looking for a good load w/ H4895 and the 100 grain speer grandslam.
rifle is a NEF 243 youth. shooter is 11 years old. max distance will be 100 yards.
southeastern whitetail only bucks no bigger than 175 does (mostly) at less than 100.
he will be supervised so raking and quartering shots wont be an issue.

KSTEPHENS, I don't think you need to go the Grandslam route for southeastern whitetails. I'm a little north of you where the deer are a bit bigger and there's no need for that bullet construction here. Remingtons CL in factory stuff are great bullets for the chore if using the .243 or buy some and load them yourself using 3031, 4064 or VARGET or IMR 4350. Save yourself some money and have DEAD DEER! GHD

i have seen quite a few 243 bullets just come unhinged and the boy is being taught to shoot for the shoulders by his father. thus the reason for the tough grand slam bullet.
the "easy" area for the dad to be able to hunt w/ the kid is withing 100 yards of the property lines corner with a deer club to the west and private land to the north.
i know that a solid lung shot w/ a 243 will kill a deer dead. i'd like to see the deer broken down and not make it to far.

I asked this question myself and called Superior Ammo. I don't reload for the 243 and have no inclination to either. The advice given was a 2800fps load with Barnes 90gr TSX's. Relatively light muzzle blast from a 20" barrel and plenty of retained weight to insure complete penetration, but sufficient expansion too were the promises. I ordered some and I'll shoot a few soon before my son tries. Won't know about penetration or performance on deer until this fall though.

JPK

Ks,

I am doing the exact same parameters for a couple of 12 and 13 yr olds.. only difference is the rifles are Ruger 77 Mk 2s...

For a targeted MV of 2600 fps, with a 100 grain bullet.. Either 25 grains of SR 4759 or 22 grains of Blue Dot will give you 2600 fps in a 22 inch barrel with outstanding accuracy.. I'd put it up against any downloaded charge of H 4895 any day.. and twice on Sunday...

The Blue Dot load kicks less....

Another load I have put together for a friends daughter going out for her first deer hunt, and they are looking at 100 yds max.. we are doing 100 gr Rem Corelokts, basically for economy.. I bought 500 of them for $50.00 from Cabelas.. most of them being shot by the kids for practice...

However, 14 grains of Unique has also been very very accurate in the Ruger 77s, and the kick is almost as low as a Rimfire out of that rifle...

Zeroed a couple of inches high at 50 yds, it is dead on at 100.. I haven't had time to chrony it yet, but the accuracy and lack of recoil was unbelievable..

Reduced loads with 4895 will still kick like a cannon compared to any of these loads, especially the Unique load...

for the two boys, I have had them practice shooting targets at 200 yds,.... with a point blank range of 250...

good luck..
seafire

I started my son out on 85 grain Barnes X and just under 40 grains of IMR-4350, this worked slick and you can't blow that bullet up it will penetrate every time. This load was easy for him to shoot comfortably to 200 yards.

This topic comes up frequently--that a .243 is marginal at best on deer and if used,you must use premium bullets. That's the bad news. Good news is that deer in my area haven't read that. For years I have used the 100 grain Winchester bullets and they work fine. Of all the hunters I know,very few reload. Most go to Wal Mart and buy a cheaper bullet and dont have the options of Noslers,Barnes--you name it in premium bullets. They too get lucky and find deer that don't know that anything less than the mentioned above bullets MUST be used. For several years my grandson,son in law and myself all used .243's and the 100 grain winchester bulk packed was used by all of us and that was with 42.0 grains of IMR 4831. Grandson was 11 when he started using that load and when he was 16 I gave him a .308---NOT that he needed to move up,I happened to have a .308 I thought he would like. Results have been same with the .308 as they were with .243. Have sharp knife handy when you pull the trigger.

I would refer you back to Seafire for his Blue-Dot loads. I loaded 85gr. Honady's for my wife, took her first deer cleanly. Broke ribs in and out, destroying the heart along the way. If you want to stick with 100 gr. they should work just as well.

HDY SST and interlock also work great at 2700-2900 fps. I know some will scoff at the SST, but is very accurate and has rapid expansion for great stopping power. Nos ballistic tips work as well.

quote:

rapid expansion

thats not really what we want when shooting the shoulder.

seafire, You made some money today on your stock in BLUE DOT!! There was some delivered to my shop!! That is funny guys in case you've missed the diatribe between seafire and myself over owning stock in powders!!
NOW!!! My turn to plug!! If it's a .243,6mm,.260 or 7-08, there is a load of VARGET waiting to rest behind a 70-80 grain .243 bullet, a 100 grain 6.5 bullet or a 120 grain grain 7-08 bullet somewhere in the range of 39-43 grains that will be lights out for deer!! 39-41 grains will fill the bill in any of them and if it's a .243 that won't shoot 41.0 grains of VARGET and the 70 grain BT, trade it!! Same goes for the .260 and 41 OR 43 grains!! And kids can take the recoil of those loads! There isn't any!! And shot placement helps tremendously but HOW DEAD IS DEAD!! ????? ...........an seafire.......the .204 data and the BLUE DOT is forthcoming!! GHD

Gidday KS,

The question I have is why the hell are you ruining all that good shoulder meat putting a bullet through it. Body shots should be through the chest where the animal lives.

I would no more shoot an animal through the shoulder than hit him up the arse. Its just plain wastefull. Put the bullet where you aim, into the pump and bellows.

Happy Hunting

Hamish

the only spot were the father and son can actually hunt together is 100 yards or less on two sides from a hunt club and private land.
the private land owner has been approached on two seperate occasions with the request to drive accross the back of her pasture to pick up a deer. she declined and said some pretty bad things about hunters. so im sure not gonna attempt to walk out on her property to track a wounded deer.
the other line is a hunt club. we have run 5 of thier hunters out of our oak bottoms last turkey season alone. there isnt a good relationship there either.
with the shoulder shot the animal is usually down for the count.

My son and I used a starting load of IMR4350 for 2750 fps with a 100 gr bullet. Loaded bulk packed Remington Corelokt for practice and Nosler Partition for blood. A fella might try the 80 gr bulk bullet for practice and an 85 gr NPT for game, but my boy has moved on to a 308.

I loaded a 243 load for a niece and a nephew which consisted of AA5744 and a Hornady 87 grain varmint bullet. Don't laugh, it killed the heck out of deer including one large, mature 9 pointer. The load was very easy on the shoulder and deadly on deer.

I can't remember the charge weight but it pushed the 87 grain bullet 2200-2300 fps. The reduced velocity was easy on the thin jacketed bullet. I got the load by calling Accurate Arms.

Joe A.