.243 for Hunter

[Troy G]

Just bored and was doing some thinking about David Tubb's new 115gr 6mm bullet.  For the people that used to shoot a .243 in Hunter class what was the result with the 107gr?  How fast did you have to run the bullets in order to reliably take down rams? Or was it pretty hard to achieve reliable ram knock downs?

Would the picture be any different with Tubb's 115 grain bullet in a 26" barrel.  David said he was achieving 3000fps with his 6XC so this speed should/may be do-able in a .243.  The bullet is supposed to have a BC ten points less than the 6.5 142 HPBT MK.

What do you think?

[davei]

bullets have changed since then but i don't believe the .243 was ever able to reliably take down rams.   A 107 at 3000fps wasn't enough for even 80% reliability and at 3300fps was way too much.  some folks blew bullets up around 150 to 200 meters from over stabilization, other blew bullets up on the targets.  back wind, mud on the stands, loose stands, bowed targets... all played havoc.  even under perfect conditions if the rams weren't soft set you could still lose a couple three rams.  for reliable take down and manageable recoil, i don't think you can beat the .260 Remington.  and you are still going to lose a few...
dave imas

[drover]

I shot the 243 for 4 years and while I love it everything davei says about is 100% true, his reply sums it up perfectly.

[Drue]

I shot the .243 for a couple of years also. My regular hunting load, a Sierra 100 JSPBT at 3000 worked well on everything but the rams where it was slightly less that 50%. The lighter recoil is a big plus. Since the barrel is about shot out, I am going to get it rebarrreled to a .260. 107MKs for the others and 142s for the Rams. This should provided light (.243 like) recoil for 75% of the course while providing more oomph for the rams.

Drue

[jbeckley]

I myself never shot a .243, but Jeff Boyer did, and I spotted quite a few rounds for Jeff.  I saw one heck of a lot of rams left standing after being hit just about anywhere and everywhere, and the topper is less than 2000
rounds of barrel life, I would pass.

[Troy G]

I am not about to have my .260 rechambered to .243.  Was just wondering exactly how bad the .243 was on rams and if Tubb's 115gr bullet might make the .243 a little more appealing.

[davei]

well...  on the positive side...  the very cool thing about shooting a .243 on rams is you don't really need a spotter.  you will be able to plainly see your hits on way too many rams as they oblige to stand there and show them to you.  for all of us that will have the pleasure of your company in the future...  please!!!  keep shooting the .243!  
dave imas

[iceman99]

If you're gonna use a 6mm slow the bullet down!!!

Last year I shot a 6br and did some experimenting.

Under good conditions I lost 1 ram, under bad I lost 2 out of about 60 hits. I found a hit on the front leg between the knee and the body would not take them down.

It also depends on the range and how things are setup as to how much trouble the 6br will have. Rams with big feet or a deep stand are much harder to topple in the rain...

105Gr AMAX traveling at about 2730 is what I landed on for rams and pigs. I had more trouble with the pigs than rams in bad conditions so I now use my RAM load on both Rams and pigs... I think having the bullet slower reduces the "splat" effect. Just this week I bought some 95Gr. hornady SST's and 100Gr. BTSP Interlocks and was going to experiment with them as well. The 95Gr. Bergers worked better than the Berger 105's but neither was as good as the 105 AMAX.

At one shoot a guy rang 2 or 3 rams with his 7-08, I hit 5 rams and took down 5. It was raining and the wind was 10mph into our face.

If I get into AAA this year I'll worry about a lost ram occasionaly, until then I'll enjoy my 6br.

Just to add to the doubt you may be having... for the first three distances I was using Hornady 87Gr. BTHP at ~3000fps and having a lot of fun with it until I shot at our pigs with overly large feet in the rain. Now the Ram load is used on the pigs as well...

[Troy G]

I have no intention of using a .243 for silhouette. I was merely asking if Tubbs 115gr bullet would work as a ram bullet and make the .243 more appealing for those recoil sensitive shooters.

I am shooting a .260 in Hunter and a 6.5TKS for Standard.  I did things ass backwards and built a Standard gun first.  Had I built a .260 Hunter rifle first I could have saved myself a bunch of money.

I am shooting 139gr Lapua Scenars at 2750fps at all the animals out of my .260.