243 85 HPBT deer experience

[deerandduck]

In taking my daughter on a TN youth hunt recently, I want to relate my experience with her 243 handi rifle, using down loaded sierra 85gr HPBT.  These were using 31 gr of H4895 for about 2400 fps.  She liked this light load and shot it well.  So out walks this 8 pt.  After it finally gets turned correctly, its about 50 yard away.  At the shot, the deer jumps up, kicks wildly and runs hard off the green field.  I think good shot.  After a moment we get down.  No blood trail... after some hard searching we find a few drops as it enters the woods. Did I mention its getting dark now.  I finally decide to go looking without a trail.  I do find it, about 40 yards away.  The shot was a good double lung shot but no external bleeding.  In skinning it, all the blood was inside the skin.  It seems the holes were pretty small and maybe the skin had kinda sealed it up.  I called Sierra hotline and asked their opinion.  They stated that the bullet is pretty tough and needs to go about 2700-2800 fps for good expansion.  Thus my problem, too slow.
FYI, for anyone using this on light loads.  DONT GO TOO SLOW.
I have since up the speed to about 2800 fps.  I think this will do fine now.  My daughter wants to go again real soon.
 
Best of luck,
Deerandduck

[Silvertp]

Congratulations to your daughter for her nice buck.  Appears the bullet did everything you could ask except for leaving a blood trail. 

The reduced load was a good idea in terms of building confidence in shooting but Im guessing now your daughter won't have any trouble with a touch more velocity / recoil.  You could probably continue to let her shoot the light loads for practice and the heavier loads for hunting. 

The thrill of squeezing off a shot at game has a funny way of covering up any recollection of recoil...

Silvertp

[sa doc]

I seen same think happen with multiple calibers.  I was sitting beside a friend of mine last year when he shot a 167 inch   buck  at about 150 yards with a 7mm mag   with soft points.  It was perfect  broadside hit about 1/2 inch behind the shoulder.  We watched the deer run about 100 yard.  Went to where he was hit and no blood. We walked to where we had last seen the buck and he was laying right there, but only blood was where he was laying.. Tried back tracking and never found any blood.   I've occasionally seen the same thing with my 270 or 25-06.  Usually with a high lung shot,  but I took my brother-in-law hunting this weekend and he made a perfect  shoulder hit on a 7 1/2 yo  10 pointer. Deer only went 20 yards, but not a drop of blood.
They don't always bleed

[Drilling Man]

  I want to see a decent size "exit" hole in the deer i shoot, so i now only use 100NP's in 6mm diameter.
 
  I have shot deer with the Sierra's, but once i switched to NP's i could see they did a better job for me and i never looked back, i'm still useing them!
 
  In fact, i took a big fat doe a few days ago useing my 700 Rem. chambered in 240Wby./100NP, it bled pretty good out the exit hole...
 
  DM

[flintlock]

I've killed a few dozen deer with that bullet and it's wicked on deer...As mentioned 2400 is just too slow, a soft point GameKing would have been a better choice at that speed...
 
I actually got more pass throughs with the 85 hollow points than the 100gr soft point GameKings when I was using them...

[deerandduck]

More updated 243 85 HPBT fun...Well, my daughter got to go again, this time on the AL youth hunt.  We were in a ground blind over a green field.  The deer came out very late.  She finally got a line on a doe that was "sticking its neck way up".  Bang FLOP, neck shot.  That bullet does alot better at the faster speeds with a nice big hole in the deer's neck.  Pretty good shot, off shooting sticks, at about 60 yds.  I'm still proud.
But it was kinda small, so no pics.
thanks,
Deerandduck

[anweis]

I will find out this year. I loaded this bullet with RL 17, a powder which gives more velocity and less pressure, supposedly. It is for my 6mm Remington. My load is probably at about 3,400 fps, and not  maximum load yet. It shot very flat and very accurately, 1" 10 shot groups at 200 yards.   The rifle is very light with thin barrel, so i shot at 2 minute intervals. Anyway, i will use it on hogs, antelope, and deer next fall.
I have 20 rounds to take to the 300 yards range to see where the POI is, and i will keep 20 for hunting.

[eastbank]

use 85 nosler ballistic tips at 3000fps,shoot for the lungs,not the rump tho. eastbank.

[Catfish]

If you have a Sierra manual they have the recomanded velocities for all of their bullets in it.

[Yellowhouse]

Tried using that bullet many years ago on coyotes but switched to the softpoints due to inconsistent results.  On broadside shots it sometimes blew a hole through but often just acted like a solid and zipped through.
 
 I've killed deer with the Hornady 87gr softpoint and it did well.  Lot of people are reporting good results with the Barnes 85gr TSX

[ratdog]

for the last 25 years i have been using 87 grn boat tail hp's in mine 1 shot one kill 243's are sweet.