What's the best bullet weight for .243 in 9.25 Twist?

Exercitus

Exercitus

Regular
EE Expired
Rating - 100%
44   0   0
Location
Halifax
Hi folks,

Picking-up an Axis in .243 for shooting some coyotes and although I've searched both these forums, other online communities and Google, the jury is out on this one...

Rifle has a 22" barrel with a 9.25 twist. I've heard anywhere from 58gr to 100gr bullets are best for this match but I'm skeptical of such a broad range.

Berger Bullets twist rate calculator seems to favor 65gr rounds, giving it a much higher SG of 2.10 versus the 95gr which gets an SG of 1.28 (higher is better)

http://www.bergerbullets.com/twist-rate-calculator/

So... my question is... What's the best bullet weight for this rifle based on your own experiences?

As mentioned earlier, I'm looking to make this a varmint gun so it'll need to kill coyotes but nothing bigger than that and I'm not worried about saving the pelts.
 
My savage likes 95gr Hornady sst's. 100gr soft point ammo groups horribly for me, I literally only use what I have left over to shoot for brass.
 
i have the same twist in my .243 savage axis. i shoot 55gr v-max with good success, as well as 85 gr. solid core bullets with good success. I haven't had very good luck with the heavier bullets, could never get the groups to tighten up. This is my main coyote gun anyways, so the lighter and faster, the better I like it.
 
My Weatherby VGII has a 1:10 twist and it groups consistently at 1/2" with 80 grain soft points (Fed Blue Box).

With the faster twist you should be able to move up a few grains from that - but of course, each rifle is different and will like different things.

With 95 grain Rem Premium Swift Scirocco II's or Hornady 87 grain SST's the group size opens up to 1" - still way more accurate than I need for Bambi or Wile Coyote :)

In "self loads" I'm shooting 85 grain Sierra HPBT's over 37 grains of Varget, which gives me just on 3000 fps with my 24" barrel - fast enough and flat enough for critters.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom