reloading 243win. best powder and primer.

gary olmstead

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Hi everyone,
I have a tikka t3 lite stainless hunter in 243winchester and what it your magic for reloading this cartridge for hunting?
It will be 100gr sp, for hunting and what powder and what primer do you used?
Thank you,
Gary.
 
Hi everyone,
I have a tikka t3 lite stainless hunter in 243winchester and what it your magic for reloading this cartridge for hunting?
It will be 100gr sp, for hunting and what powder and what primer do you used?
Thank you,
Gary.

A ten inch twist is a bit iffy with most 100 grain bullets, but if it works, I got the best velocity with Norma 205 powder, which is very hard to come by now, but H4831 will be similar, except it is more bulky and you may not get enough in the case.
IMR 4350, or one of the newer powders with similar burning rates may be best.
Always start below top loads and work your way up, keeping a sharp eye out for excess pressure.
 
A ten inch twist is a bit iffy with most 100 grain bullets, but if it works, I got the best velocity with Norma 205 powder, which is very hard to come by now, but H4831 will be similar, except it is more bulky and you may not get enough in the case.
IMR 4350, or one of the newer powders with similar burning rates may be best.
Always start below top loads and work your way up, keeping a sharp eye out for excess pressure.

A ten twist barrel will stabilize the vast majority of 100 gr bullets just fine in a .243, it is the main reason that it surpassed the 6 mm Rem with its slower twist that would not! I have even shot 105 A-Max bullets out of a 1-10" barrel .243 Win on targets out to 1000 yds, but not all rifles will shoot this long bullet well and when I tried the Sierra 107 gr Match King they keyholded thru the target sideways!
 
The 243 likes slow burners with 100 grain bullets. H4831, IMR4831, Norma MRP, Vihtavuori N560, H & IMR 4350 all work well.

Should be no problem getting 2950-3000 with a 100 in a 24" barrel.

If you plan to use the Hornady 100 FB, My 243 really liked H4831sc

I have always used CCI 200 or BR-2 primers with the 243.

Regards, Dave.
 
A 95 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip propelled by Reloader 22 and a Federal 210 M Primer accounted for the buck on the right hand side of my avatar at 330 yards.
 
Yup. But the .244 Remington didn't, and that fact helped seal its fate.

Getting back on track however, I do like the 100gn SGK and usually load it with H4350 or VV N-160. Standard large rifle primers do the trick.

The now defunct Speer 105gn was a great bullet, and gave great accuracy in both .243 rifles we owned at the time, again with 1:10 twists.
 
I just bought a ruger american predator with a 1-9 twist barrel. From the research I have done I'm going to use nosler 95 grain ballistic tip boat tail with imr 7828ssc and which ever large rifle primer I have on my bench. Remingtons I believe.

The nice thing about nosler is that they provide load data for a variety of powders on their website that gives you a really good starting place.

http://www.nosler.com/nosler-load-data/243-winchester/

cheers

-Lazi
 
There's no such thing as a 'magic' anything. You must work up the load for your rifle.
Mine, with its 1 in 9.125" twist, is partial to IMR4350 with 105's or 90's. It's not accurate enough to care what primer I use.
The main reason the .243 Win won the 6mm battle was better marketing on Winchester's part. ALL factory .243's, even those with heavy barrels, are rifled for deer sized game bullets. They all shoot varmint bullets just as well. No match bullets(A-Max, Match Kings, etc.) for hunting anything but varmints though.
 
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