Thread: .243 Varminting

Originally Posted by Sauer_202_6.5x55

I had a Tikka 243 for many years and it accounted for a lot of deer and foxes over here in the UK. I experimented with a whole range of bullets and found the ones that performed best on both deer and vermin were the Hornady 87gr BT HP's, can't rate them highly enough. Pushed out at 3,200 FPS (if my memory serves me rightly) they would consistently cloverleaf and dropped many a large fallow in it's tracks. In my opinion the .243 is a very effective and underrated calibre.

Lots of people complain of meat damage on deer with a .243, but it's the bullet that causes the damage not the calibre - if it's causing excessive meat damage slow the bullet down or go heavier.

the 87grn. Hornady certainly has a reputation, goes way back, its on the list . . . as far as that meat damage thing goes so many cartridges get beaten over the head with it, and then it becomes an urban folk tale pulled out by any fckwit to prove that his rifle cartridge is better, very tiresome.