Useing a .243 Win in a Ruger M77 with a 22" barrel. Right now I'm running 43g's of R15 with a 70g Ballistic tip, about 3629fps. Starting to get some flatting of the primers with that load. Is that getting on the hot side? Also was thinking of switching to Varget when the R15 runs out, is there a better choice out there for the .243? Any load data I could get would be great. Thanks

My #1 in .243 likes 44gr of H414 and the Nosler 70gr Ballistic Tip,Win LRM primer.46gr is max load.I never saw the need to go more than 44gr however.I don`t know how fast it is but it is accurate and kills well.

B.C.

A lot of people swear by Varget in the .243, but my experience with it has resulted some fairly inconsistant m/v variations of up to 90fps from the same loads. Because of this I could never seem to get any consistant groups happening

I put this down to the powder only filling the case to around 85% of it's capacity with a recomended max load. (85gn HPBT)

Groups were a lot more consistant once I changed to a slower powder (H4350) that filled the case volume to around 95%.

Doesn't mean it won't work for you though.
It may be my gun that doesn't have a taste for that powder.

Cheers.
Boof...

Bear Cat:

I agree with Boof. Varget sucks in a 243 in my book. Never been satisfied with it. However I have with RL 15. IMR powders, from 3031 to 4350 with the exception of 4320 have worked very well for me.

RL 7 and Rl 15 are my choices in a 243 with Varmint weight bullets. RL 19 with deer size bullets ( 90 to 105 grains).

In Hodgdon, I use H 4895, H 380, H 4350 with good luck. H 414 is a great powder for the 243 with all bullet weights.

H 380 is the best with the light bullets ( 55 to 65 grains.) with a 55 or 60 grain bullets, velocity will exceed 4,000 fps.

ON the other end, H 414 will give me 3250 with a 105 grain Speer SP and a 24 inch barrel.

for varmints, I prefer the 75 grain HP Hornady, and the 80 grain Remington SPs. Powder of choice is RL 15 or IMR 4064 or IMR 4895.

Good luck to a fellow oregonian

Boofhead, Right you are, 4350 has been THE powder for me in the .243 Win. with 85-100 grain bullets and 42-44 grains of 4350. Year after year my old Savage 110 will shoot under an inch at 100 yds with good 85-100 grain jacketed bullets. It will also shoot cast bullets well, but that is another story.

I see you are posted as from Sydney Australia. I have heard that all guns are mostly oulawed from private ownership there. That is a sad story and I hope it is not true. Can you fill us in on that issue?

Regards from Nevada duke.

I settled on IMR 4831 for all of my .243 Win loads. I got really good results with 46 gr of it under a 70 Gr Sierra MatchKing. The thing I always liked about 4831 is that it totally fills the case and seems more consistant than powders that left an airspace. YMMV.

Nevada Duke,

Not everything has been outlawed, just the good stuff....pump-action shotguns and semi-auto everything in long arms (unless you have a damn good reason for needing one).

They are attacking our handguns at the momment with restrictions on bbl length and mag capacity.

I'm guessing the next to go will be levers and pump-action centrefires once some nutter uses one of those to take out a few people, but they'll never get my guide gun!

At least there's no caliber restrictions that I'm aware of. You can shoot rabbits with a 470 nitro or buffalo with a 22 if you want.

Boof.

Thanks guys for the info, I tried H380 with a 55g BT started out at around 48g's worked up to 54g's (full case some compressed) Across the Chrony at 4190fps, .5 groups 3 shot at 100 yards and 2.7" 3 shot at 300 yard. Also zeroed at 100 yards the 300 yard group was less than 1.5" low, WOW now thats flat! I am very impressed to say the least cuz this is just a plain Ruger M77 mark II. I tried free floating the barrel and the accuracy got worse. Put just a little presure back right at the tip of the stock and bingo that is the ticket and the load for this gun. Thanks again guys!