I hear it varies from gun to gun. Someone on here (i think it was Ganderite) has a 243 shooting 105vlds with a 10 twist, but it's a long barrel like 28" plus. The Hornady are basically the cheapest available to me, along with the Speer 100gr btsp and the Speer has an even higher BC (if you trust manufacturers' bc numbers) so I'm going to try the Hornady first. If they don't work I'll look at dropping in weight or finding a 100gr flat base, likely the Sierra pro hunter at that point.
When I still used the 243 ai for deer hunting, or as a loaner, the 95 btip was the highest BC cup and core that worked in my 10 twist and it sure did work great on Manitoba whitetails and one sk mulie. It's mostly a loaner now for new hunters my wife and I take along and they never shoot very far so it's set up for the 80ttsx @3400fps give or take a few.
Gail Root designed the 95 btip and if you do some googling you can do more reading on that. I figured if he designed it as his elk bullet, it would work fine for a deer bullet and it did. Here is a post from a thread on 24h.
The .243" 95-grain Ballistic was designed by Gail Root. Gail was perhaps Nosler's most talented ballistician.
Gail is and was a .243 Winchester NUT and he designed the 95-grain to be HIS big game killing bullet. Goodness only knows how many big 6X6 bull elk Gail took with the 95 and most of them with a single well-placed shot.
I know of at least one record-class Nilgai bull that Gail killed with the 85. Nilgai have the well-earned reputation of being almost bulletproof. The bull fell at the shot.
Gail also used the 95 to collect his magnigicent B&C typical whitetail.
Gail was proud of the 96=5s performance of big game; it's great penetration, superb accuracy and killing performance is amazing. This is one bullet that never had to go back for re-design.
Yes, I've killed big game with the.243 95-grain Ballistic ... maybe thirty head of assorted mule deer, whitetail, antelope and one quite decent black bear. And, YES, one raghorn 5X5 bull elk that measured about 285 B&C. I've never had to shoot any big game animal more than once and the animals either dropped in place or struggled for less than 20 yards.
The single bull elk I killed with the 95-grain fell as if electrocuted. I was using a Runger Number One in 6mm Remington Normal.
Naysayers will cuss and discuss the Ballistic Tip ... and that ain't my problem. I'm only telling you what I know for a fact and I have considerable experience with the 95-grainer and have found it to be a superb big game bullet.
Steve
