I just picked up a Kimber 84M Classic in .243 and was wondering what the concensus is on the best bullet for WT deer. I know it's blasphemy, but with two small children I barely have time to shoot, let alone reload, so please keep your recommendations to factory available ammunition, please.

BTW, I believe it's a 1 in 10 twist rate.

Also, I have no interest in hearing opinions on the marginality of this caliber on deer .

Thanks fellas!!

Regards,
Scott

I'd start with Winchester 100gr Power Points or Remington 100gr Core Lokts. If your rifle likes either of those, you are done.

Federal Fusion, 95gr softpoint...inexpensive, accurate, and kills well.

The 100 gr Remington CoreLokts, 95 gr NBT's (Winchester Supreme) or the Federal Loading of Sierra's 85 gr HPBT will serve you well. Buy a box of each and see what your gun likes to shoot...

Good luck!

Me, my friend, my son, and our sons and grandsons (whom I also load for) have been using the 90 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip in our .243s with great success on Whitetail deer. All very clean kills with complete pass through but with exceptional expansion.

Before using the Noslers I was using the Speer Hot-Cor 80 grain bullets in my .243 and I had good success with them, but I feel a little better about the Noslers with the additional weight. As a side note--they shoot great in all our .243s.

quote:

Originally posted by olarmy:
I'd start with Winchester 100gr Power Points or Remington 100gr Core Lokts. If your rifle likes either of those, you are done.

95gr NBT are supposed to be good deer killers as well.

I've shot or seen shot around 30 whitetails with a Remington 700 .243 22" barrel, loaded with 100 gr. Speer or Hornady bullets at around 3,050 fps. This was in Saskatchewan where whitetails run about as big as anywhere. Almost all were one-shot kills. Any factory 100 gr. load should be fine.

You might also consider Black Hills Ammunition's Gold ammo, their web site shows the .243 loaded with 85-gr. Barnes TSX bullets at 3,200 fps. In my experience TSX bullets give excellent accuracy.

The Texas whitetails I've seen while bird hunting aren't very big in body size (though they often seem to have oversize antlers). With the TSX bullet I suspect you could shoot for the heart no matter what angle shot the deer presents.

Never hunted with this load but my wife and I have shot a lot of deer with a light 7mm-08 handload using 120 gr. Barnes bullets at 2,700 fps. Never had to shoot twice and never had a bullet stay in the deer. Can't see why the Black Hills .243 load wouldn't do as well.

Your little Kimber Classic is a very "classy" rifle indeed!

I've had great experiences with Hornady Factory loads, but there is something to be said for having a load that is available everywhere.

Once you find what factory ammo your gun likes the best, go buy a truckload of it.

I have had excellent success with the Hornady 100 BTSP Interlock. In my experience with the 243, premium bullets are not necessary for deer size game. If I were to buy factory ammo I would look for the Hornady "Light Magnum" ammo.

Thanks for the replies, Gentlemen.

Actually picked up the rifle today and it is quite nice, albeit small...thing hardly weighs anything! My wife should like it.

Regards,
Scott

quote:

Originally posted by olarmy:
I'd start with Winchester 100gr Power Points or Remington 100gr Core Lokts. If your rifle likes either of those, you are done.

Ding.. Ding...

This is the winning answer.

corelocks have allways worked for me.

I load 80gr TTSX over 45gr of H4350 for my kids 243. It pushes the little pill at 3268 fps. I have been very impressed by the performance of this bullet and gun. It will open quickly and easily enough to leave a half dollar size exit on a double lung shot but holds together and penetrates to shoot where you want to. Always DRT.

Scott--I'm somewhat in your neck of the woods(San Angelo) and I do reload and use the 100 grain bulk packed Winchester bullets. As has been said the Remington Core-Lokt or Winchester bullet in 100 grain will do fine. .243 Marginal? That's a magnum. My nephew got one with .223 and 55 grain Win bulk packed this week-end.

Nosler Partitions in 95 and 100 gn would be two good bullets to use.

nosler 85 partition makes em real sick.

Well, as long as you are having to use factory ammo,I go along with the suggestion to buy a box of Winchester Power Point, Remington Core-locks or whatever the 100 gr. Federal load is and see which one your rifle likes best. Stick any one of those loads in the right place and you'll have a dead deer. I don't think you'll need a load that uses a premium bullet but go with what your gun likes, not what I like.
Paul B.

I can say this, the Hornady Custom loads with the 100gr SPBT have been dropping deer and hogs at my friends place for the past 10 years, with awesome regularity. These have been shot from Sako rifles, and we have not looked for a single animal hit with them yet. They drop on the shot, even the bigger boar hogs.

So either these are darn good bullets, or my buds 70+yr old aunt and wife are two of the best hunters I know. My bud started using them two years ago in a Thompson Encore, and has had the same results. Aim, squeeze the trigger, and go pick up the game.

Bottom line is try what you can afford to try. Then shoot the one that groups the best for you and your rifle. Stick with the 100gr bullets and you will have no issues.

Good luck.

quote:

If I were to buy factory ammo I would look for the Hornady "Light Magnum" ammo.

I've used them and they do kill "DRT" as you say.

But...

At close range...say thirty yards...they are quite destructive if you shoot the very least bit behind the heart.

So next time I'd just buy the lower velocity "standard" .243 in 100 grain weight.

