which type of .243 rounds to use?

Roger Groves

Roger Groves

New member
good evening fellas. just a couple of questions for ya. in my .243 i currently use winchester 80 gr psp cxp1 ammo. this ammo as you know is not made for deer sized critters. my question is should i use ammo made for deer so if i decide to hunt deer i wouldn't have to re zero? would 100 gr bullets rip a coyote in half or just blow right through? i don't sell the pelts but might want to make a rug or two so i don't want to blow them in half if i can avoid it. thanks for your help guys.
 
The 80's are plenty enough to kill deer in your area. Lots of folks use lighter bullets in the .243 and have found them to be at least as effective--some report more effective--than the 100's.

Dan
 
I have always used 65 gr. Hornady V-Max bullets for coyotes and recently started using 95 gr. Barnes X bullets for deer. So far, they seem to hit about the same in my Ruger M77. I haven't been able to do a lot of shooting with the Barnes yet, however, and I haven't went out very far with them, so I could be wrong. Just a thought.
 
The rounds you are using would be grat for deer. If you can hit a coyote in the ribs at 100 yards, you can place the PSP well enough to cleanly kill deer. I use the 85 grain BTHP GameKing and it works great on deer.
 
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Roger,

That 80 gr factory ammo is not for deer. Now anything will kill anything but that ammo is marked cp1 for a reason so use ammo thats marked for the game that your hunting.

The 243 is borderline for big game anyway and you don't want to be at a disadvantage do you? That's the cost of a rifle used for dual purposes anyway. You must resight with suitable ammo. Heck I use my big game rifles for long range varmints and I am always resighting them when I change the loads.

As far as the size of a hole in a coyote pelt goes the 100 gr factory deer loads may make a smaller one anyway than the 80 gr loads. Be careful of richocets however. Don't go blasting away at woodchucks with those 100's.
 
I would agree that the 80 grain .243 Winchester ammo, is not intended for deer. However if your intent is to use the rifle for deer you are not at any disadvantage as long as you use the right ammo. I take it your shooting factory, Federal loads good premium stuff from 85 to 100 grain that will do the task. Just from my personal log, the Remington express cor lokt grouped poorly, but im sure could do the job.
 
I prefer 100gr. on deer in .243. If you have a boresighter, make a note of where your rifle is on the grid when zeroed for the 80gr's. Then continue to sight your rifle in with the 100gr's. With factory ammo, say 80gr. and 100gr. Win Power-point loads, it won't be a tremendous difference. Your scope will have plenty of adjustment in it (providing it was centered when you started) to dial in both bullet weights. When you need to switch, just stick the collimator back in and walk it back to your previous position on the grid for the 80gr load's zero. Test fire it before you hunt to make sure--2MG
 
Someone should tell all the poachers that they're under gunned. They use the 22 Mag with very good effect. The deer must run so hard from being shot with an inferior round that they keel over and die of a heart attack. I kill deer with bow and arrow several times a year. You get a bullet that punctures the lungs and you got a dead deer. That's all an arrow does.
I will add that for shoulder shooters (waste of perfectly good shoulder meat), the .243 is NOT the choice. Shoulder shooters should start with a 7mm Mag and work up from there.
I prefer not to waste the meat and a well placed buller from a .243 will put a deer in the freezer.
I caught heck on one board for using a 22 BR with 53 grain Sierra HP's on does. I've never seen deer go down faster in my life....never.
 
Someone mentioned the 85 grain Sierra BTHP Game King and that is a really good combo bullet. It can be found in factory ammo in Federal Premium loads.

I would err on the tough side of things and gear more toward deer than coyotes if I were in your shoes. If resighting were such a big deal, then I'd think about the load for deer first, then just shoot coyotes with it as a second priority. I always spend some time on the bench sighting and checking zero's anyway along with some in the field type practice so don't see the resighting in as a problem. That extra time on the bench might help put some venison in the freezer.
 
Yea the bthp factory load puts about great energy, this is one of my favorite rounds to reload with. Haven't shot a coyote with the 85, - yet, but I imagine it will cause more damage then a 100 gr btsp.
Funny thing about that while back I got up one fine new years day at the crack of 10 and decided to hunt coyote. Had some 55 gr nosler's ready & the gear and rabit decoy. Forgot all that but had my back-ups, factory 100 gr Fed. and a mouse toy and a squeeker. (This was before I got into reloads). A pair made their way down a deer trail and when they got out of the line of sight because a set of bushes, (60 or so yards) I sqeeked and they decided to investigate. 100 grain .243 round will slam a coyoye, oviously, but it was a complete pass through the boiler room with suprisingly little exit damage.
 
remingtons with 90 scirrocco work well on deer. i use my 22-250 for nuisance permit deer and they drop like they were hit by thor's hammer w/ proper shot placement. you don't need an artillary piece to drop any game!! in my opinion, the better one's marksmanship and woodsmanship, the smaller the caliber one can successfully use. no magic bullet or caliber can make up for these skills.
 
