A while back I was surfing the Accurate Shooter website and got on to their .243 page. One thing led to another and I started thinking about Reloder 22 and some Hornady blemished bullets I had bought a couple of years ago.
Because the bullets are blems, the seller wouldn't identify them by maker or number, but I got a few knowledgeable reloaders together and we looked at bullets, the consensus being that they are Hornadys and they appear to be the 6mm caliber, 100 grain boat tailed soft point with cannelure, #2453.
Understand, reloading is very variable, and each barrel is different. My load map may not be safe in your rifle, but the load I'm going to talk about is safe in mine. It shows absolutely no pressure signs of any type. If I'm not very sure about what I'm doing, I stick with published recipes. With that caveat out of the way, we can proceed.
My rifle is a bone stock Savage 10 Hunter model. It still wears the original tupperware stock. I haven't done anything to it except to mount a scope and shoot it. It turns in good accuracy with most ammunition, but when I combined the Hornady blem bullet and Reloder 22, something special happened.
This is not a cherry-picked target. This load will make a group like this every time I do my part. I like my hunting rifles to be sighted 2" high at 100 yards. When I looked through the chronograph and saw that the bullet was traveling over 3100 fps, I was floored. Combine that big-for-caliber bullet with that speed and we've got one heck of a hunting load.
I consider the .243 to be an overbore cartridge and it's my experience that the slow burners work good in overbore cartridges. Listed at #126 on the Hodgdon chart, I consider Reloder 22 to be a slow burner. It's good in the .243 and the .25-06. I also use it for some loads in the .30-06.
If you haven't tried Reloder 22 in overbore cartridges, you're missing a treat.
THAT is a nice group!
ReplyDeleteI have a Ruger 77RL in .250 Savage that will shoot like that with Remington factory 100 grain PSP loads.
ReplyDeleteI haven't found a reload that will do that well, so far.
Pawpaw, you might find that your 243 target rifle shoots worse than your 243 hunting rifle.
ReplyDeleteVarget works for me.
ReplyDelete1" all day, inna Savage 10.