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Looking for the 243Win experts...

richardj

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Jan 20, 2007
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Newton, NJ
Having done a "little" research it seems that good starting powder choices would be Hodgdon Hybrid 100V, H4350 and H1000.

This is for .."Match Chamber", 26" barrel, 1/8 twist, throat for 105gr Sceanar/AMAX

Looking for some advice on Powder, pet loads and recorded speed... I didn't see much for the 243 in the loads section.

Thanks all,
 
Re: Looking for the 243Win experts...

I would also be interested since I'm building a like rifle in 243 AI...I've had real good luck with my 1/10 shooting the 95 Berger VLD hunting bullet. I've found good loads with RL-17, H-4350, and IMR 4831...so good I quit trying to find better..I've looked long and hard at H1000 because of good case fill with the AI and the 105's...Brother is shooting H4831SC in his and had good luck with 85 and 100 sierra bullets..I have the load information for the 105 Bergers and if you would like a copy for a guide pm me and I will send you a copy...Oh, all my loads with the 95 are running right at 3000fps and good well past 1000...One other thing the H100V just didn't work out well. Had some decent groups but very eratic ES & SD's..
 
Re: Looking for the 243Win experts...

I run my 1-8"twist, 27" barreled .243 with 115 DTAC's over H1000 at 2975fps with zero pressure signs. I was able to get almost that velocity with H4350, but with bad, BAD ejector swipe. Haven't tried any other powders or bullets.
 
Re: Looking for the 243Win experts...

Enios:pM'd you. Thanks for the offer.

Sawgunner2001: Thanks, did you have any crono data? Enios mentioned that he couldn't get good numbers for extreme spread and std deviation?

Anyone ever try the Hybrid 100V that's another powder in the Hodgdon loading table for 105's and that shows great speed potential at Max loads?

I'm hoping to eventually end up with a 105gr load, that's accurate and >=2950fps (to really make a great improvement over my 308 rifle)

If I can hit >=2950fps with the 105gr the .243 will have ~2.2MIL flatter trajectory at 1000yrd and need 0.5MIL less adjustment for a 10mph wind at 1000yrds also than my current 308WIN rifle/load.

RJ
 
Re: Looking for the 243Win experts...

I am shooting a 1:8,

Lapua brass
Fed 210M
42gr RL-22
Berger 105 VLD
2780fps plenty of room for more pressure wise but this load was lights out accurate.

Ramshot Hunter has been a decent powder for me on the .243 also.
 
Re: Looking for the 243Win experts...

Richard,

I use a chrono solely to get an estimate of my velocity. That being said, I don't have ES and SD numbers. I rely on what the target tells me and ignore the ES and SD, so they were never written down.

On the H100v, I thought about trying it and studied others experiences extensively only to find mixed reviews about temp stability. Some say its temp stable, some say its not, about a 50/50 split. I chose to stick to H1000 because it was working for me and I know that it is relatively temp stable (from others experiences and my own). Something I couldn't say about H100v.

Also of note, others have had more success with H4350 than I have. I was so confident (from reading others reviews) that it would work well, that I purchased an 8# jug of it while my rifle was being built...then ended up trading it at the local shop for various powders that he had in stock when it just didn't work out in my rifle. If I were you, I'd buy a pound of "something" and give it a try. If it doesn't work to your satisfaction, try something else. Believe me, I understand your urgency to find something that works quickly with the potential to spend up to 10% or more of your barrel's life expectancy on load development. Unfortunately, there are few shortcuts.

**edited to add**

I lied when I stated above that I hadn't tried any other powder or bullets....I did try RL-25. Got results very similar to H1000 in both accuracy and velocity. However again with the temp instability issue that Alliant has with most of their rifle powders, I chose to stick with H1000.
 
Re: Looking for the 243Win experts...

Richard,

Retumbo might be worth a look also. I'm using 47.5gr behind the 105 A-Max's and getting velocity in the 2925fps range. I was able to reach 3000fps with out any obvious pressure signs, but accuracy suffered a little. This is in a factory 9.25 twist.

Kevin
 
Re: Looking for the 243Win experts...

8208 is a bit fast for the 243 in general. I do not think the DTAC would do very well with that powder, speed wise that is.
 
Re: Looking for the 243Win experts...

Dont sleep on Ramshot Hunter, very nice when loading on a progressive. It was giving me identical numbers for velocity and accuracy in comparison to H4350. Im running the Hunter for my match loads right at 2950fps with the 115Dtac.
 
Re: Looking for the 243Win experts...

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: KDF</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Richard,

Retumbo might be worth a look also. I'm using 47.5gr behind the 105 A-Max's and getting velocity in the 2925fps range. I was able to reach 3000fps with out any obvious pressure signs, but accuracy suffered a little. This is in a factory 9.25 twist.

Kevin</div></div>

Is that a compressed load? what brass do you use and what is the OAL?

Thanks,
RJ
 
Re: Looking for the 243Win experts...

I found some case capacity data..

Brand Federal Lapua Remington Winchester A Winchester B
Capacity 53.9 54.4 53.7 54.8 54.8
Aver. Weight 173.28 173.13 165.34 158.58 166.44
SD¹ 0.46 0.39 0.17 0.58 0.42
Range² 1.7 1.1 0.4 1.8 1.4
% of Avg.³ 0.98% 0.64% 0.24% 1.14% 0.84%


I'm going to be using Lapua brass..

RJ
 
Re: Looking for the 243Win experts...

I've gathered alot of load data now for actual and quickload suggested combinations.
Looks like "best" or "most often chosen/sucessful" Powder choices are H4350, Retumbo, Ramshot Hunter

I'm going to pickup the H4350 and Retumbo and go with those first..

One load mentioned going with Magnum Primers.. has ANYONE tried them for effect on their pet load?

RJ
 
Re: Looking for the 243Win experts...

Richard, I use magnum primers for any powder slower than H4831, especially with Retumbo. It seems to help me with my SDs.

Here is a picture of 3 groups with the same charge of Retumbo in my .25-06 with Fed 210M, Fed215M and BR2.
110gBIBOCWTestRetumbo.jpg


As you can see, the middle group was shot with Fed215M and did make the group much tighter. You can also see that the ESs are lower with the 215M primers. This actually held up out to 600 yards where the Fed215M primer had much less vertical at distance.

Just my experience.
 
Re: Looking for the 243Win experts...


I have had great success with 41.5 grs of IMR-4831 behind a 105 A-max, I;m sure a 105 Berger could do better than .5 of an inch if I would buy some. This is a stock Remington 243 VLS with a 26 inch barrel.
Cheers

Bucky
 
Re: Looking for the 243Win experts...

I've used 43.5gr of H4831 and 41.0gr of H4350 with 115 DTACs. Also 44gr of H4831 and 41.5 of H4350 with 107 SMKs. All have shot around or under .5 MOA through 3 different rifles.