Thanks Tim!
Of course, since I get my 1st retirement check tomorrow, maybe I am getting to be "low velocity"!
I don't know that a 100 gr bullet will ever be equivalent to a .22 Mag, but they seem to do the job pretty well. I shoot 18.0 gr of Blue Dot with a Win LP primer at 2.677" OAL and get 1" or less groups at 100 yards. Nothing special about my Handi, but I do shoot with a synthetic stock and a standard barrel.
Cast bullets may be a little bit of a problem in not being too widely available, or if they are, they are just as expensive as a jacketed bullet. Some of the bum rap jacketed bullets get for barrel wear may come from trying to squeeze every fps out of the case's capacity. An 18.0 gr load of Blue Dot is just a little more than 40% of the case capacity of Blue Dot, so it certainly isn't a barn burner. I don't remember clocking this load, but I think it's around 2000 fps with the 100 gr Rem Core-Lokt, which is about the cheapest bullet you can get for a .243 (the 80 gr is $8.99/100 and the 100 gr is $9.49/100 at Midway. For $.50/100 more, I use the 100 gr Core-Lokts.)
2000 fps isn't a rainbow trajectory. When I shot this load at 185 yards, it was pretty well right where I aimed and hits were easy to make. The very low recoil and low muzzle blast also helps it shoot good.
I don't know that it's just a coyote type load. I think there's enough to it to make a good deer load (I'm referring to Texas size deer when I say that), especially for the young folks.
I don't know this for sure, but I think the bullet is going to act more like a cast bullet and have much less expansion at the lower velocities. That is going to increase penetration, but the exit hole will probably by much smaller. This might be a case where the lighter constructed 80 gr bullets would give better expansion, without being too violent in expanding, i.e. coming apart like a varmint bullet. Even so, I'm still going to go with the heavier bullet.
