.243 deer bullet

[ENCOREROOKIE]

hello all...im gettin ready to relaoad for my 15" 243 encore.im gonna use it this deer season but with the shorter barrel...what is a good deer sized game bullet.I want to stay kinda heavy .well i really don't know what bullet works good out of a pistol barrel...65 gn vmax works great but too light for deer....thought about 95-100 hornady sst but im open to suggestions  thanks all

[Rol Page]

I tried to get the heavier, 100gr bullets to fly straight from my 15" Encore factory barrel.   Even factory loads keyholed indicating the twist was too slow to stabilize that long a bullet.  If you have a custom barrel with faster twist you may make out better than I did.

Undoubtedly you will get lots of responses to this post.  I have heard good things about the 85Gr. bullets on deer, also heard of others saying the .243 is too light unless you make a perfect shot.  Shot placement is critical with any gun.

I went up to a .260 Rem. Encore pistol, factory 15" barrel with 1 in 8 Twist.
I get good groups, generally just under, or over 1" @ 100yds with Nosler 120gr Ballistic Tips.

Good Luck,  Rol

[KYODE]

well, there are several that come to mind. ones that i would look at, in no particular order.
 nosler- 80gr balistic tip,85gr partition,90gr balistic tip
hornady- 80gr single shot pistol bullets,87gr v-max bt
sierra- 80gr sspb,80gr blitz bt, 85gr hpbt, and possibly 85gr spitzer
speer- 80gr spitzer,85gr bt spitzer

if you're wanting more weight, or a little tougher bullet for penetration. i'd pick between the 90gr nosler bt,85gr partition(pricey), or 85gr sierra bthp. the single shot bullets work great, but if you're getting up in velocity with the .243, they will expand quite a bit. i wouldn't find that a problem on deer. i'd much prefer over expansion, as compared to no expansion.
i killed a small doe last year at 100-125yards with my 6br(kinnda like a .243 short) using the sierra 80gr sspb at 2800fps. the bullet worked great! made one heck of a hole(good expansion). she dropped in her tracks.

[ENCOREROOKIE]

well all, I went with 95 gn Hornady SST. went out and shot it yesterday and it would shoot 3 shot groups at 50 yards and most of the time they would be touching...not too bad...i never shot it at 100 ( i know thats the range to tell how good it shoots ) but all in all i was extremely happy.the reloads i made were definitly more stout then the 100 gn rem corelocks i sighted it in with....just wanted to post my results   THANKS

[KYODE]

sounds good! now test at 100 to see how it does. if that bullet shoots good in your gun, it should be a dandy deer getter.