Thread: 243w 1-10 twist

I had a ZKK601 for years. Still in the family.

It shot 105gr Speer Round Nose. Then, Sierra ProHunter 100gr. The ProHunter is 1.041" long - remember that number.

Where the 1:10" .243 runs into problems is with long for calibre, boat tailed bullets with less bearing surface and longer than ~1.060". For example, the 100gr GameKing (1.078") tends not to shoot well. The frustrating thing is, a few 1:10" twist rifles will shoot them, and this gets amplified on forums and guys end up wasting their time trying to shoot a sexier bullet.

The .243 Win was introduced in 1955 with two bullets, the Western Super X 100gr for deer, and 80gr for varmints. The 100gr was almost identical in dimensions to the Sierra ProHunter.

In terms of cost - recognising how much Sierra has gone up in recent months - a good option to consider is the Speer BTSP 100gr. This is an anomaly as it is a boat tail but only 1.050" long and it stabilised perfectly in my 1:10" twist Tikka at 3000fps, and was deadly accurate. I haven't tried it in the current Howa. I've recently been buying Speer in bulk through Amanda at Gunworks at half the price of Sierra, I'd defo put the Speer on the list. Killer medium deer bullet.

Basically any of the traditional soft or hollow point game bullets in the 85-100gr range, shorter than ~1.060", that have been around for years, they'll work.