Roger,

I also use the Winchester 80 grain CPX1 factory ammo for coyotes in my .243 rifle. That ammo knocks coyotes on their tails. I have found that when I shoot any 100 grain ammunition that the difference in POA out to 200 yards is very minimal. In my rifle I simply turn my scope's elevation dial up 3 clicks and all is well. I've never had to adjust for windage. When I go back to the 80 grain bullets I turn it back down 3 clicks and I'm re-zeroed. YOu only have to do it once to know what your adjustment will be so it's not a big deal. I would also say that you should use ammo designed for the critters you are hunting. Ammo designed to take deer may ricochet if used to hunt varmints or predators. Bullets designed to hunt Varmints and predators is also designed so it will disentegrate easier so it is safer to use on that size of animal.

Good hunting y'all..Coyote 6974
 
Sierra 85 BTHP Game King. Works well for body shots at normal ranges too. Like OHyotehunter sd., pop the balloon and you have a dead deer. I generally hunt with my Savage out of a dedicated ground stand with a rest and generally keep the rounds around the upper neck/ear area. Anything works there. I have used the Rem 100 PSP, it also works good, but not as accurate out of my rifle.
 
"...100 grain .243 round will slam a coyoye, oviously, but it was a complete pass through the boiler room with suprisingly little exit damage."

This is what generally happens when a 100 grain .243 fails to drop a deer.

While it really depends on where the bullet hits the deer, velocity at impact has EVERYTHING to do with how well--or even if--the bullet will expand.

The folks who own the farm next to where I hunt all use .243's, and believe it or not--they all use the Nosler 70 grain (seventy grain) Ballistic Tip. And they've been very successful at dropping deer with that bullet, launched at what is likely an average 3250 fps. They have stuck with that load (45 grains of IMR 4350 and the 70 grain BT) because it has worked. I wouldn't have thought to use that, but I can't argue with sucess.

Deer really aren't that hard to kill.

My brother has used the 100 grain factory Winchester and Remington .243 stuff on deer--and has reported at least three failures to kill with what appeared to be good hits--and these were very likely pass thru shots where the heavier, slower bullet did not encounter enough resistance to open up and dump its energy in the deer's vitals. He uses a .308 now, but others whom he hunts with who do use .243's have typically gravitated toward the 80 grain weight class of bullets. From the guys who actually use .243's on deer, you'll find a preponderance of recommendations for lighter bullets. They appear to have learned this by trying both the 100's and the 80's.

Me? I just use my "thutty-thutty" as Jack O'Conner once called it. So far, no run-offs... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Dan
 
A complete pass through the boiler room is what generally happens when a 100 grainer fails to drop a deer? I have no clue whatsoever how you can a make a case for an 80gr. or less bullet being more effective on a deer than a 100gr. of the same construction. The 100gr. not only retains more energy, it out-penetrates the 80gr. This is what the Winchester "CXP" value is all about. Each bullet is designed to open up and penetrate at the appropriate given velocities on a given animal. Apparently Dan, you not only know more than most of the gun writers, but most of the ammo makers too.--2MG
 
Dan has a valid point. Retained energy means nothing if it is expended on the hillside beyond the deer. The perfect penetration is when what is left of the bullet lodges under the skin on the far side.

I know, there are all kinds of arguments that can be made for bad angle shots needing a lot more penetration.(I agree with that for called predators not deer.) However on the normal broadside or straight on shot, there is a lot of evidence that the slightly lighter bullets at higher velocity expanding faster do kill faster. This is even true in 30 caliber where the 180s are great at bad angles but the 150s kill faster on broadside shots.

It is all a compromise. If you want performance on bad angle shots, the heavier bullet is definietly best. If you figure most of your shots will be at reasonable angles, the lighter bullets do kill faster.

Jack
 
I agree....Case in point is my 25-06 with 100 grain bullets. The faster lighter bullet (in that caliber) has ALWAYS dropped my deer and Elk in their tracks. The hydrostatic shock to a double lung shot literally explodes the lungs....pass-throughs ARE NOT a good thing.
 
I don't give a tinkers darn about what bullet you use, you poke a hole through both lungs and you have a dead deer... you make the heart leak and you have a dead deer... all this talk about 100 gr bullets in a 243 not killing deer tells me someone ain't hitting them right...
 
I'm still with Jack and Leroy. If you shoot a deer with a 338 win mag and the bullet passes through and hits a tree...then you shoot a deer with a 30-06 and the bullet passes through and hits a tree...and you shoot a deer with a .243 and most of the bullet fragments and stays in the chest cavity...which bullet has done the most damage?????

I've shot groundhogs with .22-250's and they sometimes scamper to their holes. This is with a 50 grain bullet. I now usually shoot them with a 25 grain bullet out of a little 17 Mach IV (.221 fireball necked down to 17). The bullet rarely exits and it kills better than the .22-250 (which has much more energy).

Good call guys...you want to expend the bullet's energy IN the deer...not IN a tree behind the deer.
 
Too many choose calibers to hunt deer which are much too big for them to shoot with consistent accuracy. I agree that bigger is NOT always better in bullet weights. But that being said I have great success with 100 grain bullets out of my 243. It is one of my favorite caliber to use.
 
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