I injured my shoulder and wanted a low recoil deer rifle this season so i got a left hand rem. bdl .243. I am a big bore nut so this will bother me. What is most effective for deer and how accurate should i expect a REM 700 bdl in this cal. to be? It feels like a sweet rifle and it has open sights which is rare these days(I will put a quick detachable scope on it) ( my 375 put my shoulder recovery back!!)

I've shot lots of deer with the .243 and I have brittle bone disease! So the recoil shouldn't bother you. I would urge you to put a nice recoil pad on it. A wide pad will be much better than that narrow platic buttplate. As to a load I'll say this.....there isn't a whitetail buck walking this earth that won't die within 50 yards after putting a 95 gr Nosler Partition through both lungs. That bullet is death to deer. I've tried others.....the 95 Nosler BT and Sierra Gameking but nothing has knocked them down like the partition.Put a heavy bipod on it...that will cut the recoil down. You could go lighter and load a 85 gr Partition with about 32 grs of H4895. Same as NO kick. Dead deer out to 200+ yards and should group about a inch at 100. Don't get caught up in groups. Your shooting deer not tiny varmints at 500. A 3 shot group of a inch at 100 is good enough. And practice practice. Not at a bench! But shooting in "field" positions. Sitting, standing, from your treestand even. 99% of the hunters worrry about a 1/2 inch bench group at 100 when they should be out practicing pratical shooting from realistic shooting positions. Go out and sit up paper plates at various ranges and try to hit them from a sitting or standing with a tree for a rest. That will give you confidince in your "little" rifle. FNMauser

Mitchellsp,
The 243 is a wonderful deer cartridge. If you stick with the heavier bullets say 90 grains or heavier you can get good accuracy and reasonable penetration. My ADL shoots sub minute-of-milk jug at 200 meters. Every time I take it to the range I shoot my cold shot at a 200 m milk jug and haven’t missed one in over a year now. Most of the lighter bullets are intended for varmint hunting and tend to blow apart on impact rather than penetrate.
Good luck with yours, mine has been great.
Gene
P.S. You didn't say how far north you hunt. They are a little light for Kodiac Island.

quote:

Originally posted by mitchellsp:
I injured my shoulder and wanted a low recoil deer rifle this season so i got a left hand rem. bdl .243. I am a big bore nut so this will bother me. What is most effective for deer and how accurate should i expect a REM 700 bdl in this cal. to be? It feels like a sweet rifle and it has open sights which is rare these days(I will put a quick detachable scope on it) ( my 375 put my shoulder recovery back!!)

The .243 is a totally adequate deer gun with 100 grain bullets all the way to 300 yards.

Accuracy typically in the Rem 700 is exceptional....MOA and better.

A Remington 700 in .243 that wasn't acceptably accurate would be unusual, and good to excellent accuracy (true < 1 MOA) is more likely. Stay away from factory loads. Not that they won't kill a deer, but they are woefully underloaded (typically in the 2700 fps range with 100 grain bullets). They just don't give you the "zip" you need with a smaller caliber.

I've used a 100 grain Nosler Solid Base (now available again) for years in my .243. It has a "fast" barrel and yields about 3150 fps with this bullet (23" barrel). I loaned this gun to a friend who made a one-shot kill on a whitetail buck at 375 yards. A

Any 22 inch barrel is capable of 3000+ fps with a 100 grain bullet, using something appropriately slow like H4831. I have also used the 100 grain Sierra with success. If you like the plastic tip bullets, the 90, or better, 95 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip will work nicely on deer (while they do expand rapidly, they hardly "blow up" and the solid base provides ample penetration), as will the afore mentioned 95 grain Partition.

Just be sure to get your velocity up in the 3000 range in order to get the terminal results you want. Good luck with healing the shoulder.

A great light load for deer and antelope that my daughter used is the 85 grain Nosler Partition pushed at 3100 fps. You can probably get 3200 fps out of it but 3100 shoots great in my rifle.

I had a shooting buddy with similar sholder joint problems so I feel your pain. The heavyish rifle you've chosen will probably prove a good choice. I used my sons Model Seven in .243 as a Mt. gun for years and, at ranges under 100 yrd.s, used 75 gr. factory loads. They were also easy to practice with off hand. I switched to 100 gr. factory loads to feel more comfortable out to 150 or 200 yrd.s. If you pick your shots a .243 is enough for the small to mid-sized whatetails I usually encounter at those ranges. I've also tried several types of muzzle brakes and I like them if you don't mind the extra ear protection. I just put a Vais on a very light Ti 700 in 7mm 08, and it made the rifle much more pleasant to shoot. Something like a limbsaver recoil pad might also be a good option. With your problem I might conside one of those mercury filled recoil compensators that go in the stock. Anything to keep up the sport!

