Educate Badger: what to do with .243

[meles meles]

Well, oomanses, we has a .243" barrel for our DTA that we haven't hardly ever used, preferring to stick with a .308 barrel for our 300 and 600 mard paper perforatin' duties. In our mind we see .243 as a Bambi basher. Is we wrong ? Should we be making holes in paper with it instead of our .308 ?

[Sandgroper]

Buy some ammo, fit the barrel, shoot it and find out!

[Hrun]

Buy some ammo, fit the barrel, shoot it and find out!

And report back.. inquiring minds need to know..

[dodgyrog]

Have a look at this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btYGFVLAwOM

[meles meles]

Hmmm, we sees. Purchase some PPU and ring the dinner gong at 1,000 mards. Could put the butler out a job though....

[dodgyrog]

Hmmm, we sees. Purchase some PPU and ring the dinner gong at 1,000 mards. Could put the butler out a job though....

He also hit a 24" plate at 2000 yards using 95gr Bergers!!!!

[meles meles]

Not the Spode !!!!!

[Laurie]

Before you think up grand possibilities, the first (and key) question is: What is the rifling twist rate on your 243 barrel? The standard SAAMI 1 in 10" is severely limiting, like really severely. The 1 in 9 or 9.25" that some manufacturers have adopted isn't too bad, but still won't allow the use of a modern long-range match bullet in a decent weight.

The older, shorter , blunter, lower BC 90gn Berger BT Match is stabilised enough in the 10-twist to group and produce round holes but is still way under-stabilised in the latest guidelines to provide full ballistic performance. It's fine in a 9-twist. The 87gn Berger Hunting VLD was designed as a dual-purpose deer / paper bullet for the 243, but the 10-twist will again stabilise it enough for use, but not well enough for serious precision shooting at 1,000, never mind 2,000 yards. Again 9-twist is just good enough.

The 95gn Berger is barely stabilised at all in the 10-twist so may tumble in some ambient conditions and is marginally stabilised in 9. Anything longer (ie 105-110gn Match bullets) need an eight-twist and current thinking is increasingly moving to 7 to 7.5 rates.

The same applies to high-BC match bullets from other manufacturers.

FWIW I had an ex-police 243 Parker-Hale M87 (10-twist / heavy barrel) some years back. It was a reasonable short to mid-range rifle with tailored handloads, although a good 6BR shooting 105s would have p**ed all over it at almost any distance. With 90gn Sako FMJBT factory ammo and Winchester 100gn Super-X PSP deer loads, it was a just acceptable 500 yard shooter on standard (large centre) NRA targets, but fell off really badly at 600 yards. Nothing wrong with the rifle design / condition or inherently wrong with the cartridge (John Whidden the top US gunsmith and sling shooter keeps winning the US National Championships with his own build fast-twist 243s), just the limitations of a too-low rifling pitch rate. The old P-H M87 would reliably shoot quarter to half-inch 5-shot 100 yard groups with handloads utilising the stubby Sierra 70gn MatchKing over various powders and with nothing special in the brass etc selection and preparation processes. Today, reformed small primer 308 Lapua 'Palma' brass might let the old 243 produce some really special results.

The other point to note is that the cartridge isn't barrel friendly in the heavy-bullet hot loads match role. The aforementioned John Whidden has three rifles in use at any one time and rebarrels them as a matter of course over a competition season - helpful if you're a successful rifle builder / gunsmith in this situation.

[WelshShooter]

Before you think up grand possibilities, the first (and key) question is: What is the rifling twist rate on your 243 barrel? The standard SAAMI 1 in 10" is severely limiting, like really severely. The 1 in 9 or 9.25" that some manufacturers have adopted isn't too bad, but still won't allow the use of a modern long-range match bullet in a decent weight.

The older, shorter , blunter, lower BC 90gn Berger BT Match is stabilised enough in the 10-twist to group and produce round holes but is still way under-stabilised in the latest guidelines to provide full ballistic performance. It's fine in a 9-twist. The 87gn Berger Hunting VLD was designed as a dual-purpose deer / paper bullet for the 243, but the 10-twist will again stabilise it enough for use, but not well enough for serious precision shooting at 1,000, never mind 2,000 yards. Again 9-twist is just good enough.

