My New.243 Load

Since deer season closed I have been playing around with loads for the .243 a little bit. The load I used this past season worked pretty well on the buck I shot, but I decided to see if I could tighten up my shot groups a little. I was using 43 grains of IMR 4350 with the 85 grain sierra HPBT bullet.

That load was pushing around 3050 fps and grouped about an inch to an inch and a half on paper at 100 yards which is perfectly ok for hunting, but I wanted to experiment and try to get it better. I started playing around with IMR 4895,  which is a faster burning powder, under the 85 grain sierra and think I finally got a load that I really like. With 36 grains of the 4895, the 85 grain bullet is pushing right at 3100 fps. After the velocity test through the chrono, I shot a four shot group on paper at 100 yards to test the loads accuracy.

All four shots were no more than a half inch apart, so I thought I probably should call it good and leave it alone! Just for the heck of it I decided to set up a dr pepper can I emptied while I walked down to check my target. When I got back to the table I was shooting from, I fired my last two rounds at the can from 100 yards. When I retreived the can I was very happy to see two shots touching each other, almost forming one neat hole right through the center of the can! 

So actually I gained 50 fps velocity and tightened my groups up with seven grains less powder using the 4895. I will continue to try and improve because I get bored and like tinkering, but I think I found the load for the old 788 .243.