber in his competition shooting, and he probably is one of The best rifle builders there is, and he's winning matches with the .243 win....
I have been so hung up on loading 100 grain bullets so we can take deer, that I have overlooked lighter, probably more accurate bullets fo my rifle. :)
 
This is all I use now! I inherited an old Rem 600 Mohawk .243 with a (assumedly) cheap Tasco scope from my uncle...1970's model. He had old Winchester white box stuff (100 gr) with it. They shot about 1" groups, which is great but I decided to try Fusions. Laying prone in the back field, 100yds (laser ranged) with my old army ruck as support I clover-leafed 3 shots...all touching. Done! Full penetration on a big MO doe (170 lbs+) through ribs and she went down in 30 yds. Blew a coyotes heart out at 200. They hit where I aim EVERY time and kill clean!
 
I love the RAR and want one myself but the Fusion ammo used to produce the groups shown by the OP deserves just as much of the credit. It, just like the RAR, is easily the best in it's price range and will outshoot some much more expensive stuff. IMO this rifle/ammo combo is the ultimate budget-minded combination.
 
That Fusion ammo is very good... but the .243 stuff in Fusion is now moly coated, which in my opinion you don't want. And add to that the fact that Fusion in .243 is pretty much non-existent right now.

I did break open a fusion .243 95 grain load. Volumetric and 10x magnification comparisons show the powder to be good old W760 (H414). FWIW...

By way of update... we had a guy at our long range practice shoot yesterday shooting a .243 Ruger American... using Berger 95's and IMR 4350 and he had a Redfield Revolution scope mounted.

He worked the steel all the way out to 1030 yards with that gun, and actually shot better than many of the guys with heavy barreled rifles. And interestingly, the Redfield scope had enough elevation (32 MOA in this case) to dial out to 1030 yards--without an elevated scope base... :)

Dan
 
Yea I was at a gun show the other day, and while there was plenty of .243 fusion ammo, it was ALL moly coated. Can you not even buy the non-coated ammo anymore? I dont think you can even buy the bullets as a component to duplicate the factory load. The fusion bullets are very similar to a speer deepcurl but the deepcurl is a flat base and the fusion is a boat-tail. And the deepcurl is only offered as an 80 or 90 gr. I have some Win 760 powder, may start having to experiment with other 95 gr boat-tails.


Sure wish Federal would start selling the Fusion bullets as a component. They perform great on deer and have even done surprisingly well on the varmints I've shot with them.
 
Dan Newberry said:
I did break open a fusion .243 95 grain load. Volumetric and 10x magnification comparisons show the powder to be good old W760 (H414). FWIW...
Click to expand...

That surprises me. With Federal and Alliant both owned by the same outfit (ATK), I'd have figured that Federal was using Alliant powder in their ammo.

Alliant has been selling some ball powder lately, the Power-Pro powders are a sort of squished ball powder. It turns in real good velocity in the .308 and ought to be a fine powder for the .243 as well.
 
I love Moly. Why dont you like them Dan? The only drawback I could imagine would be performance loss in a short barrel. I get better velocity from my long barrels.
 
The only thing I don't like about moly is the mess in the bore. Makes for more frequent, tougher cleanings. As for accuracy, I can't tell a difference but that's just me. Don't own a chrony so I can't say about velocity
 
I clean much less with Moly coated bullets. Use brake cleaner on the first few patches and its gone. Then there is a lot less copper to deal with than non moly bullets.
 
We had a guy at our long range practice shoot with his RAR in .243 win, using 95 grain Bergers and IMR 4350... and he was shooting great with it. We got him on the steel all the way out to 1030 yards, and it was consistent, reliable... very accurate.

He had a Redfield Revolution scope in 4-12 power, and it had enough dial up to make 1030 yards (ended up being around 35 MOA).

The Fusion bullets were supposed to be available in boxes of 50... I'm on Natchez Shooter Supply's waiting list... but I ain't holding my breath... :o

Dan
 
I got to put just 3 rounds through my 30-06 this weekend that were all touching each other at 70 yards. Not impressive distance but I felt good about it. Felt recoil to me was just tad more than 243 and the trigger was amazing. Probably the best $350 I have ever spent on a rifle. Fit me very well, light and accurate. Great impressions so far.
 
sorry to resurrect an old thread, but it's to blame

for me going way over budget this week. I'm picking up a lightly used RAM in .243 tomorrow because of this thread. And today I found some Federal Fusion to feed it.

Naturally, I had to get a scope. Cabelas has the Zeiss Conqueror 3-9x40 on sale, and I had a couple of gift cards.

I got a good deal on the rifle and the scope, but I can't afford to save this much money!:D
 
Jimmy,
Enjoy your gun and let us know how it performs. I have an older Ruger M77 MarkII in .243 I shoot and load for.
Cary
 
I never responded, but I bought some 130 grain fusion for my 270 as I mentioned, and it did shoot really well! I don't expect other rounds will do much, if any better in my 270 so I'll shoot this until I start hand loading for it. I'm not shooting much right now because I'm trying to save a little to re-barrel a .223 to .260 Remington.
 
jimmy, I appreciate you resurrecting the thread as well as Dan posting it. I've been thinking about a new 7mm-08 quite a bit and I am considering the American. After seeing Dan's post about bringing the trigger down to 2 pounds, it's gonna be hard not to get one. I've always liked the Savage M11 as well and the Accu-Trigger is supposed to go down to 1 1/2 pounds if I remember correctly.

Economy rifles outshooting more expensive offerings from the same manufacturer isn't new. From what I heard about the Rem. 788, it was discontinued partially for that reason. I had one in .22-250 with a 24" barrel that was a tackdriver. It will be interesting to see what Ruger does if the same holds true for the American. When I first saw it my thoughts went to the Rem. 770 (?) that probably won't be around much longer since they have a new rifle that like the American seems to have borrowed from the Savage M10/110. ;)
 
they have a new rifle that like the American seems to have borrowed from the Savage M10/110.
Click to expand...

If you're referring to the Remington 783, its actually more or less a revamped Marlin X7, which does use the Savage-esque barrel nut system, and a trigger much like the accutrigger. So it does have Savage influence, albeit indirectly.

The 783 could be referred to as a Marlington or Remlin, which ever you prefer.
 
Everyone talk about how well Fussion ammo works for them, I have had bad luck with the stuff, shoots poorly in my 30-06 and my 7mm-08 (which does not like any factory ammo) does not bother me too much though because I handload the Speer Deep Curl (almost the same bullet) and I get great accuracy out of the handloads.
 
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