.243 Winchester.

[Messor]

95% of 243 reloading woes in SA came as a result of people using pmp brass.

[Andrew Leigh]

I add to this that heavily necked down cartridges can be problematic.

[TStone]

... Alternatively, why not a 204 Ruger?

The .204 will do well on crows and jackals, I really don't think that it is a good choice for antelope and warthog.

Any reason your 6.5 CM won't suffice?

One, I currently use 120 gr monolithics in the 6.5, a bit expensive for shooting vermin. Two, I want another rifle. :)

Thanks for all the advice. It sounds as if it is a viable option.

[Koekie Monster]

I did load development for a friend's .243 Howa once.
He wanted to do long range shooting so wanted the high BC of a 100gr bullet , but the best we could do was about 1.5 MOA with more than 20 different loads tried. Then we tried 85 gr bullets and all of the loads grouped under 1MOA with his final load giving him single ragged hole groups.

So I have struggled to reload for a .243, but I dont think it was because it is a difficult caliber to reload for, just make sure that the caliber is suitable for what you want to do and then stay within the "design parameters" for that caliber/rifling/ barrel length combo

What as the barrel twist?

[Dimitri]

I own a CZ 243 which I bought new 9 years ago. I don't reload. I used up a lot of money trying to find the right factory ammunition for the rifle. It just wouldn't group better than 2.5" at 100m. Eventually after checking everything on the rifle without finding any definitive fault, the gunsmith that I bought it from - to his credit - decided to made me a new barrel. Again, I spent a lot of time and money going through various brands and bullet weights until final I found that Hornady Custom 100gr SST would give me a 1" grouping at 100m. I bought about 5 boxes of that ammo and when I eventually ran out, I could not find that ammo on the shelves. Leading up to a hunt I again tried a few new brands and bullet weights that I had not previously tried but could not get a satisfactory grouping. In desperation, the week before my hunt, I bought 2 more boxes of ammo that I had not previously tried and prayed that one of them would group. But I had already decided that I would rather hunt with my bow as I was not confident with the .243. I took the .243 with anyway so that I could shoot at the range on my friend's farm. As expected the last 2 boxes of ammo did not group either. My friend, who also owns a .243, and who also had some problems finding the right combo for his rifle, suggested we try his handloads. Over the years I had given my friend all my Hornady cases as a gift and he had stored but never used them. We cleaned a few cases and replicated the rest of the load he currently uses. At the range we found that I could get a 1" grouping at 100m. We loaded 40 cartridges and so I had some hunting ammo for the next season.

I have shot +-50 animals with my .243 and have not wounded any. However:

1. Based on my experience and on the first-hand accounts I have heard from numerous other people I agree with the statement that the .243 is a finicky/temperamental calibre compared to many others.
2. If you have a temperamental .243, and you don't reload, you will be forced to shoot whatever factory ammo your gun likes. This is problematic because i) it could be the most expensive brand ii) it might be that your gun likes a bullet weight that is not ideal i.t.o. the application you had in mind iii) you will have to use the bullet type that your gun likes, whether you like it or not. In my case I was initially forced to use the Hornady SST's and I am now forced to use Sierra GameKings whereas I would have preferred to use a more strongly constructed bullet.
3. If I had to do the whole exercise over I would have bought a 6.5x55 Swede

[Ricochet]

I exclusively now shoot my 243 as my favourite Rifle .

I use 75 gr V-MAX for jackals and harvest impala, springbuck and blesbuck with head shots only when using Hornady v-max ammunition.

I have shot Kudu, Nyala, Waterbuck, Blue Wildebeest, Black Wildebeest, Red hartebeest, Warthog, Bushpig, Jackal ,Baboon, Porcupine, and even an Eland Shot with 100 gr interlocker bullet that I reload myself.

Of all my rifles my 243 is my most accurate and go to Rifle and hence my favourite rifle.

It is NOT a problem to reload for as the only thing to do is clear the donuts that some rifles such as the 243 are famous for.

Donuts occur when brass from the thicker case wall in the shoulder move or migrate into the thinner neck area of a case from the pressures and heat in the chamber every time a round is fired often referred to as brass flow or brass migration.

I use a Foster inside neck reamer to keep the inside of my necks of my 243 free from brass flow and powder build-up and I also anneal my cases after reloading every 7th time.

I have shot and experimented with the 22-250 ,204Ruger, Creedmoor,Grendel, and many more but I still prefer my 243 above all.

I am not dissing any calibre either as I do own several other calibres too that are great but my number one still remains my 243.

[BEX]

What as the barrel twist?

1:10

[BEX]

1:10 twist should probably stabilize the 100gr, but he was going for Spitzer Boat Tails and they were probably just too long.

[BBCT]

I struggled with load development on my .243. 100 grain bullets of various makes (& various factory ammo) gave a grouping of about 6 inches at 100m but with 85 grainers I eventually got it down to about 1.5 inches. I tried everything I could think of over a period of about 8 years but never got it better than that.

In most of my rifles I use PMP brass but given what I'd heard about PMP brass in the .243 I used Norma, bought from Safari & Outdoor when they were still operating out of a camera shop in central Stellenbosch. They had a drum full of brass and allowed me to sift through and select a set of 100 cases all within 1 grain of weight of each other. So, my problems definitely weren't the 95% related to PMP brass as quoted by Messor above. (How did you reach that figure Messor? I heard somewhere that 99% of statistics are made up on the spur of the moment. ;-))

On the other hand, a mate of mine did about 10 minutes of load development with his .243 and was getting half inch groupings. When I shot with his rifle I put 2 bullets through the same hole at 150 metres. And he used PMP brass!

I think .243's do their best all round work with bullets about 85 grains but 100 grains is better for hunting springbok or larger. When I was still trying to do load development there was a very limited range of hunting type bullets available in the 85 grain zone as most bullets in that weight were more target/varmint than hunting. It may be different now. The hunting bullets at 100-ish grains just wouldn't stabilise in my rifle.

I wouldn't be totally averse to trying another .243 but I'd sooner try a 6.5 Creed or 260 Rem because of the heavier and better-constructed-for-hunting bullets.I think the .243 is a bit marginal if one is slightly off target due to pulled shot or wind blowing, as is often the case shooting springbok in the Karoo.

So yes, I think it's a temperamental cartridge/calibre but those guys that get it right swear by it and use it for everything.

[Maroelas]

Messor nailed it. Stay away from crappy brass (use Lapua, Norma or Nosler), make sure your rifle twist will stabilise the bullet length you want (you're not going to stabilise everything from 55gr to 115gr) and Bob's your uncle! Get Quickload help to get on a node easier.