243 ultra goes hunting.

[aulrich]

I did manage to bag a deer with my 243 it was a small whitetail doe I got it the first half hour of opening day. Saw it feeding up a hillside, I worked up beside it  using a ridge for cover and shot it from about 75 yards facing towards me. I hit dead center and she ran only a few steps before piling up. The lungs where absolutely shredded.

But my next two chances where not the same I would like to blame the gun and it does have some problems. It was probably a combination of gun, guy and setup.

My next chance was at a mulie doe. It was about 150 yards out broadside it did hit her but as far as I could gather it must have been a brisket shot.  Good blood trail right away but disappearing to spots right away. that and she did not bed once before the trail completely dried up I never found hear.  The second was a mulie buck  the next mourning but at least that one was as far as I could tell a complete miss, no sound of a hit, no hair and no blood.  But that was At 75 yards  sitting using a bi-pod.

<excuse mode on>
Sighted in for 100 yards that and I tend to be more of a heart that a heart /lung shooter (if that makes sense)

I sighted in the wind (checked later I was 3 inches right @ 100) and with the angle to the buck and a bad hold that may explain the miss.

One thing I have noticed is I loose shots it could be going good and the a bullet will disappear.
<excuse mode off>

I still am fighting with my ultra but I am too much of a pig head to give up yet . But I am not going to touch it till I get my 204 ruger home (yes it's a handi like I said before pig head). I am thinking sloppy lock-up (it closes and stays closed on firing but there is a gap at the top) or a twitchy forend(o-rings in place now) is giving me my major problems.  Then a trigger job to get the last little bit out of it.

I did switch back to my ruger 77 (338 win mag hench the need for a doe gun) and fill my tags. My mulie buck has a story behind it but they pay me to work and lunch is over.

[Fred M]

I have some problems with some of your statements, like the one below.

One thing I have noticed is I loose shots it could be going good and the a bullet will disappear.

One thing the 243 demands is a bullet that will perform like the 85gr TSX.
A cheap lightly constructed bullet is not the way to go if you insist on shooting deer in the body with poorly constructed handloads which do not fully close the breech, as you are suggesting.

Personally I have used 6mm Barnes bullets along time ago but gave up on them, because of the fouling they did. But they sure did a good job.

The TSX bullets don't seem to foul, at least not more than any other bullet.
With the 100gr Hornady Inter lock I have never failed to put a deer down in any caliber I tried them, including the 6mm's.

This week's total with the 25 Hunter and the 100gr Hornady Interlock came to 14 deer, 3 Antelopes and 2 coyotes with a total of 22 cartridges. Three complete misses and 19 one shot kills. That is over a period of four years. So I can vouch for these bullets in a small caliber.

If you shoot a deer and it runs away you want to wait for a 1/2 hour before you track them. This will give the deer a chance to lay down and stiffen up and/or die.

Many deer are lost because people keep tracking them too soon. A deer wounded in the late evening will still be there in the moring if left to lay and not disturbed.

Myself I have no use for a 243 as a deer rifle, and never would recommend one for that purpose. They 243 simple produces too many failures in hands of inexperienced hunters.

If you can make consistent head and neck shots at what ever range you are comfortable with, the 243 will do the job well, providing the rifle is accurate.

Why do you think a 338Win mag is not a doe deer rifle? Since you have one why not use it? A better one you most likely wont find. With a 165gr Barnes-x bullet it will take any deer out to 350 yards and it wont stop on its way,  in which ever direction it goes through a deer.

Perhaps more gun then you need for deer but it sure has the 243 beat all to dickens.

But if you can't hit a deer at 75 to 150yards broadside, then you better get some practice. No rifle no matter how powerful, will make up for poor shooting. But a bigger bullet will allow for minor aiming errors and still bag the deer.

The reason nobody answered your post, is because you wrote a lot but said very little. You need to be more specific.

[aulrich]

Fred  you make a lot of good points I probably should clarify a few things. My bullet disappearing statement is one of them.  What I have been noticing is that say I am shooting a group of sand bags at the range, randomly while shooting groups  4 shots are in a group and the fifth is nowhere to be found it's gone off the paper, 5 shots 4 holes.

The barnes are on my to try list along with the 85gr hpbt sierra game king 85 and or 95 gr partition 95 gr sirocco even 100 gr bulk core locks.  Money and time was my limiting factor.  I am definitely leaning towards an 85 gr loading bullets to be had for Varmint and game loads.  If the gun is to stay in my inventory it will become a trainer for my boys (oldest are only 8 so I have got a while) and they will be using that load for  2 years on PD's and coyotes before they can hunt deer ( starting at about 11 or 12 deer hunting at 13 ( it could be 14 I forget the regs right now).  

