the best 243 win bullet

[The Guide]

Killed several whitetail with a 100 gr Remington core Lokt.

Haven't we all! Really good short range bullets.

Jay

 

[Cowman]

My boys have killed a lot of deer with my handloads shooting 85 TSX or 95 Nosler bts. Practice and bullet placement are always key...

 

[Clatta]

We have a tikka 595 .243, 90gr tmk. It’s our kill anything gun. Yote, deer it will get it done.

 

[Short Track]

The 1st deer I killed, was a .243. Cheap Federal blue ammo. Cheapest ammo on the shelf. DRT. Golf ball size exit hole. Deer dropped in his tracks. He's still hanging on my wall 20 years later. I have more problems dropping animals with my .308.

 

[Rhettster433]

I have used almost exclusively a 243 for whitetail since i was 13. Hornady 100gr interlock has been my go-to. It always left plenty of blood(except for the gut shot i had in high school). Most dropped very quickly. Remington 100gr core lokt works well but didnt group great for me. I recently started hand loading and tried the 100gr partition. I have only shot one deer with it but was left underwhelmed. The buck only made it 30 yards but didnt bleed at all. Even in the truck he didnt give but a few drops till i gutted him.

 

[Steve300xcw]

Whatever 100gr sp was on sale used to work pretty good for me Then went to pro-hunters when I started loading for it

After my scope grew turrets 105gr bthp's came about. Kills were all still in corlokt ranges but they were a lot of fun shooting canyons in the off season. Cheap too.

Not sure if theres a bad bullet choice over 85gr for a 243

 

[ffblake]

I've had really good luck with the 80 g TTSX

 

[Eradicator]

As others have mentioned, the 100 gr CoreLokt's are reliable. It's what I use to shoot does and culls with. Always good expansion and nice exit holes/blood trails. Never had one go further than 40yd.....knock on wood. If it's a situation where they need to be DRT then it's high shoulder.

 

[majg1234]

Grandson and I have killed several with 243,mostly corlokt 100 grainers.His 1st deer was @ age 6 Remy mod 7 and Corlokt 100gr.Doe out weighed him by a lot;.

The last one I killed with 243 was with Winchester Deer Season, bang flop @145yrds.

Shot placement on 243 is critical, with any good bullet it should be successful,but bullets can be funny some times.

 

[Luketheduke9455]

95gr Nosler Ballistic Tip is THE bullet for a .243

I have been shooting the BT out of my .308 and like it. I think I may load up some 95 BTs for my .243, good suggestion.

 

[Rich M]

I shoot 100 gr partition and it works pretty good. 2nd choice is sierra pro hunter in 100.

 

[sll]

so i am wanting to know the best 243 win ammo for deer hunting i shot 2 deer at about 100 each with the horandy superformance 95 grain sst and first deer no blood second deer three drops and no more. i shot some remington corelokt 80 grain and they didnt group good so i am gonna try some fedral powershock 100 grain but i want to know the best bullet for blood on deer 100 hundred yard shot i can not have them run no more than 250 yards. also do you think a 300 weatherby mag is too much for deer with a 180 grain accubond because i asked in a diffrent thread the best bullet out of that 180 grn to 200 grn projectoille range and people was like why do you need such a big gun on deer at 100-150 yards and i explained to them about the 243 and what happend to me and my bad experince. also i kinda think its personell perfernce because my brother shot a deer with a 30-30 and it wasted more meat with a 150 grain bullet than my 300 weatherby wit a 180 gr accubond.

85 grain Sierra HPBT

 

[Rich M]

Gotta high shoulder shoot em if you want them to drop. Federal blue box is NOT up to high shoulder shots.

A dble lung will be less than 250 yard run - likely less than 150. Need to hit them low to get much blood.

 

[Rhettster433]

Gotta high shoulder shoot em if you want them to drop. Federal blue box is NOT up to high shoulder shots.

A dble lung will be less than 250 yard run - likely less than 150. Need to hit them low to get much blood.

I have never shot high shoulder with my 243 and only had two run more than 60 yards. One was a gut shot on my biggest buck when i was 18. One was a rear quarter shot on my biggest buck when i was like 15.(still makes me sick when i think about it. Long story for another time) Everything else is double lung and down.
I shot this one this year with a nosler partition. Quartered away. Entered behind one shoulder and exited in front of the other. Only hit one rib which was on the exit. We pretty much jumped 7-8 yards, face planted and crawled another 15ish before expiring. His entire chest cavity was mush. I couldnt even find a decent chuck of lung to show my wife when i went to explain what happens when the bullet hits them. The heart was still solid (im gonna cook it up soon. Surprised me last year when i tried it for the first time, very very good). But he was dead when he stumbled and quit moving completely within a minute. If you can catch them unaware and their adrenaline is still low then they cant run far. If they are suspicious and/or nervous they tend to run farther.

I will say all my shots have been sub 150. It may perform differently at longer distances but i would expect much to be the same. I have only ever used 100gr bullets. Mostly Hornady interlocks. A few federal blue box and one with a partition. I would not want to try anything lower than 90 gr i think in order to guarantee an exit.