.243 90gr. Berger Target BT

358Rooster

358Rooster

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Central Saskatchewan
Guys, I need some educated help. I'm trying to sort out my Model 70 Coyote Lite .243 with 90 grain Berger Target Boat Tails. It's just the standard factory 10-twist barrel and shoots 55gr. Nosler BT's quite well. I'd like to get this thing performing at longer ranges. My problem is that nothing I've loaded and shot so far has shown any real promise. I've loaded up H4350 and RL19 in charge weight ranges with .2 grain increments (following Jerry Teo's tuning method). Range is 264 yards (just where it ended up as dictated by lay of the land). Rifle is clean, bedded & tight, optics are acceptable, ammo is straight, and I have evidence that I shoot better than what these loads show (read: I'm not great, but I'm no dud!).

I can't yet see anything to indicate what this rig might start to like with this bullet - I'm about 70% through what I have loaded for testing. Do any of you guys have any suggestions / experience with this bullet? Something proven that really blew your hair back? Am I just panicking prematurely before that node (or two...though I can't identify any...) shows itself?

I appreciate anything anyone has to suggest. Thanks in advance!

Rooster
 
A few more things; all cases are fireformed and neck sized with a collet die - runout is pretty much non-existent, seating depth is .010 short of the rifling, and I'm using CCI BR2 primers.

One thing that did cross my mind is neck tension. Is it possible that light tension is messing with things somehow? The bullets seemed to seat quite easily compared to cases sized with my regular sizing dies. I measured the neck I.D.'s at .241 (.002 press), which I thought should be fine.

One last point: I was using a chronograph until the evening sun got to a place where the chrony wouldn't read anymore. Until then, I wasn't getting any readings that were real wonky. Spreads were fairly reasonable at upwards of 30 fps. Not ideal but was thinking not too, too bad yet...
 
Shot a pile of those 90 grainers in a few different 243's and 6mm's over the years. In the 243 all I use is H414 and seat the bullets to just kiss the lands. This is the most accurate bullet I have shot in this caliber. Seen a young gal at the Burns lake 1000 yard shoot nail a 7.5" group this spring with this combo.
 
im shooting with a .243 win the 90gr berger bt , but i use 36.5gr of imr4064 , CCi BR2 primer , lapua case and my OAL is 2.710 , at 100yards it do less than .500 five shot group

near 400yard it can do near 1.5 inch group but when it have no wind ,

im using a ruger mark 2 target

maybe you just need to try another powder , what type of grouping are you doing at 100 yards ?
 
Thanks guys! That's kinda what I was driving at - maybe barking up the wrong powder tree? I've used H414 with lighter pills in .243 with perfectly acceptable results but found it to be a little dirtier than I prefer. Didn't really consider it for heavier stuff. I'll give both 414 & 4064 a shot sometime soon (around work, harvest, domestic obligations, and hopefully some hunting).

I tend to discount 100 yard testing, as I've seen many loads that get a guy excited about the group it shoots at that range, only to poop all over your party when you try to print the same thing further down range. I don't think I'm flawed with this logic, am I? After all, I really (personally) have no interest in what it's doing at 100 - I want to get it so that I'm making good hits out to 600 to 800.

Dad, what velocities are you getting with your load?
 
i don't have a chronograph but i think it is near the 3000 fps maybe more or less , i was looking with some ballistic calculator with the drop and they seem to give me like 3400fps but i think is not the real fps

you test the load at 100 yard because the wind does not influence the results because if you have a good result like less a .5 or 1 moa you will see it at 100 yard , if you have a bad grouping like 5 inch at 100yard you will not hit the target at 300 yard , when you have a good result at 100yard you can test it on 200-300 and more
 
Dad003, I agree with what you're saying about the 100 yard testing but my personal train of thought on this is that I know what this rifle does at 100 but I want to figure things out at greater distances. I'm getting about 4 inch "groups" at my 264 yard target but I can see no discernable pattern to indicate vertical dispersion (charge at a non-happy place) or horizontal dispersion (generally happy place but affected by wind). Generally, you won't see a whole lot of effect from either condition at 100 or less unless somethings really wonky. I can easily get these things into an inch at that distance. I'm not meaning to sound disagreeable, that's just my take on things, probably also influenced a fair bit by what I've read from some well-respected writers.

Lead Loader, my case length is trimmed back .010 from the measured end of the chamber.

Skypilot, what sort of accuracy and velocity are you getting with that load? How does it act further downrange?
 
358Rooster said:
Dad003, I agree with what you're saying about the 100 yard testing but my personal train of thought on this is that I know what this rifle does at 100 but I want to figure things out at greater distances. I'm getting about 4 inch "groups" at my 264 yard target but I can see no discernable pattern to indicate vertical dispersion (charge at a non-happy place) or horizontal dispersion (generally happy place but affected by wind). Generally, you won't see a whole lot of effect from either condition at 100 or less unless somethings really wonky. I can easily get these things into an inch at that distance. I'm not meaning to sound disagreeable, that's just my take on things, probably also influenced a fair bit by what I've read from some well-respected writers.

Lead Loader, my case length is trimmed back .010 from the measured end of the chamber.

Skypilot, what sort of accuracy and velocity are you getting with that load? How does it act further downrange?
Click to expand...

The rifle is an old 110 Stevens and sporter barrel with a fresh bedding.

The secondary load developing@ 160 yds(cows had me limited) was for validation of the 34.7 varget load. It was inside a 1 inch pasty using seating depth @ .015, .020" and touching edge of pasty @ .025".

As the light sporter barrel heated and the seating went to .030, .035" the string went 3-4"vertical on the next several shots.

I have no chrony and haven't been able to try them further as nobody close to me can get more from Nosler.
 
with my best load doing .5 at 100yard it seem to do 1.625 inch at 430 yards with no wind no wind is rare in my location , generally it have a good wing need to compensate near one feet to left or right at 430 yard and the wind speed is various in my area

practice is the secret for the ultimate accuracy

my case length is 2.037
 
Hey guys, just thought I'd update with a pic (finally took the time to learn how to do it). Seven days after I shot this, I mangled my knee and was unable to get back to shooting until after Christmas. I have since only shot this gun once and was unable to duplicate this result, which I'm sure is understandable, considering the differences in temperature and the never ending winter wind. Yes, it's only a 3-shot group (load develoment) and no, the penny's not hiding others:D

I'm hoping this spring / summer will yield more results like this. I also have a round of H4831 loaded up for testing. Oh, and I also backed these off to .025 shy of the lands, rather then the initial .010 that I was trying last summer.

IMGP0866_zps94315294.jpg
 
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