So i have done the search function and read pages and pages of info on loads for the .243 and that has brought me to the question of, will the barrel contour effect the type of load you are able to run? i.e. i have a factory REM700 SPS hunting contour (non varmint)9 1/8 twist and I am planning on load testing on a range of bullets from 87 vmax to 90smk and 95 bergers. will the fact that i have a smaller contour effect what i can load up to in powder charge and attained velocity?
- Thread starter FamilyMan
- Start date
Re: .243 Reloading variables
I'm not a expert on this but I would say no. The contour of the barrel should only effect the way the harmonics of the barrel work and the heat barrel will hold before losing accuracy.
I'm not a expert on this but I would say no. The contour of the barrel should only effect the way the harmonics of the barrel work and the heat barrel will hold before losing accuracy.
Re: .243 Reloading variables
No effect other than your barrel heating up faster. Give it plenty of time to cool or you'll be chasing loads till the cows come home. Your choices in bullets will all do just fine in your rifle, you're going to have to make some tough choices. but can't really make a wrong one. Mine likes R19 and H414 and anything 85 to 95 grains. Sometimes they like it a little slower than max load. All the .2's and .3's I've found were under 3100fps. It's a blow to your shooting ego when you find the rifle you built for speed, likes it slower. Kinda like my first wife.
No effect other than your barrel heating up faster. Give it plenty of time to cool or you'll be chasing loads till the cows come home. Your choices in bullets will all do just fine in your rifle, you're going to have to make some tough choices. but can't really make a wrong one. Mine likes R19 and H414 and anything 85 to 95 grains. Sometimes they like it a little slower than max load. All the .2's and .3's I've found were under 3100fps. It's a blow to your shooting ego when you find the rifle you built for speed, likes it slower. Kinda like my first wife.
Re: .243 Reloading variables
I got sick of packing 15 pound rifles in the woods and got a 7mmrm BDL with hunting contour. I have been chasing loads and was thinking it is because I got no patients to wait till the barrel cools. I'm getting in the 2-2 1/2" groups at best. Driving me nuts. This is all after pillar and skim bedding the stock. It may not get better, but I have to try to let it cool and see what happens.
Keep us informed on how your testing goes. I am very interested.
I got sick of packing 15 pound rifles in the woods and got a 7mmrm BDL with hunting contour. I have been chasing loads and was thinking it is because I got no patients to wait till the barrel cools. I'm getting in the 2-2 1/2" groups at best. Driving me nuts. This is all after pillar and skim bedding the stock. It may not get better, but I have to try to let it cool and see what happens.
Keep us informed on how your testing goes. I am very interested.
Re: .243 Reloading variables
Thanks for the feed back.i am newer at this and what y'all said is what i was kinda thinking so i believe i am on the right track. this rifle is a project and i only plan to use it long enough to burn the barrel up and learn to understand shooting better and <span style="text-decoration: underline">slowly</span> save up and purchase the components i will build it with . i spend most my time on my .22 trainer and .17hmr and went with this rifle as a coyote / deer gun to start with and as my shooting improves I'll start slowly building it in to a precision shooter i.e new stock barrel, gun smithing etc..(already has a New trigger} that being said i am also trying my hand at load development. the powders i have to start with are H4350, and H4831SC. so we'll see how it goes. one last question do y'all use a bench and gun vise to do load dev? or do you shoot normal prone?
Thanks for the feed back.i am newer at this and what y'all said is what i was kinda thinking so i believe i am on the right track. this rifle is a project and i only plan to use it long enough to burn the barrel up and learn to understand shooting better and <span style="text-decoration: underline">slowly</span> save up and purchase the components i will build it with . i spend most my time on my .22 trainer and .17hmr and went with this rifle as a coyote / deer gun to start with and as my shooting improves I'll start slowly building it in to a precision shooter i.e new stock barrel, gun smithing etc..(already has a New trigger} that being said i am also trying my hand at load development. the powders i have to start with are H4350, and H4831SC. so we'll see how it goes. one last question do y'all use a bench and gun vise to do load dev? or do you shoot normal prone?
Re: .243 Reloading variables
I have the same gun and I'm trying to find a load for 87v-max. 34.0gr of Reloader15 getting 2780 fps, slow but shoots sub half inch all day. When I try faster groups open up. Still looking for the right load.
I have some loaded up with H4350 that I'm waiting to try, just as soon as the temps get back under 90 degree.
I have the same gun and I'm trying to find a load for 87v-max. 34.0gr of Reloader15 getting 2780 fps, slow but shoots sub half inch all day. When I try faster groups open up. Still looking for the right load.
I have some loaded up with H4350 that I'm waiting to try, just as soon as the temps get back under 90 degree.
Re: .243 Reloading variables
I posted this a while back but you may find the info interesting for your 243.