Thanks for the replies. I will try some of the type loads mentioned. I hope to hit the range tommorrow. I also will try to shoot somr coyotes with the 243 if I can ever figure out how to call them in with my new electronic caller. No luck so far with it

I haven't seen a 6mm that wouldn't shoot a 1/2" group yet. This includes the 243, 6mm Rem, 6mm Rem Mashburn, 240 Cobra, and the 243 Rockchukar. They all are accurate, and they all swat deer (mule deer in my area) very well. Moreover, they are great for the whole family including kids, wives (if you have more than one like Walterhog), and those who are recoil sensitive for whatever reason. Great rounds.

My sons shoots a .243 and has taken several deer, springbok, kudu and blesbok. Used a 100gr Nosler partition bullet in Federal ammo. No appreciable recoil. Groups about .75" routinely.
It is a M70 featherweight in push feed.

21.5gr. of Blue Dot and 100 gr.psp bullet got 2550 fps. and almost no recoil in my rifle. If you deside to go the Blue Dot route start a couple grs. lower to allow for differeces such as rifles, OALs and lots of powder.These loads are really easy on the shoulder and usually produce fine repeatability. roger

Personally, I really like the 85 gr TSX with 44.5 gr of RL19. It shoots nice and flat and actually penetrates better than 90-100 gr jacketed bullets (ie. partition, scirocco, bt, etc.) I've also taken a lot of deer 100 gr partition over 47 gr of H4831. I would stay away from non-premium bullets in the 243 as they have a tendency to come apart.

Pete

I am using a 243 for the first time this year also and have settled on the following load. An 85 gr Barnes TSX with 35 gr of IMR 4320 seems to be perfect for my rifle. The factory ammo I have tired seems to be all over the bored for accuracy. Once I started loading my own the gun settled down nicely and shoots sub-inch groups @ 100 yards. As for recoil this seems to be a lot lighter than shooting the 100 gr I have tried.

I have not experienced a tendency for non premium bullets to "come apart". In fact I am trying to find a 6MM bullet that won't generally exit on broadside rib cage hits. I can't think of a current on the shelf bullet designed for deer that won't give good penetration, wide wound channels and quick kills if placed properly. Favorites are the 100 grain Hornady and Sierra bullets, the 105 grain Speer and the 85 grain Sierra BTHP.

I've used a .243 for the past 15 or so years with good results. I've used the Hornady 100gr BTSP with 33.5grs 3031. My shots have been between 50 - 200 yrds and as of now I've never recovered a bullet because they've all gone in one side and out the other from any angle. These have all been on Texas whitetail. A friend I reload for has used the same load on Mule Deer in New Mexico and he hasn't recovered a bullet yet for the same reason. I would also like to note that the furthest I've seen a deer go after being hit is about 30 yrds. The only gripe I have is the ammount of damage done to area surrounding the exit wound and ammount meat damaged.

Been thinking about trying the Bluedot load listed above.

I've killed several deer with a 243, I love it.

I currently load 100gr. Rem. PSPCLs over 41gr. of IMR 4350, R-P cases, Win. LR primers. I've lapped the barrel on mine and last range session shots were running just over .5 MOA. Good luck, hope your shoulder heals quick.

Mitchell,

I've used 85 grain bullets in the .243 Winchester on Deer all over the world and it has worked just fine! I'll qualify that by saying my experience has been with the "Smaller" specices of Deer not some Mega- Monster North American Whittail Buck, but if I had my .243 in my hands and the opportunity presented itself - I'd shoot! The Scots shoot lots of Red Stags, Sitka and Fallow Deer every year with the .243 Winchester!

I've used the Speer 85 gr. Spitzer Boattails, Sierra 85 gr. Game King HPBT's and Hornady 100 gr. Round Noses with great success; like Rickety-300 above stated, I've also had good success with the so-called non-premium bullets in this catridge as well.

The premier Deer Bullet in this catridge for me has been the Nosler 85 grain Partition with 47.5 grs. of VV N-560 & O.A.L 2.65", this load shoots one-hole groups in my Blaser R93 barrel.

I got a chance to do some load development and loaded 42 grains of h4831 behind a 100 Hornady spire point about 20 thousanths off the rifling and got some 1/2 inch 3 shot groups at 100 yards. I plan to increase the load and chronogragh as i think the load is on the low side according to my hornady manual. The rifle is a stock rem 700 bdl lefthand. I am very pleased. i have been trying to call a coyote to shoot but no success yet to look at performance.

After hunting the last few years almost exclusively with my 338/378 (yes, for deer) and occasionally with my 300 H&H, I decided to dust off my old 788 that I got when I was a kid and take it hunting this year. For some reason I had trouble getting the 95 gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips to shoot like they used to so I went and picked up some 95 gr. Hornady SST's. Using H-4350 I was able to come up with a load that easily shoots 3/4 inch and is still leaving the muzzle at upwards of 2900 fps. That's out of an 18" carbine. I shot 5 deer with that load this year all at around 150 yards, and they all dropped like stones... 1 shot each. I fell in love with the 243 all over again after that.

FWIW I like the plastic tipped bullets like the SST's and BT's (and Swifts too) in the 243 because they give you added expansion to complement the smaller bullet diameter. That's just personal preference though. I'm sure Partitions, or Core-Lokt's or just about any decent hunting bullet would deliver good results as well. As always, shot placement is the key.