.243 powder & bullet choices

[jimh]

ok so i don't have reloading equipment yet but a buddy of mine bought a hornady press last year and i do have that tumbler that i just used. anyway some guy had one of those hornady 2 die sets for sale (hornady custom grade new dimension dies) for 20.00 shipped. he said he loaded about 200 rounds with it and sold the rifle later. so now i have these dies, and a press to use them on. need some input to what powders you guys like that is consistant in performance over various tempature conditions with 100 gr or there abouts bullets. also what bullet would you recomend me buying? i have no problem with good old fassion corelocks, but should i look at the partitions for deer. i like how the federal fussions did last year but don't know if i can just buy the bullets? i know to go through the manuals and i will but would likt to weed out the powders that are a bit problematic. i will say i do have acces to a can of reloader 22, and i thought i read where it is used in the .243 with the heavier bullets. how reliable is that powder? i'm lookinf for a good hunting round, consistant for deer. i'll also later look into loading for some 55 gr varment rounds.

[Jack]

Reloder 22 would work fine with 100 grainers in the 243. So would Reloder 19, 4350 (anyone's), 4831 (also anyone's), MR 3100 (pretty much identical to 4831), or Winchester 760 or Hodgdon 414 if you want a ball powder.
As far as bullets, depends... if you want to target shoot with the rifle, keep the cost down with the Core Lokts, Speers, Hornady's, etc. When deer hunting, I'd use Partitions.
That whole business about temperature sensitivity is, IME, waaaayyyy overblown. Nobody much worried about it until Hodgdon started an ad campaign on the subject. I totally ignore that temperature sensitivity stuff when deciding what load to use in a hunting rifle. And I expect I hunt in colder conditions than you do. I've used ball powders at 19 degrees below zero with no problems whatsoever.

[klsm54]

I'd choose something a little faster than RL-22, although it should be okay with 100 grain bullets.

In the old days, 4350 was the powder of choice, and still tough to beat. RL-19 and H414 are two more choices that come to mind.

I don't feel that premium bullets are needed for deer. But if they make you warm and fuzzy, the 95 grain Partition is a good one. The 90 grain Speers, 100 grain Hornadys and 100 grain Core-Lokts have accounted for a whole lot of venison.

[jimh]

i hear you scott, i'm not saying i'm looking to go out of my way to get them but if i stumble across some i might have to give them a try. i looked up the dies set i bought for 20.00 shipped and midway sells the same thing for 31.00 plus shipping. so i didn't get hurt at all. it was one of those impulse buys while i was sitting at home for 4 weeks ;D, got me a set of dies, a knife, and almost a new gun but that deal fizzled out. oh i almost forgot, i helped a friend get a couple of scopes too. man i can't wait for another 15 yrs and retire.

[klsm54]

I gotta agree with Jack on the temperature sensitivity issue, marketing hype, plain and simple. Nobody worried about it for 50 years until Hodgdon decided to market their Extreme powders.

There may be some concern for a prairie dog hunter, if he is already loading over max, hunting in 90° + temperatures, and leaves his ammo in his truck, or the sun.

For the rest of us, choose a powder that shoots good, and don't give it a thought.

[jimh]

thanks guys, that's good to know. i'm sure i'll be poking in and out of this thread with questions as the winter goes along and i actualy get into it.

[bullseye]

I use 4350 in both of our .243's. We have had no cold weather issues at all. I have some 100 grain boattails that have produced devistating results on whitetails. The last deer my wife shot with this round was at about 110 yards and just made it go down. It hit a rib going in, churned up the chest cavity organs and exited taking out a 2" section of the upper front leg bone.

[jimh]

bullseye i had no idea they made 120 gr bullet for the .243 , is there any issues with getting it to stabalize? min twist rate requirement? also i would imagine that overal length could get to be an issue fitting into the magazine and feeding?

[bullseye]

You are correct Jim, I corrected my post. Those were Speers 100 grain boat tails, stock # 1220.

[Bill]

My brother swears by the 90 Speer bullet in his 6MM Remington when it comes to deer. I seen him drop a deer in the middle of the creek at 400 yds. He then wanted me to help him get it out. I just said "You shot it" ;D Its hard for one person to drag a deer out of a creek 25 yds wide and 3' deep. ;D

[bounce]

Hornady's never let me down, for deer only the soft nose ever. Hollow points for varment's only. loaded to around 3400 ft pe sec is a good round

[Jack]

The 90 Speer is among the relatively few bullets in 24 that's under 100 grains, and designed as a deer bullet. Back in Thee Olden Days, when the 244 Rem was around and allegedly couldn't stabilize the 100 grain bullets, the 90 Speer was one of the preferred game bullets for the 244.
The 95 Nosler Partition, of course, is another sub 100 game bullet. But, the majority of game bullets in 24 are 100 grainers.