the best 243 win bullet

[cgavason]

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[mtwarden]

I'm thinking that heavier base could prove advantageous

 

[tjend]

Between family we've shot around 50+ deer with 243 Remington core lokt 100gr and the animals run on overage 40-150 yards depending on shot placement (lung vs heart). Most shots 100-250 yards. Even gut shot deer we've been able to track and put them down after they run a couple hundred yards and bed down, but that's more just luck with bad shot placement.

 

[6mm Remington]

Each of these is gold in 243 or 6mm Remington.
100 gr. Nosler Partition or 95 gr. Nosler Partition
90 gr. Nosler Accubond
90 gr. Nosler E-Tip

I've shot a Bunch of antelope & deer, and one elk with the 100 gr. Nosler Parition. They don't run very far if at all when hit properly.

The 90 gr. Nosler Accubond has also worked very well.

My son only uses the 90 gr. Nosler E-Tip in his 6mm Remington. He's taken several deer with it and they all have died quickly and all were one shot. The ranges were about 300 yards for each of his 3 mule deer taken with that bullet. His first elk was a large cow that he took with ONE shot at 350 yards. Hit her tight behind the right shoulder in the lungs. The bullet angled forward and Exited the left shoulder. She staggered about 20 yards and tipped over. Great perfomance for any bullet.

Shooting into gallon water jugs at 400 yards to test penetration, expansion, and weight retention. 6mm Remington.

 

[Oregonmuley]

One of our members sent me some very interesting information regarding the Nosler 95 Ballistic Tip. It was developed by one of Nosler's engineers who wanted something suitable for game up to elk size. The 95 BT in addition to hand loading, is offered by both Federal and Winchester as loaded ammunition.

I've got four boxes ordered (Winchester) along with four boxes of Nosler 90 gr Accubonds, hoping either of those loads shoots favorably for me.

Pretty sure that was written by Steve Timm who was also a big fan of the 95 grain BT. He lives or lived a couple blocks away from me and I had talked to him about this many times. He had some incredible mule deer mounts in his house.

 

[ihookem]

I shot one doe with a Speer 100 gr. boat tail, one Hornady 100 gr. interlock and 3 with the Remington 100 gr. core- loc .. All ran a little bit and fell over. Range was very close. 20 -60 yds.

 

[Lou (Louis)]

We (have to) shoot the 100 copper

 

[Honyock]

Federal Fusion or Rem Core-Lokts. After seeing what a 243 with Core-Lokts did on my son's whitetail, I ditched the partitions for deer. Great bullet and I've used the partitions for over 35 years, but not necessary on a whitetail in my opinion.

 

[Chromeslayer]

I asked the same question for the 243... LOTS of people love the round and its killed prolly millions of deer sized game in its time.. but i hate the round.. i bought one for my 6yr old at the time.. was good for training him and he did kill with it but there was only 2 ways it went... either they dropped on the spot or they ran with no blood trails... hes now 9 and is shooting a braked 6.5 well... if he could handle it he would be shooting my 300wsm

 

[Calcoyote]

Been a lot of good opinions given. Here are mine:

Nosler 90g Accubond
Nosler Partition (85g, 95g, or 100g). They all work
Barnes TSX 85g

 

[tobyscreams]

Got a boatload of Speer 100 grainers for $13 one time. I found out why… super accurate but it’s a varmint bullet no matter what they claim. Shooting some free interlocks and eldx this year. Time will tell. Benefits of my buddy having a really picky rifle.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

I've had and seen good results with the 100-grain Sierra Gamekings. I just bought some of the 80-grain TTSX, since they have the same length, but I have not yet worked out a load for them.

 

[Ringbill27]

@jeffpenland123 with the bullets you’ve used with poor blood trails are you get exit holes? I’d be using something like the Barnes 80TTSX or 85TSX. They should penetrate all the way through. That’s what I’ll start with once I pick up my tikka.
Or start trying to take out both shoulders so they don’t run.

have you had one run with that load. i have heard that copper bullets arent that good without magnum velocity if you dont drop them dead in there tracks.

What’s magnum velocity? Barnes claim their 80gr vortx have a muzzle velocity of 3350fps. Assuming that’s out of a 24” barrel but that seems pretty fast to me. Hornady and federal claim 3200fps for their 80gr coppers.

There is a lot of love for coppers these days by those that use them. But at the end of the day shot placement is the biggest part of the equation.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

Hornady 100gr interlocks are all I load for deer. Nothing fancy and they kill stuff dead.

 

[rgroves79]

When I asked on this thread- 90 gr Nosler Accubond, 95 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip (both Winchester and Federal use this bullet in their lineups) and 100 gr Partition floated up

I’ve had good results with both the ballistic tip and partition with my .243

 

[Buckhead]

Another fan of the copper mono bullets. I don’t handload, but have had great results with the Federal Trophy Copper 85 grain. Since switching to that load, have taken several deer and have yet to recover a bullet. All taken within 200 yds, complete exits achieved. The all copper slugs have excellent weight retention and overcome the penetration issue with the .243. Accurate also.

 

[tesilential]

had trouble with SST and light blood trails. Switched to precision hunter eld and animals drop much quicker. Better on the target paper too.

 

[KenLee]

I asked the same question for the 243... LOTS of people love the round and its killed prolly millions of deer sized game in its time.. but i hate the round.. i bought one for my 6yr old at the time.. was good for training him and he did kill with it but there was only 2 ways it went... either they dropped on the spot or they ran with no blood trails... hes now 9 and is shooting a braked 6.5 well... if he could handle it he would be shooting my 300wsm

In my experience, most kids would rather have the wizz-um than the barking brake.

 

[Ringbill27]

but there was only 2 ways it went... either they dropped on the spot or they ran with no blood trails...

On the ones that ran. What bullets were you using? Did you get a past through?

 

[KenLee]

From m

On the ones that ran. What bullets were you using? Did you get a past through?

In the battle of cheap useful 243 ammo, Hornady Whitetail is best, Core-lokts, then blue box Federal Power-Shoks to get pass throughs.