Guys,

I recently picked up a Rem 700 ADL in 243 Win. I have a press and have reloaded 308 Win a little. The plan is to use the 243 primarily for groundhogs. What bullets and loads do you recommend? Also, I need to buy reloading dies. What do you recommend? The action on this gun is glass bedded and the barrel free-floated. The trigger breaks cleanly at 28 oz. Thanks for any help.

Roger Barker
Middlefield, OH

Welcome Rodger, Best dies for my money goes to Redding, and bullets is pretty broad as the V-Max's and BT from Nosler will do a fine job both in accuracy and groundhog devastation. As always with loads work up using a suitable powder IMR 4064 with lighter bullets and WW760 with heavier has worked for me. God shooting!

Any good quality bullet such as Nozler, Sierra, ect...



I personally use Wilson bench rest dies with a micrometer bullet seater and bushing die. I also have a body die for my 22-250. I started with a Redding deluxe die set.



If you go with the Wilson bench rest dies you will need a arbor press they are only designed for bench rest dies and cost around $100.00 for one made by Sinclair.



Redding dies use a standard reloading press such as a RCBS Rock Chucker.

First choice: I would recommend a standard Redding die set. It comes with a Full length die, and bullet seating die.



Second choice: Redding Deluxe 3 die set includes a Neck Die.



Third Choice: Redding Competition dies with the micrometer on the top and the bullet seater with micrometer on top. The bushing die will keep you from work hardening your brass necks and they will last longer and are suppose to be more accurate due to better bullet alignment. Once the brass has been fire formed you do not need to full length resize the brass. But in time they will grow and you will either need to use a body die or a full length resizing die. I would recommend a full length sizing die for the first time new brass or any once fired brass you might buy or find.



There are a lot of other companies that make good quality dies but money wisely spent now is money saved later. These are my recommendations.

I dosen't sound like your going to into this in a big way
i've had good luck with lee rgb dies they are about as cheap as you will get, they don't come with
a shell holder but you have one already i shoot sierra
55 grn in my rem heavy barrel it'll shoot one hole 5
shot groups with varget powder at 100 yrds

Thanks for the recommendations and comments, guys. Now what about the brass? I'm thinking that choosing between factory ammo and new unfired brass is a matter time vs. economy because load development doesn't really begin till you have fire formed brass. The factory ammo costs more but you quickly have fire formed brass to begin the load development process. With the new unfired brass, the cost is less but you need to spend the time reloading and the load data isn't really useful because the brass was not fire formed. Is fire forming really this important?

I have started with factory loaded ammo and/or new brass either way will work, but you may have trouble with factory loaded ammo getting it to fire form properly. by loading new brass to touch the rifling it will expand to fit the chamber.