Re: 243 wssm
JW,
I run a 243 WSSM AR. Same Forster dies you just got - they have worked well for me. For whatever reason, RCBS stuff just doesn't seem to have same quality or maybe same consistency it used to. I have run both Federal and Winchester brass and see little difference. I had heard somewhere that the Federal brass was actually made by Winchester, but I don't know the validity of that. Seems weird to me competitors would be swapping brass.... I am currently running Winchester brass that have been annealed by Josh at Copper Creek (PinkGunsRSilly on here). Josh did a great job on these. The annealling seems to help some with life as the AR platform beats these brass badly. I would highly recommend annealling for this caliber.
In my setup, I was getting screaming performance out of RL-17, but consistency sucked. Eventually I migrated to H-4350 from which I get very good consistency and has good temperature consistency. My gun shoots most bullets passably well, but for real consistency, I shoot Berger 88 GR. flat base. I have trided 87 and 95 VLD's in my 10 twist and not gotten good results. Part of that may be twist related, even though I am in fairly favorable conditions for twist. More likely it is related to VLD's being finnicky about seating length which is not real adjustable due to mag length issues in an AR platform.
I have shot prairie dogs with this gun using 65 gr VMAX and RL-17 pushed about as fast as I dare. The consistency was not long-range precison grade, but we weren't shooting that far. At those speeds, the VMAX bullets are absolutely devastating. I have shot literally 1000's of prairie dogs, with guns up to my 300 WM, and I have never seen anything like it. Cut in two, pink mist, flipping pieces 10 feet in the air or more. So, I would make sure VMAX's out of this cartridge are suited to what you want to do. If I were hunting for meat or trying to keep hides intact, I would think twice about the VMAX route. If you are punching paper or letting stuff lay after you shoot it, they are awesome.
Casey
