A fellow AOF user and local shooter came to my aid when he heard I was having difficulty working up loads. He pointed me towards,
42 - 45 gr H1000 with Fed 210/Fed215 primers and the 105 Hornady amax and 105 Hornady match. My RPR in .243 satisfied itself with 44.5gr. You will need to play with the bullet seating depth though.
IMR4320 at 33.9 gr and the Hornady max 87 gr worked well also.
I wanted to shoot a 105gr Amax because they are reasonably priced and supposedly quite forgiving. I went with H 4831sc and was rewarded with a couple of 1/2 inch groups. The powder charges were 41.5 and 42.5 43.5 opened up a bit (around 1 inch) but it might have been the result of a hotter barrel and the fact I was running out of blood due to mosquitos. Further testing will be needed but i think I am on the right track. I will Chronograph in the fall and see what the velocity, SD and ES are but I would bet they will be decent.
I bought my son a nice little Winchester 243 a few years ago for when he gets of age. One day I needed to use it as my 270 was out for repair. I picked up a box of 80gr gmx's and made around a 300 yard lung shot on a big cow elk with it. I learned two things 1. That gun felt so natural its mine now 2. The performance of the little 80gr blew me away. Through a rib on either side the shoulder blade on the far side and it fell out of the skin. The recovery weight was 78.6gr and perfectly uniformed 6 petal death pill.
Now with that being said I'm new to hand loading and have a few boxes of gmx's to get started with. You've given me plenty already here on some great varmint loads. Dose anyone have some hunting loads they might want to share now I'm hooked??????
Does anyone have some hunting loads they might want to share, now I'm hooked ?????
For big game, I haven't worked on any bullets over 75gr (Hornady Vmax) except for the 105gr Hornady Amax.
I haven't had much time with it yet, but the 39 grains (+/- 1gn) area with IMR4350 is looking like a good starting point for me. Currently seated at 2.805" COAL*, a 2.811" COAL touches the lands.
* I measure COAL to the bullet tip, not the ogive.
For the 105-107gr bullets you want a slow powder for top velocity. I would use one of the 4831on the quicker side up to h-1000 on the other end. Varget is best with the light bullets.
My initial tests were with 4831sc and the results were encouraging.
I used IMR7828 when I shot 95gr BT's out of my 243win for deer.
I have now set that rifle up strictly for coyotes/wolves and shoot 58gr V-Max using Varget
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