I agree about leaving a wounded animal 30 min before tracking I just found and marked the blood trail and looked into the edge of the gully 10 yards away( I have had solid lung shot deer make it to the edge of a gully and slide dead to the bottom). I went back in the morning  to track her out and we followed a long way (I am a reasonable tracker) and did not find her.

The 243 is the smallest round I would hunt deer with and even at that I'll probably reserve it for doe hunts and then if I see a handi in 30-30 it will be mine, and the 30-30 will be altered to 30-30AI .  And before I turn my guys loose on a deer (reguardless of what the are shooting) they will be trained hunters and good field marksmen.  

As for the head/neck shot I have never been a fan but I can see the merit, I don't even think of it as a target. Probably all the time I have spent bow hunting and practicing on 3d targets and posters .  The neck shot  is a fine option but I think my bow hunting practice has me hard wired for heart lung.

The problem with the 338 as a doe round is this, my preference is to have one load and use it for everything so I have been having trouble finding a bullet with the right expansion properties.  225 partitions and above tend to be too hard (work great on elk but hardly expand on a rib shot doe properly found her but she had run along way good thing we had snow that day) and the 200gr and alike  seem a touch fragile for elk seeing the damage the do to deer.  

When I tried the barnes bullets my rifle did not like them but that was 12 years ago and the triple shocks do have a good reputation. Since I am out of ballistic tips finally the next bullet I will try is the 225 gr accubond the expansion qualities are supposed to be in between the partition and the ballistic tips.  

The bad shooting supprised me because practice wise this year I went though 2500 22lr 200-300 243 and 300 hmr most of that at pd's. So I have had a decent amount of trigger time. That said I have to admit that I should have shot more of the deer load (factory 100 grs) at various distances, it would have show my sighting set up error ( dead on at 100 instead of high).

So after all this you must be thinking why do I have a 338 then. When I bought it I lived in BC Moose and or elk was a normal target and it made sence. Why do I still have it? every year I think about selling or re-barreling but it comes down to this, it works and it's paid for.  And when I switched back to it, I filled my remaining 3 tags, a  mulie buck @ 150-200 1 shot wt buck 200-225 2 shots hit low took off a leg and then though the lungs. While dragging the whitetail out a mulie doe at 50-75 1 shot. And even though I mostly deer hunt with it on the bald prairies every 2 years I get an elk tag and every 4 I get a moose tag.  If I was to replace it it would be with 7 rem mag or 6.5-284  but that's not all that likely any more after 12 years it's like an old friend.

As for the 243 ultra I still think that the single biggest problem is the lock-up, empty the 243 has a gap at the top of the receiver. I am hoping to do the latch spring mod and latch seating that you have described, to see if it can be fixed.  Then i'll examine my reloading procedure, even though I have had good results in the past it seems the handi has a personality.

[oktx]

My son's 243 developed a gap at the top of the receiver and it also had play in the action.  It would shoot all over the place.  I sent it back they corrected the problem and now it shoots very well.  oktx.

[Fred M]

aulrich
If one out of five shots is completely off the paper, there has to be something hay wire with the lock up and or the latch The gap in the breech would/could also confirm this.

Using two kinds of bullets in the 338 is no big deal. most bullets will shoot pretty close together. a few clicks on the scope will do it. Just mark the scope setting for the big game bullets. I have done that for years with a 300 Wby using two or sometimes three different bullets.

One other thing with the 338  a 250gr Nosler Partition soft point  bullet wont need much expansion to put down a deer, and I know they expand on deer I used them in the 340Wby. they do a fine job on deer if you are looking for a single all game bullet. Just because they are heavy does not mean they don't expand.

85gr HP 6mm game King is a poor hi-vel bullet, and the BT's are not much better. don't know what kind of game they were intented for. Before I would look for suitable 243 deer bullet I try the 85gr TSX bullet and I think, unless I am badly mistaken, your search will be over.

These bullets are not found in bargan basements and maybe hard to get in Canada?

As far as the a stronger latch spring goes, I have enough spring length left for maybe 9 or 10 dual springs. You can have a set for a nominal fee.
When these are gone there are no more unless you have them custom made for 40 bucks or order 1000 for a cheap price of one.