The 243 & the 75 VMAX

thatmikeguy

thatmikeguy

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I just started trying the 75 vmax. I've tried IMR 4350 and WIN760 cause that's what I have on hand. Groups are ok but not as good as I'd like. 4350 gave me 1.25" and 760 gave a hair under an inch. Does anyone have a powder suggestion? I was thinking of buying a can of IMR 4064.
I also have IMR 4985 but no data. 85 grain bullets and 4350 gave me 5/8" at 100 yards and I was hoping to replicate this with the 75s. I'm using a Tikka T3.
 
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thatmikeguy said:
I just started trying the 75 vmax. I've tried IMR 4350 and WIN760 cause that's what I have on hand. Groups are ok but not as good as I'd like. 4350 gave me 1.25" and 760 gave a hair under an inch. Does anyone have a powder suggestion? I was thinking of buying a can of IMR 4064.
I also have IMR 4985 but no data. 85 grain bullets and 4350 gave me 5/8" at 100 yards and I was hoping to replicate this with the 75s. I'm using a Tikka THE.
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Have you tried a different brand of primers?
 
My buddy is using Varget and Federal primers. Deadly on Montana prairie dogs. I just watched 400 rounds go down range this weekend. I shot 200 rounds of 22-250 and 250 rounds of 6 mm br
 
thatmikeguy said:
Nope. I've never played around with primers. Never needed to as I've always made good loads with what I had. Currently using Winchester primers and federal brass.
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Try MAGNUM primers with the W760. It's a ball powder and often manuals suggest magnum primers for ball powders. I use magnum primers for everything because I like the consistent velocities I get from them.
 
bearhunter said:
Try MAGNUM primers with the W760. It's a ball powder and often manuals suggest magnum primers for ball powders. I use magnum primers for everything because I like the consistent velocities I get from them.
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Gerald, I don't think magnum primers improve accuracy, velocity, or anything else.
I always like to point out that Winchester was making their ball powders for 75 years before magnum primers came on the market. The oldest loading charts I have, which pre date magnum primers for about that length of time, actually give higher velocity, by about 200 fps than do modern manuals, as proven by a magneto speed chrony.
Bruce
 
A .243 doesnt need a magnum primer. The powder charge is more than sufficiently lit up with standard primers. Even ball powders. A round such as 300RUM is different. Often twice the amount powder to ignite as a 243.
 
thatmikeguy said:
Nope. I've never played around with primers. Never needed to as I've always made good loads with what I had. Currently using Winchester primers and federal brass.
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I had a great load for years, ran out of my regular primers, switched brands of primers the load wouldn't perform. Switched back, load was great. And I like 4064 with 75grain V max, in a T3 Varmint. But I get better accuracy with the Nosler 70 gr Balistic Tip. I loaded pretty much all the brands and wieghts of bullets, and the Nosler 70gr BT is my go to bullet.
 
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ReloaderRick said:
I had a great load for years, ran out of my regular primers, switched brands of primers the load wouldn't perform. Switched back, load was great. And I like 4064 with 75grain V max, in a T3 Varmint. But I get better accuracy with the Nosler 70 gr Balistic Tip. I loaded pretty much all the brands and wieghts of bullets, and the Nosler 70gr BT is my go to bullet.
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In many years of reloading I have never known different primers to have any effect, whatsoever, on the performance of the load. The 243 is an excellent cartridge for reloading, I would look hard for some other reason than the primer, for the load discrepancies.

I will edit the post to give my favourite fast load in a 243 wood stocked, Tikka T3. A 70 grain Speer, HP, with muzzle velocity of 3650 fps. Hit a yellow bellied marmot the other evening at just under a hundred yards. There was actually a dust ball 2 feet across from a solid hit and it turned him inside out.
 
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H4831 said:
In many years of reloading I have never known different primers to have any effect, whatsoever, on the performance of the load. The 243 is an excellent cartridge for reloading, I would look hard for some other reason than the primer, for the load discrepancies.

