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bone breaking bullets for .243 Winchester
- Thread starter kcub
- Start date
Gunplummer
New member
Factory Remington worked for me. I remember shooting a deer high in the lungs and it ruptured the spine and dropped it. There was no visible bullet damage at the spine. There is a lot of pressure with a .243 hit. Bullet angle means a lot. Just because you broke part of the shoulder does not mean the bullet was headed into a kill zone. I shot a doe once that was limping along feeding. It had an ugly wound at the shoulder. It looked like it was shot with a shotgun from a steep angle, almost straight up and down. The jagged bone was sticking out of the skin and the meat was drying around the edges. The poor deer was running like that for a couple days. It was simply shot from a bad angle. A miss is a miss no matter what type bullet you use. Years ago the problem with bullets was expansion. I never heard of so many penetration problems with bullets until all the new "Super" bullets became available. The big ammo suppliers(Winchester and Remington) spent millions for bullet research. Their old style bullets are good enough for me.
I deer hunted with a .243 for 10 years. I recommend regular bullets, I usually used Super X but had good luck with regular Federals too. The problem with .243 is if you like an exit wound you won't usually get one. The bullet will fragment with a chest shot. Most deer have hamburger for lungs and a heart with a chest shot. I had one deer that a piece of bullet bounced around inside to the intestines and it was a chest shot. If you shoot it in the shoulder you will break it's leg, I've been there and done that. But it won't kill it. And surprisingly a three legged deer gets around almost as fast as one with four working legs. So avoid shoulder shots, you should with any round but mistakes do happen. You will not be under gunned. Most people don't realize it's a wildcat really and it's a good hunting cartridge for as far as you're comfortable shooting. Just watch out for the wind.
Barnes 80 grain TTSX has me believing that all mono metal bullets like Hornady GMX and Nosler E-Tip will get the job done. If you can find an old box of them the 105 grain Speer semi-spitzer would punch holes clean through deer. I really don't like shooting deer through the shoulders with a .243, as it usually leaves a ton of bloodshot meat especially at the ranges most deer are shot. I usually jerky strip the front shoulders, and let my daughter have fun with it in the kitchen with the dehydrator.
Hogs, what little I've hunted them have always been shot in the ear. Any bullet works well if you shoot them that way.
Hogs, what little I've hunted them have always been shot in the ear. Any bullet works well if you shoot them that way.
Hogs, what little I've hunted them have always been shot in the ear. Any bullet works well if you shoot them that way.
X 2 on that. I hog hunt with PPU soft points and dont feel at a disadvantage using $13 a box ammo over the higher priced stuff.
A soft point thru the ear drops em right there.
Brian Pfleuger
Moderator Emeritus
Nothing penetrates or holds together or hits harder than the Barnes TTSX line. Some others, like the Hornady GMX, may match it but I don't know how they'd beat it.
I've seen an 80gr TTSX fired from a .243Win (MV 3,450) penetrate an adult whitetail buck diagonally from right rear hip (directly through the joint) and stop just inside the left shoulder.
I also use them in my 15" Encore 7mm-08 (110gr, MV 2,800) and they hit like lightning. Dropped one last year at just shy of 150 yards, through both shoulder bones, DRT.
They're one of the few products that actually seem to live up to the marketing claims.
I've seen an 80gr TTSX fired from a .243Win (MV 3,450) penetrate an adult whitetail buck diagonally from right rear hip (directly through the joint) and stop just inside the left shoulder.
I also use them in my 15" Encore 7mm-08 (110gr, MV 2,800) and they hit like lightning. Dropped one last year at just shy of 150 yards, through both shoulder bones, DRT.
They're one of the few products that actually seem to live up to the marketing claims.
Gunplummer
New member
Where do people come up with some of this nonsense? I own a .243 and used a 6MM quite a few times. I have owned more than one .257 Roberts. I guess the .257 Roberts needs steel jacketed ammo to break a shoulder too. I mean, we are only talking 17 more grains of bullet.
DAVID NANCARROW
New member
The Nosler Partition is a great bullet for penetrating. Found out the ballistic tip isnt.
stillquietvoice
New member
ive used rem scirocco 90 grain last year distroyed front shoulder joint.
this season i used fed fusion 95 grainers got full penetration from behind onside shoulder through off side shoulder blade. both bullets made instant one shot kills.
this season i used fed fusion 95 grainers got full penetration from behind onside shoulder through off side shoulder blade. both bullets made instant one shot kills.
mxsailor803
New member
Nosler makes a fine bullet and I'm not knocking it one bit. I mainly use Sierra ProHunter 100gr bullets in my .243win. It will break both shoulders running around 2800fps. Now, this also depends on the animal. Will break a big boar hog shoulder with all of the fat shield? I don't know. For those I usually take a quartering away or neck/head shot.
As we all know, the .243 will kill deer..... every hunter has different opinions based on his experience ...but
Where I hunt, in national forest or brushy woodlots, if there is no blood it can be difficult to find a deer even if they go down within 50 yards of where shot. Hog habitat is much the same.
I try to keep this in mind and anything can happen with any bullet depending much on where you hit them. But to stack the odds in my favor I load bullets that penetrate, shoot for the lungs, the goal being to get a good exit.
The best bullets for this are the Barnes X, 100 grain Nosler Partition and Speer's 100 grain Grand Slam if you are limited to the 243.
Where I hunt, in national forest or brushy woodlots, if there is no blood it can be difficult to find a deer even if they go down within 50 yards of where shot. Hog habitat is much the same.
I try to keep this in mind and anything can happen with any bullet depending much on where you hit them. But to stack the odds in my favor I load bullets that penetrate, shoot for the lungs, the goal being to get a good exit.
The best bullets for this are the Barnes X, 100 grain Nosler Partition and Speer's 100 grain Grand Slam if you are limited to the 243.
A lung or heart shot deer can run a bit, sometimes even a couple of hundred yards. If you break both shoulders he ain't going nowhere. You can do that with a 30-06 with any 150 grain or heavier bullet, I'm not sure about 243 with any bullet, but maybe a Nosler partition could break both shoulders and drop him. As has been said, a three legged deer can run but a two legged deer isn't going anywhere.
If you want a bullet to punch through a shoulder, stay together and keep its weight, and continue going mostly in the same direction in one piece I've been very pleased with Nosler Parititons and Speer Grand Slams over the years. I don't shoot 243, but they have performed well in 30-06 and 7mm Rem mag. Enough so, that I haven't tried anything new like the TTSX people rave about.
Factory bullets usually do the job, but until you've compared them over a range of useage, you don't really notice where they don't perform as well. When they bust through the shoulder and fragment, they usually make for a quick kill on deer but I prfer the bullet stay intact, and bust though the other shoulder on the way out, especially on stuff a little tougher than deer.
Factory bullets usually do the job, but until you've compared them over a range of useage, you don't really notice where they don't perform as well. When they bust through the shoulder and fragment, they usually make for a quick kill on deer but I prfer the bullet stay intact, and bust though the other shoulder on the way out, especially on stuff a little tougher than deer.