62 grain Varmint Grenades out of a .243

lotero

New member
i have been researching here like crazy but have yet to find anyone who shoots this bullet out of a .243.... i have loaded some with 43.5 gr of varget and they shoot great out of my savage but have yet to put one on fur, anybody have any experiences with performance of these bullets?

p.s. i will be using these for prairie dogs and coyotes and dont care about pelt damage...
 
I am going to load some 62 Varmint Grenades in my weatherby .243 have some cases prepped & ready. will be using imr 4350 barnes says 43 grns. to 47 grns. max. how far off lands did you load? this is my first barnes loading. I am in condor range in cali. will also load barnes in 300 wsm. thanks Brubo
 
brubo, sorry i cant tell you how far off the lands the rounds are loaded because my buddy is loading them for me until i can free up some time to help, but i will find out. im suprised more people dont use these but i will put as many into fur that i can and report back!
 
At closer than 100 yards my experience has been all passthroughs. I've shot 2 coyotes with it at about 70 yards each with it one in the head and one in the heart and they both passed through. Someone else on here said that out at about 300 they didn't pass through for him.
 
Not that I have all the answers, just what I have had happen to me. I have shot about around twenty to thirty coyotes and seven bobcats with the 243 62gr barnes VG. I shoot in the condor range and have to use lead free. I shoot a 243 wssm and am limited on bullet selection on 243 bullets. I have called Barnes for load data and they have been very helpful. The best load I have found shoot around two inches At 200yrds. I have no confidence in this load, with 70 grain Nosler BT the same weapon will shoot into 3/4 inch at 200yrds. The performance on anminals has me shaking my head. I have hit coyotes in the chest faceing me, broad side in the shoulder, through the lungs, raking into the ribs and out the chest. Most needed two or three shots to finish them off. Never a bang flop. Most were shot inside of 100yrds. I would say five were shot inside 50yrds. Fifty percent I had no exit wounds.
 
thanks all for replies. yukon I have not loaded any yet in 300wsm but will soon. Doghunter dont like hearing results like those. my .243 shoots almost anything pretty good. hope I can get a little better results out of the barnes. have you tried backing off the lands. thanks Brubo.
 
I have shot one coyote with my .243 wssm using the varmint grenades. Hit her right in the chest at 150 yards and she ran off. I found her about 20 yards away in the sage brush and the bullet just passed through, maybe a 2 inch exit hole. It definately didn't violently expand as advertised. I have had better luck using 95 gr ballistic silvertips that were designed for deer on coyotes than the varmint grenades in this gun.
 
This past season I saw about 9 or 10 coyotes shot with the Barnes 62 gr Varmint Grenades and most of them had exit holes, not big exit holes though. I have to shoot lead free bullets but I don't like the idea of shooting a 62 gr bullet out of my 243 Win or my 243 WSSM. These 62 gr VG's are very accurate at 100 yards but I have no confidence in them for 200 yards to 300 yards. I tried some of the new Barnes 80 gr Tipped TSX bullets the other day and I am pretty sure that is what I will be shooting at coyotes next year.
 
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