I will edit the post to give my favourite fast load in a 243 wood stocked, Tikka T3. A 70 grain Speer, HP. Hit a yellow bellied marmot the other evening at just under a hundred yards. There was actually a dust ball 2 feet across from a solid hit and it turned him inside out.
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If I load 10 rounds of each Brand of small rifle primers, keeping everything else the same (or as close as possible), I always get different results. Some brands will have very similar results. Some won't. Primers are almost always overlooked. Every brand of primer wil create different pressure.
 
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I've just started working up a load for the same 75 gr V-Max in a Tikka T3 in .243
39.6 grs of H414 (same as W760) grouped just over an inch at 100 yds as a starting load. I expect that'll get better with some experimentation, bullets were seated 0.020" from the lands. I don't have a chronograph available at the moment, those should produce about 2900 fps according to Hornady info.
I have some 4064 I'll try as well, and some IMR 4831 on the way, though I think the 4831 should work better with heavier bullets.
 
a j cave said:
I like 4064 with 87 gr Vmax.
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4064 is a very old, excellent reliable powder. A great many tons of it have bee used around the world by military forces.
IMR 4350 is so often quoted as being ideal for a 30-06, but it is not as good as 4064, which is a bit faster than 4350 and the only powder needed to do everything for a 30-06 that the 30-06 is capable of.
In the glory days of shooting, the approximately 20 years following WW2, Norma ammunition was in a tight battle with CIL Dominion, for the ammunition market in Canada. It is important to notice that Norma 203 was used more by Norma than all their other powders combined, in their loadings of center fire rifle ammunition. I can show you in an old Norma loading chart, where Norma 203 is actually AKA 4064!
It is also notable that unopened red tins of Norma 203 are often seen at gun shows for about half the price of any other rifle powders, because few modern shooters are familiar with Norma powders, and have no idea that they are actually looking at 4064 powder, with Norma labels!
 
ReloaderRick said:
If I load 10 rounds of each Brand of small rifle primers, keeping everything else the same (or as close as possible), I always get different results. Some brands will have very similar results. Some won't. Primers are almost always overlooked. Every brand of primer wil create different pressure.
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My own results agree with this, especially when you run them over a chrony.
Just shooting groups at 100m probably won't show much difference. Once you get farther out the ES of your loads gets more pronounced.
 
ReloaderRick said:
If I load 10 rounds of each Brand of small rifle primers, keeping everything else the same (or as close as possible), I always get different results. Some brands will have very similar results. Some won't. Primers are almost always overlooked. Every brand of primer wil create different pressure.
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All you are saying is you fire some groups and they are all different, good, bad or mediocre. Heh, we all do the same thing---shoot some groups and none are the same!
There are three main reasons why our bullets don't all go into the same whole when we shoot them.
By far, the main reason they don't all go into the same hole is the shooter.
Next in line is the rifle, while the ammunition is the least reason that some bullets go astray.
Then why is it that on gun nutz for example, the over whelming majority, like 90 plus percent, of people writing about it, talk only of trying to improve their hand loads, to better their shooting performance?
 
H4831 said:
All you are saying is you fire some groups and they are all different, good, bad or mediocre. Heh, we all do the same thing---shoot some groups and none are the same!
There are three main reasons why our bullets don't all go into the same whole when we shoot them.
By far, the main reason they don't all go into the same hole is the shooter.
Next in line is the rifle, while the ammunition is the least reason that some bullets go astray.
Then why is it that on gun nutz for example, the over whelming majority, like 90 plus percent, of people writing about it, talk only of trying to improve their hand loads, to better their shooting performance?
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Because we can all shoot dimes at a mile, and our rifle shoots like a laser beam, so that leaves the ammo as the only possible option.... right? :rolleyes:
 
I like the 87 grain bullet as well but i couldn't get it to shoot as tight as I'd like. I wanted a load that was good for longer shots but the reality is I don't make long shots so I decided to try the 75 grain cause it will go faster and it has a great BC of .330. And I like the explosive vmax performance. I don't have a bunch of money to stock 6 primer brands and 6 powders and six kinds of brass nor do I have that much time. I was just hoping for a known good powder for this bullet.
 
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