Help with bullet selection for new tikka in .243

[Zking]

I got a new tikka in .243 1:8 twist 20” barrel

I have a friends grandpa who reloads as a retirement gig. Every caliber under the sun he loads for it. He will be loading for me.

He is rather opinionated, as most his age are, and believes that anything over 90 grains in a .243 isn’t worth the hassle.

His go to for coyotes and deer is an 85gr Speer btsp. G1 BC is .380 my gun was shooting his loads 3200fps

I will be mostly hunting deer, black bear, and hogs.

What bullets take advantage of the 1:8 twist barrel and are easy to load. I would like to avoid anything that is super picky with seating depth/jump as I think it will be hard to get him to give heavier bullets a fair shake.

So I guess I want the heavy ish for caliber easy button so he won’t tell me to throw my stuff in the trash and shoot the Speers.

Thanks!

 

[KenLee]

A blue zillion of them, and most are cheap. Power Shok, core-lokts, hornady whitetail are the 3 I keep on hand for common calibers.
My son has killed hundreds of deer with the 243 Hornady custom 100 gr, which is now the Hornady Whitetail rounds.

 

[JMundy84]

108 eld-m or 95 tmk have both been easy to load for me I'm sure the new 107 tmk would be great.

 

[BishBeCool]

picked up the same rifle as you earlier this year. Never hunted with a .243 before but hopefully will get some opportunities to hunt with it this year. That said, reading through a lot of threads on this forum it seems that a gold standard is the 95 grain nosler ballistic tip (95 NBT). Winchester ballistic silver tip is a NBT just coated (it looks different) is available in factory ammo. I apologize as I'm speaking second hand info here as I have no first hand experience with these yet. Based on everything ive read from plenty of those with first hand info I feel pretty confident in using them myself and pointing you in that direction.

I would also feel pretty goos about eldm/x's, TMK's , and Bergers

 

[rookieforever33]

I bet you could get him to load partitions for you.

 

[Ajsomp]

Load the new 107 TMK and don’t look back. 95 TMKs shot lights out with starline brass, H4350 but if I were doing it again it would be the 107

 

[String Bean]

This thread has lots of great info

Post in thread '6mm /.243 hunting success on Big Game'

Today at 2:39 PM

Midway had .243 90gr loose "factory seconds" for a ridiculous price so I bought a bunch. No label, brand, make, model, or BC. Curiosity got the best of me so I went down a rabbit hole trying to figure out what they are selling. My inclination led me to Hornady based on the red tips. Of the 90gr options, it appeared to be an ELDX or maybe a SST. The midway bullets are smooth with no cannelure so I counted SST's out and they haven't made the 90gr SST's for a while. I purchased a box of factory Hornady 90gr. ELDX, disassembled one, measured the powder charge, length, weight, cut them...

• MtnMike

 

[nuffgun]

my tikka .243 8 twist load is the 108 eldm seated out to 2.810”. 45.0 grains of H4831sc. Lapua or starline brass and cci 200 primers. This load has shot great for over 800 rounds so far. Muzzle velocity is 3,000fps with a 22” Barrel.

 

[Steve300xcw]

Well first off. I'd run factory ammo or learn to reload before I bought grandpas reloads

What ranges are you wanting to shoot?

 

[onlybrowning]

Recently, there was a really good deal on factory firsts Nosler Ballistic Tip loaded ammo, but it was 90 grain. I picked up a case because the deal was too good to pass up. I would have preferred the 95gr, but from the very little info I could find comparing the two, it seems they’re quite similar. I’d buy that loaded ammo before anyone else’s reloads.

 

[Zking]

This thread has lots of great info

Post in thread '6mm /.243 hunting success on Big Game'

Today at 2:39 PM

Midway had .243 90gr loose "factory seconds" for a ridiculous price so I bought a bunch. No label, brand, make, model, or BC. Curiosity got the best of me so I went down a rabbit hole trying to figure out what they are selling. My inclination led me to Hornady based on the red tips. Of the 90gr options, it appeared to be an ELDX or maybe a SST. The midway bullets are smooth with no cannelure so I counted SST's out and they haven't made the 90gr SST's for a while. I purchased a box of factory Hornady 90gr. ELDX, disassembled one, measured the powder charge, length, weight, cut them...

• MtnMike

I have look through and used the search function. I was looking for more specific input on ease of load development with different bullets. I am interested in the 95 or 107 tmks as well as Hornady and others. I had read that the 95 tmks were picky on distance to the lands. Just looking for something that is easy to get shooting well with minimal fine tuning since I won’t be the one doing it.

 

[Zking]

Well first off. I'd run factory ammo or learn to reload before I bought grandpas reloads

What ranges are you wanting to shoot?

His range goes out to 725 yards I don’t see myself ever really hunting past 500. He loads for a few guys that shoot competitions around here so I think his are okay? Eventually I’d like to load my own for sure. Anything over 100 grains would have to be a hand load. Precision hunter 90gr eldx or federal with 95gr Berger hybrid hunter both should retain 1800fps to 500yards so I know either of those would do everything I need.

 

[coyotekilla]

My go to 243 bullet was found by accident, as the 75gr vmax i wanted to shoot, wouldn't... the 85 sierra hpgk. My 6 arc likes a 105 hornady match though, as well as the 112 matchburner, and its listed as 1:8 friendly.