another .243 win vs. .308 win thread

[jd138]

My next rifle plan was sidelined yesterday when I went to grab a varmint barreled 700 in .308. (I already have the stock, trigger, and mount on order.) Long story short, I am passing down my current SPS (20" with permanently attached muzzle brake) to my son and piecing together something for competition use (local prone 600 and 1000 yd F Class and tactical).

Even though I called and located two local stores with the .308 in stock, by the time I got there in the evening they were gone (seriously, wtf is going on). Anyway, I started to order a 700 varmint off of GB when the .243's caught my eye. I recalled seeing the .243 in Jason's what the pro's use thread and thought this might be a better alternative. After some digging, I see that they are quite the barrel burners compared to a .308 but their long range ballistics are quite impressive.

Here is my dilemma - the factory .243 carries a 9 1/8 twist. From the hide threads, it would seem that a faster twist is necessary for repeatable long range. In a perfect world, I would grab the action and just send it off to Bugholes for a match barrel, unfortunately that is just not going to happen due to funds. Even though the rifles are pretty much the same price, with the .243 I will need to fork out additional money for new dies, brass, etc. Not such a big deal but I am having trouble deciding if the shorter barrel life and twist issues should scare me off.

Last year I put about 700 round through my .308. Not too much, but that was only practice and two small local club matches. With the shortage of inexpensive 9mm and 12 ga, I am shooting a lot more rifle these days and I see a lot more rounds going down range when I start training up for the competitions. Another knock on the .243 is that it bumps me out of the F T/R and I do not plan on shooting from a rest. I would just have to take my lumps and learn from the experience.

Nutshelling - Do the ballistic/recoil benefits of the factory .243 outweigh the negatives (F open, barrel life, range of bullets given factory twist, new reloading components) enough to purchase over another .308???

 

[MikeeBooshay]

I really like the 243, but with the 9 1/8 twist, you might be lucky to shoot 105 AMAX thru it. I can sometimes ( hot day ) be OK with them in a 1/10, but the 115's need more like a 1/8. Either burns barrels faster than a 308, but the wind hold is easily half that.

Think about rebarreling to a 6.5 or 6 mm Creedmoor, ammo is cheap, easy to load and reasonably available. 140 AMAX are inexpensive, available and the brass is OK too. BArrel life is improved probably 50% over the 243, maybe more than that. I have a couple thousand thru one Bartlein, and still holding up good. Not ever going to see that from the 243, in terms of life.

When you shoot the 243 and the 308 side by side, the 243 is much easier at distance, the travel time difference is amazing. You don't have to wonder why the 243 needs less wind hold.

I'm a recoil sponge, unless it is a 375 that comes in under 10 pounds, or anything that starts with a "4", the difference isn't something I care about. Yes it is less on the 243, but neither is enough to worry over. One of the hardest hitting guns I have, is a light 308. With 175's, it is pretty..... firm. That 308, used to be a 243, regretting changing it over now.

 

[jd138]

Sounds like maybe just getting the .308 for now and then in a year or so when the WAF (wife acceptance factor) is better, rechambering and a new barrel in 6.5/6mm Creedmor??? That makes sense.

 

[CEL317]

Check out LoneWolfUSMC's video on this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u70fExPJ0t0

 

[turbo54]

Sounds like maybe just getting the .308 for now and then in a year or so when the WAF (wife acceptance factor) is better, rechambering and a new barrel in 6.5/6mm Creedmor??? That makes sense.

This sounds like the obvious answer here.

The fact is, the twist of the factory 243 barrel is useless (for your purposes), and you don't have the money to rebarrel now, so you essentially have a useless (again, for your purposes) rifle until you can save up to rebarrel.

On a sidenote, YES, the 243 and 260 are a huge improvement over 308 for ranges past 600 yards. Is it worth the barrel life tradeoff? No one can answer that but you, but if you read through the forums you'll see that 95% of us say YES, it is worth it.

Anyway, it sure sounds like you can make good use of a new 308 right away, but not the new 243. So buy the 308 and start saving for the future rebarrel (and components/tools) to a 6, 6.5 or 7mm. Meanwhile, you can spend more time researching *exactly* which new chambering your prefer, rather than what the LGS has "in stock".

 

[rrflyer]

I had the varmint 243. Need to shoot the 95 match kings or similar. Look in the beyond 1000 yard forum... There's a post with someone taking his sps-v in 243 to 1400 yards.

 

[Chanonry]

I took my time an went through this analysis in some detail. Lots of web searching and time on JBM. It depends what your focus is.

There are guys out there who get great results with heavy high bc 243 rounds loaded to relatively high velocity. The benefits are low recoil - better launch dynamics, better sustained control; flat shooting, good wind bucking properties. Ammo is available, reloading data is well understood. Sounds good. Downside for me is that I want to use my rifle for the range and medium range deer control so I need downrange performance. How to model this well I looked at KE and the HITS calculation. No surprise really that the 243 is not as good on this measure. My other issue was also barrel life, it is a barrel burner when trying to deliver the performance level some of these guys are achieving. If it was paper only and competition I would quite possibly shoot 243 (rather than 260 as over here there is no ammo for the 260 and I don't want to HAVE to reload). If I was sponsored and not paying for the barrels that would also help.

I went for a 308 because I could get and AI AX in that calibre without faffing about. With newer hybrid bullets I can get good bc and limit sensitivity to seating depth which means I am not giving too much up to 243 or 260 ( a reflection of my shooting ability, if I was a top shooter then I may be able to use the enhanced ballistics). I can get half decent surplus ammo for £30/100 so I can afford to shoot lots and do something about my skill level (!). I can get a wide variety of loaded ammo. I can shoot deer with it and deliver lots of knock down power down range. Barrel life is good. I already have a 308 and know it can shoot very accurately. I do give up some ballistics to a 243 or 260 IF i could replicate the loads. I was tempted to go 260, and only did not do so because of the lack of available ammunition.

 

[jd138]

Thank you for all the info fellas (and even a reply from the Scotland homeland). I read Lonewolf's comments in another thread but can not believe I missed his video - love his stuff.

Anyway, looks like the factory twist on the.243 has killed that idea; now if I can just resist teamsendit's switchbarrel....

 

[Niles Coyote]

http://www.snipershide.com/shooting/showthread.php?t=94756&highlight=varmint

My advice is don’t get one... Or your 308’s will become jealous.

And yes the Amax and 105 berger work in the 9.125" in my atmosphere, but even if they don’t think of launching a slightly better bullet than the 175 smk (B.C.) out of your 308 at 3000+ fps... enter the 95 Berger vld, with about 1/3 less wind and drop...

 

[Hawk45]

You don't need 115's to go long with the .243. And if the 105's will work, then you are set, lot of guys use the 105's over the 115's.

I got a .243 barrel for my Savage earlier this year and love it. I don't run comps with mine, it's strictly a pleasure gun and that it delivers on. If you aren't burning round after round down the tube w/o letting it cool, you should get good barrel life.. but barrels are like tires, so don't put much into it. Heck, you'll probably replace the factory .308 barrel if you get one of those anyway, so it's a mute point.