<span style="text-decoration: underline">"Barrel temperature and its effects on 100y accuracy. My two cents."</span>
I receive the task from one in my Montana hunting party to develop a load for his 13 year old son to use hunting mule deer. The rifle is a Remington 700 ADL chambered in 223 with the light or sporter weight barrel profile (all factory and a 1 in 12 twist rifling). First thing I did was clean it so I would have place to start. While cleaning I discovered that this rifle has two barrel pads manufactured into the plastic molded stock located right at the end of the barrel channel in the 5 and 7 o’clock position. “So the barrel is not a free floater, thinks I, this ought to be interesting.”
We had decided to use the Barnes TSX 53 grain bullet so we would not have any fear of bullet blow ups if jr were to hit bone when taking his shot. I followed Barnes recommendations and had the bullets set to jump .05” into the lands. I worked up few test loads and went shooting.
What I found when shooting was interesting. This coming from a guy who’s rifles are all factory varmint contours or heavier. The first shot hit paper so I fired the first group before making any adjustments to the 3-9 power millet scope. I then made the scope adjustment and fired a second group. WOW
an inch higher than the two inches I had adjusted for. I double checked the scope. Yup 1/4 moa indicated on the capped turret dial.
Anyway, I decided to move along and shoot the rest of my test loads. In which I found two loads worth exploring for the next trip; I am using IMR 8208 and just like I had thought, the better performing loads were right at the top end of Hodgdon’s loading data. Back to the loading room I go... and loaded my next set, this time choosing the two better loads. I loaded these the same but I seated the bullet .03” off the lands and a second set .07” off the lands. This time I brought some varmint loads to shoot that I had made for another rifle so I could see what was going on with this rifle/scope combo without expending expensive Barnes bullets.
When I got back to my range I fired a group of five of the varmint loads. From the resulting pattern I knew I did not have a scope problem but something else was afoot...
shots 1-3 were all inside of a inch of each other in a slight horizontal climb and shots 4 and 5 were a full 1.5” higher also in a horizontal pattern. All shots were fired inside of a 90 seconds. “So” thinks I, “I bet I know what’s going on now.” More on that in a bit. 
I fired my test samples and was rewarded with a good grouping with the two loads seated .03” off the lands. Both were about 1” So I went back to the loading bench and loaded up some more of those this time just to zero the scope and get a crono reading. But before I did this I just had to satisfy my curiosity.
I disassembled the rifle and dropped the action into a BDL stock that had a Varmint barrel channel and heading back to my shooting area. The varmint barrel channel allowed the barrel to free float. Using the varmint ammo I fired a series of 5 shots over the same 90 seconds and before you think it... yes they all hit in a sporadic but circular pattern. So, I had been thinking that the barrel pads where causing the climb and I believe I proved this theory correct. But just not yet... My initial thought was as the barrel expanded from heat it increased the pressure on the pads and causing the impact to climb. Not to be proved wrong I put the original stock back on the action and torque it down to the setting I had used the first time when cleaning the rifle and waited for the new day to dawn.
Day two.
I headed back to my shooting area and started my new test. This time equipped with my super scientific barrel temperature monitoring device, a meat thermometer.
Not the best I am sure and yes I will clean it off before using it on steaks. But it worked for what I wanted to do.
As a hunter we all know that the first shot is the most critical. A second may be required but the first one should be all that is needed. The air temp was 74 degrees when I started testing. I fired my first shot, stuck the thermometer down the muzzle and watched the temperature climb slowly four degrees and then start falling. I recorded the peak temp, and velocity (as I was shooting over the crono this time)and waited… and waited… and waited some more. After six minutes I was down to 76 degrees and I figured this was close enough. Fired round two and did the same as on the pervious shot. This went on for about 40 minutes for 6 shots or 2 groups of three. Guess what... Zero impact climb on target for each group.
So at 74 degrees it takes about 6 minutes with a 223 equipped with a 24” sporter barrel, .65” dia muzzle to get almost back to ambient air temperature. Hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as I have testing it.
I posted this a while back but you may find the info interesting for your 243.
<span style="text-decoration: underline">"Barrel temperature and its effects on 100y accuracy. My two cents."</span>
I receive the task from one in my Montana hunting party to develop a load for his 13 year old son to use hunting mule deer. The rifle is a Remington 700 ADL chambered in 223 with the light or sporter weight barrel profile (all factory and a 1 in 12 twist rifling). First thing I did was clean it so I would have place to start. While cleaning I discovered that this rifle has two barrel pads manufactured into the plastic molded stock located right at the end of the barrel channel in the 5 and 7 o’clock position. “So the barrel is not a free floater, thinks I, this ought to be interesting.”
We had decided to use the Barnes TSX 53 grain bullet so we would not have any fear of bullet blow ups if jr were to hit bone when taking his shot. I followed Barnes recommendations and had the bullets set to jump .05” into the lands. I worked up few test loads and went shooting.
