Thread: A few Questions about the 243

* Given that they're a barrel burner, how many rounds can you shoot in a group before you're risking dumping too much heat into the throat? I'm asking from the point of view of sighting in/ changing zero, so 's I know how slow to take it.

Shoot it like you stole it. If there's a mob of five goats, shoot all five. Don't worry about throats, it will cramp your style! Seriously, I run cheap rifles for that very reason, I don't want to have to worry about barrels. If, in the unlikely event it loses accuracy due to wear, it'll be because it got bloody well used and did its job. Then you can choose to rebarrel, or buy a new rifle.

The other aspect to consider is the use of lightweight, superfast bullets. The 75gr V-Max for example, great bullet, 3400fps, almost 20% more powder than I use for the 100gr ProHunter. So barrels with hotter varmint loads won't last as long as slower deer loads.

I've never had to rebarrel a .243 Win. The original CZ ZKK I was given by my Grandpa is still going, shooting moderate loads, its 45 years old.


* As far as reloading for the 243, what's your preferred powder, and do slower powders help with barrel life in your experience?

The .243 Win really benefits from a full case of powder. In my experience, it does not like low fill ratios at all, which you will get with fast powders. To that end, ADI AR2009 will give you a fill ratio in the 90-95% range. I haven't paid any attention to barrel life.


* Your favourite deer hunting projectile for 243?

Sierra ProHunter 100gr soft point flat base
Sierra GameKing 85gr hollow point boat tail

I use the ProHunter these days in my 1:10" twist Howa. I have run it on and off for about 30 years. The smaller GameKing is also excellent, I used that on fallow and goats for 5 years in the Noughties in a Tikka.


* Any other things to know/ watch for?

Don't try and supercharge your loads, the bullet performance deteriorates with excessive velocity. This is especially true of the ProHunter. When I go to the UK, I shoot with a guy who runs a 6mm Dasher. At first his ProHunter load was well in excess of 3000fps - probably 3200fps, can't remember - he had real trouble with the speed and excessive fragmentation and meat damage. I run mine at 2800fps and it returns the perfect balance of fragmentation and a solid base pushing through. It's really important for good clean kills and a half decent carcass. So he downloaded his Dasher and it made all the difference. The ProHunter works well on red deer sized animals to a max of around 2850fps.

If I was buying another 6mm rifle tomorrow, I would seriously consider a faster twist than the standard 1:10". I have researched this recently, and have a spreadsheet that details all the main manufacturers and their twist rates, can email it to you it you want.

Reason I say this is that sometimes I like to experiment, and I've kind of reached the end of the road with the .243 Win. I don't think the new Sierra 90gr GameChanger is a good design for .243, and accuracy reports are very poor in 1:10" barrels. The Hornady 90gr ELD-X will be here next month, and that should be better in the 1:10" as it is a tad shorter than the GameChanger. But other than that, there's nothing new that I can play with.

Getting a 1:9125" or 1:925" Remington or Savage would open things up a bit, but I really want to be able to use my .243 Win like my cuzzies in the US do, with 1:8" twist barrels. They shoot the 105gr A-Max and 108gr ELD-Ms very successfully.

So, its not necessary by any stretch, a 1:10" .243 is a great rifle for accurate, precision shooting of our game in NZ, but a faster twist rifle can take advantage of where bullets are going design wise.

A 6mm Creedmoor would be my most likely purchase, in 6mm, or I would build a .243 Win with a TruFlite 1:8" barrel.