Encore 243 load

[cobra201]

Can anyone tell what to start with on a 243 load. Thanks in advance.

[Davemuzz]

Do you have a bullet brand already (Hornady, Sierra, Nosler)? And, what grain weight bullet are you looking to reload?

Thanks.

Dave.

[cobra201]

I do not have any bullets. I was just wondering where i should start. I would like to shoot around 100 gr. bullet but will shoot what ever shoots best.  Thanks David

[Davemuzz]

Well, each gun barrel seems to like it's own bullet\powder combination, but I can tell you what I have found that works well in my pro-hunter 243.

I load Noslers for my .223 and .243, and Hornady's for my .308, 6.5x55, and 44 magnums. I "settled" on these after trying these and Barnes, Sierra, Speer....maybe a few others.

So, for the .243 I have found that H-414 seems to give me the best groups. This is with the Nosler 70 grain, 80 grain, and 100 grain bullets. The 70 and 80 grain ballistic tips will group the best. I loaded these at the Hodgdon maximum, after starting some rounds at less than maximum.

I would have no issues with loading and using the 100 grain rounds with the H-414 powder in deer season. Now, here in Pa. my longest shot will probably be 200 yards.

Hodgdon's  (http://www.hodgdon.com/index.php) BL-C2 was another powder that I tried with the Nosler bullets. This powder worked well, but seemed to give me a flyer or two in every 5 shot group. (I would have 3 or 4 almost touching and then the flyers woud be 2" or even more away from the group )

Also, when you load the Nosler bullet, you have to measure your chamber OAL with the Nosler bullet (each grain Nosler bullet will be different) and then subtract from 15 thousands to 30 thousands to get the bullet OAL. I have always had good success using the 30 thousands number.

I hope this helps.

Dave.

[cobra201]

Thank you Dave. That will give me a place to start.   

[vanbuzen9]

I recently sold a .243 encore barrel, and really regret it.  I got very good accuracy with hornady 100gr. bullets and R19.  But, probably the most accurate load that I ever fired was with hornady's 58 gr. vmax, and varget, anywhere from 40 to 42 grains, as I recall.  This load gave me less than .5" groups all the time.

vanbuzen9

[uncle joe]

For factory ammo I found my 24" 243 likes 80 gr Win varnint loads the best but they are no longer made. My second choice, and a good deer load is 95 gr Fussion ammo.

[mjbgalt]

33.5 grains of Varget and a 95-grain Nosler Ballistic Tip gives me 1/2" five-shot groups in my Browning.

it's worth a try...

-Matt