Pro Hunter 243 handloads??

[HuntMeister]

Greetings!
Today I became the proud owner of a new Pro Hunter with the 28" 243 barrel. I took a quick look at a Hornady manual while I was at the gun shop and it indicated that they got their best groups and uniformity with Varget, so I went ahead and bought a pound of it. I also picked up a box of Hornady 58gr V-Max bullets. My short term plans is to find a good shooting coyote load.

Anyone have experience with this powder / bullet combination?

What other powder / bullet combos are you having the best performance with?
I would also like to hear what combos are bad performers for you too.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

[Grumulkin]

As I recall Hornady bullets (either 85 or 87 gr.) hit the same place as these with just as good accuracy.  The particular Encore barrel I'm using is a 24 incher.

[HuntMeister]

Thanks for sharing that Grumulkin! A nice group!

[jbmabrey3]

Huntmeister,  I'm traveling down the same road. I'm waiting on a Bergara barrel in 243 and looking at my Hornady manual as well. Let us know how the varget and bullets work. This will be my 1st rifle handloading. I've loaded 44 mag, 357 mag, 357 max, 9mm, 12 ga. slugs.

From what I found with these rounds(handgun ) is there are a number of powders that give good results. Steve's pages , http://stevespages.com/243_2_85.html , give over 40 powders for the 85 gr. with IMR-3031 as the most accurate. If you look at Nosler- http://www.nosler.com/reloading-data.aspx you wont find a recommended load, or Sierra's software shows Vit N140 as the accuracy load for the 85 gr. HPBT.

I have found the VihtaVouri powders to be excellent for my handgun loads and for my Savage ml10- vv N120    http://www.eabco.com/VihtaVuori01.pdf so I look forward to testing them also. Keep us posted with your varget loads, thanks, jbmabrey

very nice group grumulkin, is your barrel a Bergara? Mine is 24".

[HuntMeister]

Chomping at the bit to get out and shoot the new rifle!! Dang head cold kept me out of the game last w-end and now the artic conditions have arrived but I don't care, I'm going out this w-end and will report back.

Huntmeister,  I'm traveling down the same road. I'm waiting on a 243 Bergara barrel in 243 and looking at my Hornady manual as well. Let us know how the varget and bullets work. This will be my 1st rifle handloading. I've loaded 44 mag, 357 mag, 357 max, 9mm, 12 ga. slugs.

From what I found with these rounds(handgun ) is there are a number of powders that give good results. Steve's pages , http://stevespages.com/243_2_85.html , give over 40 powders for the 85 gr. with IMR-3031 as the most accurate. If you look at Nosler- http://www.nosler.com/reloading-data.aspx you wont find a recommended load, or Sierra's software shows Vit N140 as the accuracy load for the 85 gr. HPBT.

I have found the VihtaVouri powders to be excellent for my handgun loads and for my Savage ml10- vv N120    http://www.eabco.com/VihtaVuori01.pdf so I look forward to testing them also. Keep us posted with your varget loads, thanks, jbmabrey

very nice group grumulkin, is your barrel a Bergara? Mine is 24".

[HuntMeister]

Sorry for the delay but here is my first range report for the new .243 Prohunter.

Prohunter .243 Winchester. After spending the first two weekends of the year doing family birthday parties and the last 1-1/2 weeks lost dealing with a nasty sinus infection, this weekend I was finally healthy and had the opportunity to get out to the range. I mixed up a few development loads with some Varget and 58gr Vmax boolits starting at 40.5gr and increasing in 1/2 gr increments up to 44.0gr.



Saturday after running a box of factory 100gr ammo thru it to get the scope adjusted I started shooting the development loads. The first three loads were fairly "loose" groups...



The fourth group was much the same then on the fifth I was pleasantly surprised to see them tighten up quite a bit and then open up again with the sixth load. I thought to myself that No.5 is the sweet spot...




I proceeded on with loads seven, eight and nine and again the groups got tight with No.9...



I picked up and headed back home, now I had to make a decision, load No.5 or No. 9. After much deliberation I decided to go with lucky No.9. This morning I got up early and put together 20 rounds of load No.9 and this afternoon I headed back out to the range to see if my luck would hold out and if so maybe I could dial in the scope and get this puppy ready to shoot some songdogs. First group at 100yds was OK but not what I was hoping for. I made a elevation adjustment and then really tried to get myself settled down for my best effort. It all came together and I couldn't be happier with the resulting group! This summer I think I may go back and play around with the No.5 load again to see what it can do.



I then did some 200yd shooting. I had researched some ballistic charts and everything I had read indicated that 1.5" high at 100yds should be a 200yd zero. In my case the approximate 1.5" high 100yds was about 2" high at 200yds. I then backed the 100yd groups back down to zero at 100yds and I was approximately 1" high at 200yds. My 200yd shooting ability is nowhere near what I can generally achieve at 100yds so I'm not sure if it was me or the gun but either way I now have a +200yd point and shoot rifle. 

[ChrisK]

feel sorry for those coyotes