Range Report .243 Remington

dallenvance.gunter

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Oct 21, 2013
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I just bought a .243 Remington model 700 it was somewhat cheap but has the bull barrel and is a tack driving mother. I know it should perform out to 600-700 yards. The 95 grain Berger at 3130 is awesome. My question is if anyone has experimented out to the 1000 yard range with a .243 and how did it perform? Pros and cons would help me out a lot? Thanks.


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I believe most who run to 1,000 with the .243 are using heavier (105-115g) bullets. I recently had 2 .243s tubed with 1/8 twist barrels for the heavies. You probably have a 1/9 tube on the factory rig. It might not be able to handle anything over 100g. But, you push the 95s along pretty well with H4350 or H4831sc (or regular H4831) and see how they do.

.243s are a lot of fun. Nominal recoil compared to a .308, great bullet/powder selection, and easy to load for. Try some of the lighter bullets, too. Lots of groundhogs hate the accuracy and velocity of the 70 grainers.
 
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Email Berger. They will email you load data for your bullet and powder combo. I've found their numbers are realistic, if they say max load then approach it with caution. Not like some manufacturers who's max load is padded by the attorneys.
 
Two things I have found:

The 85 grain sierra game kings are great on varmints.

and The One book, One load for the 243 winchester can be a good asset in a market with questionable/odd powder availability.
 
DVG,

We used to have a guy at HR who would hammer with that combo all the way out to 1k. He said it was a worn out barrel, but I saw him shoot a 4" group at 1k.

HTH,
DocB
 
The Hornady's 105 HPBT would stabilize in my old 9-1/8 twist Rem barrel. None of the VLD's or Hybrid's from Berger would stabilize. My new 8 twist barrel will stabilize all the Berger bullets up to 105.
 
I shoot the same 9.125 twist Remington 243 that you have. I have no problem shooting the Hornady 105 A-max. They are a bit slow, but groups are consistently less than .5 MOA, and 900 yard gongs not a problem. It is more accurate than I am.
 
Does anyone know if the barrel will last a little longer when using heavier bullets and lower velocities or is it basically the same powder dump in the tube?
 
I think
Does anyone know if the barrel will last a little longer when using heavier bullets and lower velocities or is it basically the same powder dump in the tube?
I think if you run slower powder with a heavy bullet, going slower you will get longer barrel life. I am at 1500 rounds on a .243 using only 105's. First with 4831 sc, now with retumbo. First 800 rounds at 2800 fps, now at 3000 fps. Accuracy seems to have settled around .500- .675.
 
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