The 95gn Berger is barely stabilised at all in the 10-twist so may tumble in some ambient conditions and is marginally stabilised in 9. Anything longer (ie 105-110gn Match bullets) need an eight-twist and current thinking is increasingly moving to 7 to 7.5 rates.

The same applies to high-BC match bullets from other manufacturers.

FWIW I had an ex-police 243 Parker-Hale M87 (10-twist / heavy barrel) some years back. It was a reasonable short to mid-range rifle with tailored handloads, although a good 6BR shooting 105s would have p**ed all over it at almost any distance. With 90gn Sako FMJBT factory ammo and Winchester 100gn Super-X PSP deer loads, it was a just acceptable 500 yard shooter on standard (large centre) NRA targets, but fell off really badly at 600 yards. Nothing wrong with the rifle design / condition or inherently wrong with the cartridge (John Whidden the top US gunsmith and sling shooter keeps winning the US National Championships with his own build fast-twist 243s), just the limitations of a too-low rifling pitch rate. The old P-H M87 would reliably shoot quarter to half-inch 5-shot 100 yard groups with handloads utilising the stubby Sierra 70gn MatchKing over various powders and with nothing special in the brass etc selection and preparation processes. Today, reformed small primer 308 Lapua 'Palma' brass might let the old 243 produce some really special results.

The other point to note is that the cartridge isn't barrel friendly in the heavy-bullet hot loads match role. The aforementioned John Whidden has three rifles in use at any one time and rebarrels them as a matter of course over a competition season - helpful if you're a successful rifle builder / gunsmith in this situation.

So since most .243 barrels's are in such slow twists (which are good enough for lower mass hunting bullets), does that mean the monochromatic omnivore is correct in dubbing the calibre as predominantly a "Bambi basher" unless you go for a custom build? Correct me if I'm wrong but if someone was to go the custom rifle build, would they not consider the 6mmBR or 6PPC instead?

[Laurie]

First, if you have a 10-inch twist 243 it can be made to shoot well on the range within the bullet limitations. Those limitations will stop it shooting as effectively though at mid to long distances as a rifle with a 7.5 or 8-twist barrel able to employ state of the art 105gn 6mm match bullets. I will in fact be having a play with a standard 243 Win in HB form (Howa Varmint in an Axiom stock and decent trigger) and writing up what you can and cannot do in TS online in due course.

Very few people doing things with the 243 case in custom builds will stick with the standard Winchester design these days. Favoured options are 243 Ackley 40-deg shoulder, a very effective if barrel burning long range varmint and match number, and the very nice easily reformed long-neck sharper shoulder numbers such as Robert Whitley's 6mm SLR (Super Long Range) which has its shoulder pushed back to give a longer neck and a 30-degree shoulder angle. (ie it becomes a Tubb 6XC up front but with a longer, roomier, higher capacity case behind.)

Most good alternatives to the 243 in custom rifle form are a bit smaller these days than the 243 - 6XC, 6SLR, 6CM, 6mm Hornady Creedmoor, 6 Dasher (in various forms), 6mm SMACK and a few more. They are mostly running with around 40gn powder, 5-10gn less than the 243.

The 6mmBR is just a tad small/underpowered for most long-range disciplines with the possible exception of benchrest. It often offers staggeringly good precision, but in disciplines like F-Class, it suffers against more ballistically muscular alternatives if the wind is variable. The Dasher and other improved versions partially rectify that and retain the precision - most US 600 yard BR winners use them.

None of the 6BR family feeds well in magazines, so rapid fire disciplines like XTC, PRS, tactical comps use longer cased sixes - the US PRS Series' current darling is the 6mm Creedmoor whiuch Ruger has now adopted as a Ruger Precision Rifle option and it is now a registered SAAMI cartridge with Hornady factory ammo - watch this one, it may become a big winner shortly. Others use the 6SLR, 6-6.5X47 Lapua, 6XC and suchlike.

The PPC in normal usage is an out and out short-range BR number with slow twist barrels 65-68gn bullets and very tight chamber clearances. in 'looser' chamber form with a fast twist barrel shooting 105s, it is a viable long-range cartridge, but doesn't do as much as the 6BR with its smaller capacity case and doesn't do anything better in precision terms.