Someone Please Help!!!

[gobblergitter]

Hey Guys!
I'm doing this ! I'm reloading for my 9 year old son's .243 and I'm about to lose it!! Last year, I had him shooting a 95 grain ballistic tip. He was killing the deer, but the bullet was not expanding well. When they ran off, and most of them did, they did not leave any blood. We did not lose a deer, but we had to get a tracking dog twice. They didn't go far, they just went into thick areas leaving no blood. All but one were shot just right. Only one was gut shot and she didn't go 75 yards. I was told to go to an 87 grain Hornady V-Max by a friend who has shot these for a while with great luck. He said it would open them up like the larger calibers. I'm loading 43 grains of IMR 4831. The gun is grouping great. As a matter of fact, yesterday morning he shot a buck in the head, intentionally, at about 75 yards. Yesterday afternoon, he shot a doe in the shoulder. I'm ashamed to say we couldn't find her. No Blood! I feel like I need to slow the bullet down to help with expansion. My friend said he shoots 41 grains of Hodgon. I don't know enough about it to understand which powders do what. I use the IMR because I use it for my 270 and 7 Mag. Any advice and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm going to load a few tomorrow with 41 grains of powder and see how they shoot. I'm willing to sacrifice a little on the group size to get bullet performance. I've read the long discussion on ballistic tips a while back. Help anyone!!

 

[Lead Poison]

Be sure you fully understand how to reload. Maybe you do, but I want to make sure so you or your son don't get hurt.

First off, you HAVE to know EXACTLY which Hodgdon powder to use. You CANNOT simply interchange charge weights between different powders, or brands!

For example, if you are shooting a 95gr bullet over 43.0grs of IMR-4831, you are 1 grain over the maximum recommend by Nosler in their 5th manual.

If you want to use a Hodgdon powder you MUST know exactly which powder. You MUST verify the load yourself using a manual. The results could be catostrophic if you are not absolutely correct.

Keep in mind that there are similar powder numbers between brands that ARE NOT interchangeable. For example; H-4831/IMR-4831 or H-4350/IMR-4350 or H-4895/IMR-4895.

Please, what ever you do, never load ammo unless you have checked it using a reputable reloading manual.

There are several Hodgdon powder that are suitable for the 243 Win. and then there are some that aren't.

George W. Bush for President!

 

[Nitro]

Plain Jane factory 100 grain Remington Corelokt PSPs.

They do the job. Not fancy, just performance.

 

[Ga-Spur]

Sounds like you are not using a reloading manuel. Please get one before proceeding. The factory load Agarr mention may be what the doctor ordered.

 

[Schulze]

gobbler get rid of that dang VmAX. that is a coyote bullet not a deer bullet. Pump of the velocity on that 243, get some Sierra Game Kings SBT's. Get any data you can find, even the little pamphletes. Every powder company has load data on their websites. When I get home from work I will PM the links for ya.

 

[Schulze]

these are max loads

100 GR. SPR BTSP
COL: 2.650"


H1000
47.0 C
3000
49,800 CUP


H4831
42.0
2924
50,100 CUP


H4350
40.0
2973
51,000 CUP


H414
40.0
2963
50,600 CUP


H380
36.0
2770
50,100 CUP


VARGET
33.7
2838
50,400 CUP


H4895
33.0
2818
50,100 CUP

 

[Dustin Pate]

Plain Jane factory 100 grain Remington Corelokt PSPs.

They do the job. Not fancy, just performance.

Same here. Six deer shot with these, six deer dropped in tracks. Shot I with 100 grain Winchester Supreme and same thing happened. Factory loads may be the way to go.

 

[duckbill]

I'll throw the 87gr Sierra into the mix.

 

[gobblergitter]

Thanks guys!

Thanks guys! I know I sounded like I didn't know what I was doing in that post. I don't know as much as I probably should, but I was consulting the Nosler manual. The 87 grain V-Max was not listed since it is not a Nosler bullet but I compared it to the 85 grain Ballistic Tip. I appreciate the concern. I may just go buy a box of the Remington Core-Lok and be done with it. Most seem to think that this bullet is very adequate. Thanks again. Any more advice would be appreciated.

 

[badger]

Partitions or Barnes

I have loaded 100 grain Partitions for my daughter's Model 7 for 5 years now. Every deer taken has been a 1 shot kill, all have had good exit wounds & the longest "tracking" job was less than 30 yards. I'm using IMR 4350 with average MV of 2840 fps. I have not yet tried Barnes X's because the Partitions have worked so well in this rifle.

badger

 

[Eddy M.]

I used sierra or speer 105 gr with 40 gr IMR 4350 for years with one shot stops never over 30 yrds of tracking-- when I moved and didn't have the space to set up reloading I found Winchester 100gr power points"factory loads" worked almost as well-- at little wider groups but still one shot kills eddy

 

[bevills1]

I've had good hunting performance with Core Lokts in several calibers, but you don't have to buy factory ammo to get them. Go to www.midsouthshooterssupply.com to buy Core Lokts, Game Kings or any other popular bullet you desire to load at very good prices.

 

[Throwback]

Use a bullet that stays together. Grand slam, core lokt, nosler partition, x bullet, etc. a lot of loads in 243 and 25-06 are not deer loads, though they may sell them as such. A friend of my dad shot 90 grain light "varmint" loads in his 25-06 and lost a LOT of deer until he went to a 120 grainer that was designed for deer.


T

 

[gobblergitter]

Bought some Core-Loks today

I went and bought some 100 grain Remington Core-Loks today(psp's). Went to shoot them and was pretty surprised with the groups I got from them. They didn't shoot near as tight as the reloads, but like I said earlier, I'm willing to give up a little accuracy for performance down range. We won't get to go hunting until Wednesday evening. If another big, fat, sally doe comes out we'll see how they perform. I shot three, three shot groups and they averaged under 2" (100 yards). Wish us luck. If we get lucky, I'll post how they did. Thanks for the website info. Found the core loks for under $9 per 100.

 

[RamblinWreck]

I am loading the 85 GN Partition for my daughter's .243. You could switch to this bullet instead of the 85 BT with minimal load changes, and I gar-on-tee you will find blood trails - short ones, with a deer lying at the end of them.

 

[georgiaboy]

If you want input on the 100 gr. loads I have had outstanding accuracy with Barnes X, Sierra Gameking and Pro-Hunter, and Hornady 100 gr. PSP. I plan on hunting with the Barnes X load now and I wasn't even thinking about using the rifle for deer when I bought it.