What I found when shooting was interesting. This coming from a guy who’s rifles are all factory varmint contours or heavier. The first shot hit paper so I fired the first group before making any adjustments to the 3-9 power millet scope. I then made the scope adjustment and fired a second group. WOW
Anyway, I decided to move along and shoot the rest of my test loads. In which I found two loads worth exploring for the next trip; I am using IMR 8208 and just like I had thought, the better performing loads were right at the top end of Hodgdon’s loading data. Back to the loading room I go... and loaded my next set, this time choosing the two better loads. I loaded these the same but I seated the bullet .03” off the lands and a second set .07” off the lands. This time I brought some varmint loads to shoot that I had made for another rifle so I could see what was going on with this rifle/scope combo without expending expensive Barnes bullets.
When I got back to my range I fired a group of five of the varmint loads. From the resulting pattern I knew I did not have a scope problem but something else was afoot...
I disassembled the rifle and dropped the action into a BDL stock that had a Varmint barrel channel and heading back to my shooting area. The varmint barrel channel allowed the barrel to free float. Using the varmint ammo I fired a series of 5 shots over the same 90 seconds and before you think it... yes they all hit in a sporadic but circular pattern. So, I had been thinking that the barrel pads where causing the climb and I believe I proved this theory correct. But just not yet... My initial thought was as the barrel expanded from heat it increased the pressure on the pads and causing the impact to climb. Not to be proved wrong I put the original stock back on the action and torque it down to the setting I had used the first time when cleaning the rifle and waited for the new day to dawn.
Day two.
I headed back to my shooting area and started my new test. This time equipped with my super scientific barrel temperature monitoring device, a meat thermometer.
As a hunter we all know that the first shot is the most critical. A second may be required but the first one should be all that is needed. The air temp was 74 degrees when I started testing. I fired my first shot, stuck the thermometer down the muzzle and watched the temperature climb slowly four degrees and then start falling. I recorded the peak temp, and velocity (as I was shooting over the crono this time)and waited… and waited… and waited some more. After six minutes I was down to 76 degrees and I figured this was close enough. Fired round two and did the same as on the pervious shot. This went on for about 40 minutes for 6 shots or 2 groups of three. Guess what... Zero impact climb on target for each group.
So at 74 degrees it takes about 6 minutes with a 223 equipped with a 24” sporter barrel, .65” dia muzzle to get almost back to ambient air temperature. Hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as I have testing it.
Re: .243 Reloading variables
Also,
I have been running 105's through my 243 varmint SPS. This includes Hornady A-Max, the new BTHP and the Berger vld. Using Lapua brass and H1000 powder all have shot well (from 100y to 1000y) and have a velocity around 2930-2950fps from my 26" 9.125 twist barrel.
So it may not hurt to try some heavier bullets if your so inclined but the 87-95 grains should do you fine!
Also,
I have been running 105's through my 243 varmint SPS. This includes Hornady A-Max, the new BTHP and the Berger vld. Using Lapua brass and H1000 powder all have shot well (from 100y to 1000y) and have a velocity around 2930-2950fps from my 26" 9.125 twist barrel.
So it may not hurt to try some heavier bullets if your so inclined but the 87-95 grains should do you fine!
Re: .243 Reloading variables
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Niles Coyote</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
So it may not hurt to try some heavier bullets if your so inclined but the 87-95 grains should do you fine! </div></div>
i was wondering if i could go heavier like 105's but kept reading mixed opinions on it so that is why i was sticking in the 87-95 range. So maybe i will try another load dev with 105's to see if she likes em. Am i going to gain much by going to 105's say over 90-95's if i am only shooting 600yds and under?
And yes i did find the article on the .223 very interesting i just don't know if i have the patience to wait that LONG between shots. So a new barrel might be in the future a little sooner than my wife might like
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Niles Coyote</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
So it may not hurt to try some heavier bullets if your so inclined but the 87-95 grains should do you fine!
i was wondering if i could go heavier like 105's but kept reading mixed opinions on it so that is why i was sticking in the 87-95 range. So maybe i will try another load dev with 105's to see if she likes em. Am i going to gain much by going to 105's say over 90-95's if i am only shooting 600yds and under?
And yes i did find the article on the .223 very interesting i just don't know if i have the patience to wait that LONG between shots. So a new barrel might be in the future a little sooner than my wife might like
Re: .243 Reloading variables
I just picked up a 20" SPS and found the depth to the lands tonight. Will start load development on the 95 VLDH's tomorrow with H4350 and possibly R17. The 75 vmax's will be next in line for Yotes this fall.
I just picked up a 20" SPS and found the depth to the lands tonight. Will start load development on the 95 VLDH's tomorrow with H4350 and possibly R17. The 75 vmax's will be next in line for Yotes this fall.
