Factory 243 Ammo

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911alertme

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What is a good factory loaded hunting round in 243 WIN? The reason I ask is this year I shot a 3x3 whitetail buck at 33 yards with 100gr Hornaday Interlocks and got ZERO expansion. I shot it through the lungs but it didn't hit any ribs. Upon inspection, the entrance hole was the same size as the exit hole.

Also, the year before I shot another buck with handloads my dad loaded many years ago where the bullet was unknown. Same thing, about a 50 yard shot though the lungs. No expansion. Almost didn't find this one.

Both of these deer did not leave a drop of blood or hair anywhere up until the place they lay down (less than 100 yards from the shot). Both times there was snow on the ground so its not like I was just missing blood all over. It makes me hesitant to shoot another deer knowing that with a marginal shot I might not find them.

I have heard that both TSX and Interlocks are excellent bullets but it doesn't appear there are any factory loaded offerings with these bullets.

Thanks for your time,
Spencer
 
Wow! Must have had a couple of (un)lucky shots.

I've used Hornady 100gr Interlocks on many deer with great success! ...and with as-expected expansion - punching out fist sized exit holes.

Most of them have only taken a few steps before falling over. One bang-flop and a couple have gone 30-50yds max.

I would give them another try before giving up on them.

Good luck!

SD

PS - what velocity are you loading them to?
 
I hit a young buck in the sweet spot from 80 yards with a 7mm 140gr Interlock...no blood, did not recover animal. A young doe taken with the same bullet, did not show much expansion at all from 25 yards. This is with a 7mm Mauser around 2800fps.
 
Sounds to me like good performance, as he recovered both deer. There is nothing that says the exit wound needs to be a blowout. Hopefully, and we don't know from the description, there was severe damage to the lungs which is where you want the expansion and destruction to take place.
In my experience it is expecting too much from a .243 to have large exterior wounds that provide good tracking. If you want that you need to switch to something larger, like a .308.
 
Al-Sway said:
Sounds to me like good performance, as he recovered both deer. There is nothing that says the exit wound needs to be a blowout. Hopefully, and we don't know from the description, there was severe damage to the lungs which is where you want the expansion and destruction to take place.
In my experience it is expecting too much from a .243 to have large exterior wounds that provide good tracking. If you want that you need to switch to something larger, like a .308.
Click to expand...

I'm a big fan of 243 Win because of it's low recoil and great accuracy but shot placement is critical: don't expect 270 Win performance from a 243 Win!
As for deer loads, Federal's 100gr Partition Vital-Shok is the 243 Win gold standard.

Alex
 
Al-Sway said:
Sounds to me like good performance, as he recovered both deer. There is nothing that says the exit wound needs to be a blowout. Hopefully, and we don't know from the description, there was severe damage to the lungs which is where you want the expansion and destruction to take place.
In my experience it is expecting too much from a .243 to have large exterior wounds that provide good tracking. If you want that you need to switch to something larger, like a .308.
Click to expand...

I know not to expect a blowout with a 243 but at least SOME expansion would be nice. I am shooting hunting bullets and I expect them to expand AT LEAST A LITTLE BIT. I forgot, the deer shot with the handloads there was expansion and the bullet was recovered in the hide on the other side. But for hunting bullets I do expect some expansion.

Maybe I'll try those Federal partitions out next year. I didn't think anybody loaded partitions in 243. Thanks.
 
The point I was trying to make is that the size of the exit hole does not tell the whole story about the bullet expansion. The bullet should have expanded and done damage to the lungs. Many bullets will then exit base first and only cut a small hole. What did the lungs look like? That is where the answer lies to your concern about expansion of the bullet.
 
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