Does anyone have experience using a .243 with 85 grain triple shocks on deer size game (whitetail, mule, antelope, sheep, caribou)?

My 5 year old daughter used them this year on whitetail in the Texas hill country. They where loaded on top of Winchester brass with IMR4350 , and CCI BR2 primers. She took a nice 7 point the 2nd weekend of season. The deer ran about 30 yards and fell over dead. We never recovered the bullet since it was a clean pass through with little bloodshot meat. They do a nice job on turkeys also. Good luck. DZ

I was curious about this too Brent for I had just picked up a .243. I know the TSX's work great in my larger bores.

A hunting buddy of mine shot 3 whitetail does with this bullet this season and lost all three. Since the deer were not found we can't be sure what happened but he is an excellent shot and experienced hunter and our conclusion is they failed to open. I don't have the load data in front of me but we worked thee load up over a chrono and the velocity was there. He won't shoot them next season and I am having second thoughts about my .260 with the 130 TSX.

A single word. Placement.

If you put the XXX 85 gr. in the right spot, the deer goes bang-flop.

Perfectly good bullet in a minimal caliber rifle for deer. I have taken a few- 3- large sized does with them and never had to look further than 20 yards.
Good blood trail as the round opens nicely at velocities over 2000 fps and passes through the chest usually leaving a quarter sized hole on the off side for plenty of blood to spray..
Any bullet will not kill effectively if not properly placed.

I have no problems recommending that particular bullet for the 243, just remember, it is not a 338 and again, placement is perhaps a bit more critical.
just my humble opinion.

quote:

Originally posted by Nimrod308:
A hunting buddy of mine shot 3 whitetail does with this bullet this season and lost all three. Since the deer were not found we can't be sure what happened but he is an excellent shot and experienced hunter and our conclusion is they failed to open. I don't have the load data in front of me but we worked thee load up over a chrono and the velocity was there. He won't shoot them next season and I am having second thoughts about my .260 with the 130 TSX.

Shot placement!!! like said above....I have a question about those three deer your buddy shot At what range were they shot at..? Also if he was an excellent shot and experienced hunter.. Why did he shoot two more deer after he FAILED TO RECOVER the first ONE! This type of hunter IMO...Is a far cry from a hunter!

BTW...I think the TSX is the bullet to use for any big game you intend to put down fast. Barens says it will open up @ 1200fps. I tested some 168gr 308's and 140gr .284's down to 1000fps in wet phonebooks and they opened. I shot a blackbear at 25 yards with my 30-06AI and it opened him up. As he rolled down the slop. He left a blood trail from were I shot him to were he laid to rest.

T/C Nut
I guess in my effort to keep the story short I left out enough detail to make you wonder about my friend. The first shot was at 125 -135 yds from a ground blind with a seat and a good rest shooting across a gas line right-of-way. There was nothing that he could see between him and the deer. At the shot the deer ran with no real indication of a hit. No blood, no hair, nothing. He decided he must have hit something or just missed and went back to the same blind. Another deer presented itself at less than 100 yds. standing still broadside (same as the first) Same thing happened. He decided his rifle must be off zero. Walking back to the truck he had another deer this time less than 50 yds. broad side, standing still. Thinking the rifle couldn't be off that much he held center of chest and shot. Nothing again. The rifle proved to be sighted in properly. He is the first to admit that without the deer to look at we will never know, and he says he might have missed but I have shot with him too much to believe that. He and I just can't sit in the woods with this bullet in our rifles anymore. In fact his 243 hasn't left the safe since that day. His next project is to work up a good load with the 100 gr. partition. We have both killed several deer with that bullet and it remains the one I judge all the others by. I totally agree shot placement is the most important part of the whole thing and I normally like to see a bullets performance on several different animals at different angles etc. before I draw any conclusions. To me one or two shots is not near enough but if the first three appear to fail what other conclusions can we draw? A bad particular lot?
I may be wrong but I believe all three of these were properly placed ribcage shots and the bullets failed to open. Nimrod308

Only thing I've shot other than paper is a single coyote. Broadside, 75 yards. Yote tumbled over backwards into a washout and that's where I found him. Exit was quarter sized, but innards were sloshing around pretty good when I turned him over. My s-i-l got two does with his 243 and TSX load, neither went over 20 yards. They look like they work pretty good to me, even on the small stuff.

What kind of accuracy groups are you getting from the 85gr TSX bullets? I just have not found a load that gives me what I consider acceptable accuracy with these bullets. 85 Nosler Partitions work well with 3/4" groups at 100 yds.

While I favor X bullets in the larger calibers, I don't use then in the smaller (22/6mm's) due to the small exit holes I've seen them produce. I have used the now discontinued 75 gr. X bullet and moved away from them for this reason. I'm not saying that they don't kill, it's just that where I hunt I NEED a blood trail if I don't get a bang flop. With the 75 X, I never got either.

FWIW, I think that when you get down to the 6mm or under, you need to stick a conventional bullet in the lungs and you'll be OK. Even if controlled expansion bullets work "perfectly" they still do too little damage and leave too small a hole.

Gabe