243 Winchester Reduced Load

[x101airborne]

My youngest is 9 years old but he is 5'1" and is needing a non-youth size rifle. I wanted to introduce him to more recoil and muzzle blast slowly; all he has used so far is 224 Valkyrie, 22 Hornet, 300 Blackout. So I dug in the safe and came up with a Husqvarna 243 with a Leupold 3-9x40 on it. Looking for a reduced load to get him accustomed to a new rifle, I started to look in my books for reduced loads. Not finding much specific information, I took a 100 grain bullet starting load and loaded it with an 87 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip. Specific load information is..

Remington 1x fired cases, full length resize, check for length
Winchester LRM primers
31.0gr IMR 3031
87 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip seated to where the boat tail is below the neck, for my rifle this means .025 of jump to the rifling. 

Shooting off a bagged bench the rifle never moves. No recoil what so ever. Barrel does get more heat put to it than I thought it would, but I don't plan on us shooting a lot.
Accuracy is SPECTACULAR for what I am used to out of this rifle. With 100 grain hunting loads, this rifle is usually MOA or slightly plus. Good nuff. But it actually exceptionally accurate with this load. Fired 5, 5 shot groups at 100 yards off a bagged bench and the average group is half MOA. One was 3/4 MOA and two were one ragged hole. My chronograph is Tango Uniform, but I am guessing this is running around 2750 fps from a 22 inch barrel. Plenty good for whacking yotes and other varmint species on the farm.

If any of yall are bored and own a 243, try this load out and see if my rifle is just a fluke or have I stumbled onto gold? If anyone has Quickload and can give a ballpark velocity that would be appreciated as well.  

[flyingzebra]

I'll check my notes, but I have a similar load that shoots very nicely out of my TCR83

[bigtee]

Here is some good info on reduced rifle loads.


imrpowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/h4895-reduced-rifle-loads.pdf

[x101airborne]

Thanks yall.

[bradshaw]

Apr 10, 2020 15:32:49 GMT -5 x101airborne said:

My youngest is 9 years old but he is 5'1" and is needing a non-youth size rifle. I wanted to introduce him to more recoil and muzzle blast slowly; all he has used so far is 224 Valkyrie, 22 Hornet, 300 Blackout. So I dug in the safe and came up with a Husqvarna 243 with a Leupold 3-9x40 on it. Looking for a reduced load to get him accustomed to a new rifle, I started to look in my books for reduced loads. Not finding much specific information, I took a 100 grain bullet starting load and loaded it with an 87 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip. Specific load information is..

Remington 1x fired cases, full length resize, check for length
Winchester LRM primers
31.0gr IMR 3031
87 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip seated to where the boat tail is below the neck, for my rifle this means .025 of jump to the rifling. 

Shooting off a bagged bench the rifle never moves. No recoil what so ever. Barrel does get more heat put to it than I thought it would, but I don't plan on us shooting a lot.
Accuracy is SPECTACULAR for what I am used to out of this rifle. With 100 grain hunting loads, this rifle is usually MOA or slightly plus. Good nuff. But it actually exceptionally accurate with this load. Fired 5, 5 shot groups at 100 yards off a bagged bench and the average group is half MOA. One was 3/4 MOA and two were one ragged hole. My chronograph is Tango Uniform, but I am guessing this is running around 2750 fps from a 22 inch barrel. Plenty good for whacking yotes and other varmint species on the farm.

If any of yall are bored and own a 243, try this load out and see if my rifle is just a fluke or have I stumbled onto gold? If anyone has Quickload and can give a ballpark velocity that would be appreciated as well.  

*****

The main thing is to avoid excess air space with slow powder!. Don’t have data for reduced loads in .243 Winchester but, believe it or not, a few IHMSA silhouettes used the .243 Win in Unlimited category. If such a silhouette reads this he or she may respond.

My most universal powder for bottleneck silhouette cartridges was IMR 4895 and Hodgdon 4895. I used 4895 below max in 7mm TCU, 7mm/308x1-3/4”, 7mm IHMSA, .308 Winchester, and 7mm BR Remington.

For a reduced .308 Win load----well below minimum in Hodgdon data
* 180 Spitzer (flat base); 30/4895. 1,800 fps @ 15” bbl. Note: Velocity can be cocktailed with seating depth.

* 165 Spitzer (flat base); 32/4895.

* 150 Spitzer (flat base); 34/4895.

These loads are shootoff-accurate @ 200 meters with the right bullet seated to kiss rifling. Deep throat is a disadvantage and costs velocity. To go below these charges risks ignition irregularity. The above loads were very consistent in my shooting.
David Bradshaw

[Rimfire69]

I see 4895 recommended and that 60% formula is a great place to start. What nobody has mentioned is TrailBoss, we use a pile of it around here, my boys burn it up in everything. We have used it in modern rifle cases with both cast and jacketed bullets with great success.

[hawg]

If you can't develop a good reload, in factory fodder we shot the 87 grain hornady sst at 2800 fps. Accounted for a lot of deer and hogs in North texas.

[boolitdesigner]

I have done the same for two of the neighbor girls.... one 9 and the other 12. I used SR 4759 though. They loved it.

[Rimfire69]

Apr 13, 2020 8:15:25 GMT -5 boolitdesigner said:

I have done the same for two of the neighbor girls.... one 9 and the other 12. I used SR 4759 though. They loved it.

  With cast or jacketed. 

[boolitdesigner]

Both...................

[sixshot]

I use to shoot the Lyman #245496 cast bullet I believe it was, anyway, it was an 85 gr gas checked bullet & I think 15 grs of RL7 with a pinch of kapok pushed down over the powder. Shot a number of Texas bullfrogs & a few turkeys with that load. Just shot them in the breast, you could eat the bullet hole.
Your son could practice with a reduced load & then you can load some full power loads & re zero the gun, he'll never know the difference but those Texas white tails will. I shot them with an 85 gr Sierra flat base, not the boat tail, the flat base was a better bullet on game.

Dick

[x101airborne]

Yeah Dick, you are right, I could. But he already has a deer and hog rifle. This is just to get him familiar with a larger, heavier rifle. When deer season comes around he will go back to the custom AR I built him.