Thread: 243 load research/development

Originally Posted by gimp

My hair is long gone - but

Why pay $1.09 for an SST which is an objectively worse bullet in every way, vs $1.09 for an ELDX?

OK, so you need to walk me through this...why is the SST worse than the ELDX in every way? Especially given that MY rifle from my experience doesn't like Boattailed bullets.....

I've got a bit of 243 stuff in a few different options if you wanted to grab a few and see what your rifle likes. Local to you

Nah wouldn't go eldx cause I don't shoot long. Cannot for the life of me see the point in using a fragile slippery pill up close... But I'm also cheap lol.

Probably not as much variety there as I thought. Just a heap of 95g sst and 90gr BT, might have some 85gr Barnes handloads somewhere also.

Originally Posted by Zedrex

OK, so you need to walk me through this...why is the SST worse than the ELDX in every way?

It has poorer ballistic performance (bc is lower), and is manufactured with poorer quality standards - it does not use the more modern/consistent AMP jackets. It has a canellure which introduces further inconsistency.

Will it work? Sure. Would I recommend paying the price they want for them? Nah I'd pick something else.

Realistically if you're shooting sub-300 and not measuring your precision effectively you'll never know the difference anyway

Originally Posted by gimp

It has poorer ballistic performance (bc is lower), and is manufactured with poorer quality standards - it does not use the more modern/consistent AMP jackets. It has a canellure which introduces further inconsistency.

Will it work? Sure. Would I recommend paying the price they want for them? Nah I'd pick something else.

Realistically if you're shooting sub-300 and not measuring your precision effectively you'll never know the difference anyway

At the distances we're discussing, the difference in BC..is it relevant?

Originally Posted by Zedrex

At the distances we're discussing, the difference in BC..is it relevant?

Well you wanted more retained energy. That's a function of retained velocity (squared, times half the mass). Retained velocity is a function of how aerodynamic the bullet is.

However, we're in the weeds. Jam a bullet that will stabilise in a 1:10 twist on top of around about a bit under a max load of 2209. Shoot 10, if the group is bigger than 2moa, try a different bullet.

Originally Posted by gimp

However, we're in the weeds. Jam a bullet that will stabilise in a 1:10 twist on top of around about a bit under a max load of 2209. Shoot 10, if the group is bigger than 2moa, try a different bullet.

See, now you're talking sense, possibly I'm trying to avoid prolonged load development by getting ALL THE ANSWERS on paper whereas in reality, I just need to suck it and see

Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

Probably not as much variety there as I thought. Just a heap of 95g sst and 90gr BT, might have some 85gr Barnes handloads somewhere also.
Attachment 277190

PM inbound

The reason yours may not like a particular boat tail is that you may have one of the 1-10 twist barrels that are marginal with 100grs and the particular boat tail is a bit longer again.
Again physics suggest under 300 really not a bigger. Don't need them
Edit: just to be clear if the bullet is a bit too long then the stability could suffer. Realistically you don't need a BT under 300

schooling myself on this too, here's a bit of reading on the Hornady website. Doesn't sounds like just marketing BS... https://www.hornady.com/heat-shield

And given the current price on them here, might be worth a crack:
https://www.reloaders.co.nz/shop/Rel...x100+2441.html

If you want to shoot a boat tail over 100 grains in a 1-10 twist 243, get hold of @TARGEX.

His 105 grain boat tail hollow point s showed superb accuracy and consistency in my old 243.

Already lots of good options discussed above though.

Originally Posted by Rated M for Magnum

If you want to shoot a boat tail over 100 grains in a 1-10 twist 243, get hold of @TARGEX.

His 105 grain boat tail hollow point s showed superb accuracy and consistency in my old 243.

Already lots of good options discussed above though.

I haven't tried any yet (but have recently got some 70gn 6mm ones of his) but alot of folks on this forum seem to rate his projectiles for accuracy and terminal ballistics, and he does a 95gn as well as a couple of 105gn 6mm projectiles, so there's a good chance one will work. I would have bought some heavier ones (95/105gn) to try except I have a couple of boxes of 105gn A-maxes that appear to shoot well in my rifle. Haven't tried them past 100m yet though....

You are making this too complicated and are obsessing over things that either are unimportant out to 300m range or are not true.

For a .243 out to 300m or so, any of those bullets will work fine. My recommendation is to just go and buy a box of 90 grain Ballistic tips, or an 90 grain ELDX and use a max charge of 2209. Use whatever shoots the best group at the fastest velocity. Or if you want cheaper, a standard Prohunter or Interlock. (I dont use SST's because they blow up too easily at any range and because they are recommended by Nathan Foster who says ignorant things about .243's.)

Forget about energy measurements as an indication of anything. They aren't. Forget about boat-tails versus flatbase bullets; out to 300m it wont matter, and you seem to be assuming that one design is measurably more accurate than the other. (The only difference I have seen in the performance between boat tails and flat base, is that I have observed that boat tails might tend to end up in more funny places after hitting an animal than a flat base, but that might be my imagination.)

Look, dont get caught up in marketing and assuming progressive means better. Just because one bullet is the latest thing, does not assure you that it will shoot well in your rifle anyway. I had one rifle that shot 90 grain ELDX's quite well. I shot deer with the .243 from far away (far away for me means 250 metres or so) in to 10 metres, and the bullet worked fine, cant complain about it. But its nothing that an old Sierra Prohunter wouldnt have done either; meanwhile, my Sako will not shoot the 90 grain ELDX, it absolutely hates them, but will shoot the 90 grain Ballistic Tip and others fine. You still have to try them and see if you rifle will handle them.

Meanwhile I am still using the ancient 85 grain Sierra HPBT at 3200 fps in the Sako. Because it still works.