For that reason I'm trying the Remington "new" bonded Core-Lokt bullets and Nosler Partition. Both in 100 grain in my 6mm Remington.

I'd certainly NOT go lighter as the temptation is to also go faster (unavoidable in factory ammunition) and anything over 2,900 on deer at close range wastes too much meat.

Nothing wrong with 6mm or .243" as a deer cartridge.

We "Brits" got there some years before the USA with the classic 240 Holland and Holland aka the "240 Apex" with a 100 grain aluminium tipped bullet at about 2,900 fps.

I shot two of my biggest bucks ever with a .243 this year.

The bullet I chose was the 80 grain Barnes TTSX. It seemed to hit them equally as hard as a 280 or 30-06. Penetration was excellent, even on an intentional shoulder shot. Minimal meat damage, but good expansion as well.

Shot 4 times, and got two good bucks, a doe, and a wild turkey. All three deer dropped immediately.

Barnes is offering this bullet now in their Vor-TX factory ammo. Absolutely the only bullet I would shoot in my .243 for anything other than varmints.

Well, I took the sage advice offered here and ran some 100 grain Core Lokts through her and indeed she seemed to like 'em. I'm not the best bench shooter so I was very pleased with the results.





After sighting in, I nailed an ugly Whitetail cull in the neck at 100 yds and was starting to have some confidence in this little rig.

This last week we were at the ranch and I had plenty of time to poke around and seeing as the kids and wife were still sleeping and there was a heavy dew, I decided to take a stroll on Tues morn. An hour or so into it, I spot antlers banging away at a cedar tree about 50 or so yards away. Now a little background is needed here: we've pretty much eradicated the Elk from our place, what with their proclivity for Red Deer hinds and all. Anyway, I thought we'd pretty much taken care of all the bulls and certainly wasn't expecting to run into one! (Yes, we're hi-fenced and No, I don't want to hear your opinions!! Don't give a shit. It does go to show however that with 10s of thousands of game cam pics on 2000 acres you still don't know what you'll run into....never saw this guy..ever!)

Well, I look at my little rifle and I look at him and it doesn't take a second or two before I decide to put one right behind his shoulder, to which he just looks at me kinda startled like and turns and heads into the cedar. I do a little sneak around and manage to get another into his opposite shoulder and then break his hip just before he figures he's had enough and heads for the other end of the ranch.

Found him piled up about 150 yards or so from where I last saw him. Not as many points as I'd like but he had good mass.




Anyway, although there've undoubtedly been some poor shootin' Kimbers sent out of Yonkers in the last couple years it looks like I got another good one...whew!

Note: I grew up in Idaho and lived in Montana for many years and I in no way equate this to a free range/fair chase Rocky Mtn Elk hunt......but it sure was a kick in the pants!!

God bless Texas!

Happy New Year to all!

Regards,
Scott

Nice group. If it will kill an elk it will kill a deer.

quote:

Also, I have no interest in hearing opinions on the marginality of this caliber on deer

What about it's marginality on elk?

quote:

Originally posted by rcamuglia:

quote:

Also, I have no interest in hearing opinions on the marginality of this caliber on deer

What about it's marginality on elk?

Tough to argue with the results.

I load the 95 grain NBT for my dad's custom 243 and he's been killing deer with them ever since.

quote:

Tough to argue with the results.

Oh really? Three good hits and the animal still ran 150 yards - I wonder what the "results" would have been for a less efficient tracker. Or what would have happened if the hunter had used a .30-06 with a proper 180-grain bullet. Think about it.

I've killed 5 Kodiak Island blacktails with a .223 but consider it a stunt as I have plenty of more appropriate firearms for deer hunting. IMO using a .243 on a nice elk is a stunt too - if the hunter had a more appropriate firearm in the gun safe. Bragging about how marginal a cartridge one can use on a magnificent game animal says a lot about the hunter.

Regardless, a great trophy and good shooting.


.

quote:

Originally posted by TX Nimrod:

quote:

Tough to argue with the results.

I wonder what the "results" would have been for a less efficient tracker. Or what would have happened if the hunter had used a .30-06 with a proper 180-grain bullet. Think about it.

I've killed 5 Kodiak Island blacktails with a .223 but consider it a stunt as I have plenty of more appropriate firearms for deer hunting. IMO using a .243 on a nice elk is a stunt too - if the hunter had a more appropriate firearm in the gun safe. Bragging about how marginal a cartridge one can use on a magnificent game animal says a lot about the hunter.

Regardless, a great trophy and good shooting.


.

Um, I've seen them hit well with .300s, .338s, and a slew of .270s and they can still cover an unimagineable amount of ground before they realize they're dead. You'd know this if you had a lot of experience with elk.

Also, please point out where I "bragged" about using the rifle I had on hand at the time to kill this "magnificent game animal". IIRC I pointed out that I wasn't aware there were any bulls in the area so had no intention of encountering one.

I don't tolerate braggerts and take offense to being labeled as such.

Have a great day!

Regards,
Scott

Vanderhoeff--You mentioned 2 small girls--didnt give their age. If not atleast teen age, I'd consider getting them a .223 for deer hunting. Maybe a CZ? 55 grain Win or Rem ammo and it'll do the job. They might get lucky and run across one that doesn't have internet and know a .223 wont kill them.

The stories are practically endless of those who
used .270's, .25-06's, .243's, etc. on elk until
they were told by the "experts" that their
rifles were inadequate for such game.