Good .243 mixed fox/deer loads?

[harry mac]

Just to put another one in the mix; I've found the 95grn Nosler Ballistic Tip to be very good. I've taken roe and muntjac with it out to 230m and the occasional fox as well. I drive mine at a shade under 3100fps with 44grns Vhit N160. The load is stupidly accurate and also seems to shoot quite "flat".

[bewsh]

nice bullet
I have 2/3 of a box for sale in the classifieds

[Drew 3]

Anyone used the new Hornady 75 gr SST's yet. Very accurate out of my Sauer but yet to shoot anything to guage meat damage.

[Randy Bohannon]

Ok gents, a quick update.

i have acquired the rifle at long last, a Remington LVSF bought from a member of this forum, together with the components I will be starting with.

On the advice of this thread I've obtained a box of Sierra 85gr varminters for the fixes and a couple of boxes of 100 grain Sierra gamekings on the way.

ive loaded up some of the 85 grain bullets over Reloder 17 to test tomorrow, hope the weather is better than it was today...

[bewsh]

choose the most accurate and most available to you

unless you mess up placement any 70-105gr bullet doing 2800-3200fps through an animal's neck or chest will kill it

personally I found 87gr a sweet spot but ended up using 100gr interlocks in both SP and RN form
I tend to go for impact energy rather than MV

[DaveK]

I was thinking about the 75 grain V-Max bullet, what are they like on a chest shot roe for example?

I'd say 75gn Vmax is more of a foxing round and a generally use it for that but I've used 75gn Vmax on roe a few times and they do work well but do a lot of internal damage. Neck shots should be okay though if you aren't bothered about the neck meat. I've mainly taken chest shots and aren't too bothered that it may do a lot of damage to the meat on a front leg but if you like eating the liver it would be a bit hit and miss.

I've had better results with 95gn SST's for chest shots.

[Randy Bohannon]

I'd say 75gn Vmax is more of a foxing round and a generally use it for that but I've used 75gn Vmax on roe a few times and they do work well but do a lot of internal damage. Neck shots should be okay though if you aren't bothered about the neck meat. I've mainly taken chest shots and aren't too bothered that it may do a lot of damage to the meat on a front leg but if you like eating the liver it would be a bit hit and miss.

I've had better results with 95gn SST's for chest shots.

Thanks Dave, I have used SSTs in other calibres and find them pretty frangible. It seems like the 75 grain v-max is even more frangible and so probably not the best idea for chest shots at close range.

I have some 58grain v-max loads from the previous owner, I will load some 85 grain sierra varminters and some 100 grain gamekings and test them out for myself.