Cause I just got one.

Had the itch for a precision bolt gun for a few months that hasn't passed so I started looking for a good deal on armslist. I traded off a used sig 229 e2 with 4 mags and trijicon night sights for the following rifle.

Remington 700 sps varmint in .243, 26 in heavy barrel

Magpul hunter stock, bottom metal and 1 mag.

Timney 510 trigger

Badger oversized bolt knob installed by short action customs

Burris xtc rings

Weaver 4-20x50 euro super slam (model 800370) and base.


I'm not crazy about the glass and would not have purchased it myself but it does have decent clairity, ffp, exposed locking turrets and side focus. So it seems like it will get me by for a while and it's made in Japan so should be ok quality. Only time will tell, but I feel like I came out well ahead in the trade. On to my questions.


1. What ammo would anybody suggest, I'm not to the point of reloading yet but feel like this might help me get there faster. There doesn't seem to be many factory options for match ammo.


2. What grain ammo should I stay with roughly, it's a 1/9 twist. I'm guessing under 95 grains by the little research I've done?


3. What max range can I expect out of my rifle, my back yard is 200 yards and where I regularly shoot. I'm hoping to find somewhere local I can go at least 400-500yds.

4. What range should I zero at?

5.  Will a triad tactical stock pouch fit over a magpul hunter stock?

Im sure I'll have more questions as I get some experience, but super excited to get shooting. I know .243 isn't a preffered caliber to most but I feel it should do fine for me starting out

243s are barrel burners so you don't have to worry about keeping the caliber/ barrel for too long ;)

That scope is bizarre. Premium price for FFP but no mil dot or moa hash

12 twist is 85 gr
10 twist is 90 & 100 gr
8 twist is 105 & 107
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/338245/federal-premium-vital-shok-ammunition-243-winchester-100-grain-nosler-partition-moly-box-of-20

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/861749/federal-power-shok-ammunition-243-winchester-100-grain-soft-point-box-of-20

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/795384/black-hills-gold-ammunition-243-winchester-95-grain-hornady-sst-box-of-20

I suggest you try a box each of several brands weights  and see what it likes.  If I had to guess I'd say Federal Premium but you might find it likes 80 gr Barnes its hard to tell till you get it on the bench.

Unless you're running an 8 twist or faster it's not going to be the best choice for precision work.  243 can work great for precision with heavy bullets, really needs the right twist to do it.  

HSM 95gr berger 95gr win bst 95gr Hornady SST and fed 80gr soft points.  The 95gr berger bullets will easily travel to 800 yards.  Sounds like you just need to shoot it now. My old Remington 700 likes 95gr nosler ballistic tips in front of imr 7828 or imr 4831 with Rem or Fed primers. Be careful if you crimp the  .243 builds pressure quick. I run a very light crimp just barely enough to feel when I seat my bullets.

Next step is to download either the shooter or Strelok app and burn your first barrel up.

IMO .243 is an under appreciated round. Espically for hunting a wide variety of critters. Plain old ordinary 95-100 grain pills @ 2960-3100 fps can handle most creatures including hogs up to about 250 pounds out to 400-450 yards. Varmints to a 1000+ if you can hit them.
Within a reasonable hunting range of say 600 or less it is dam versital. Light recoil, flat shooting, compact, easy to find over the counter ammo, not crazy expensive. What is not to love ?

Barrel burner...? Meh. Most every cartridge with velocitys over 3000fps experience excessive barrel wear and shorter life spans. You are trading a flatter trajectory for barrel life.

Accuracy.. again, meh. 98% of humans can not out shoot the most mediocre off the shelf firearm so it is a bit of a non issue. When you can shoot the firearm as well as a rest then chase accuracy issues. The difference in actual accuracy gain is hard to quantify when you start Judging accuracy in 100ths of an inch. Exponentially harder @ .1000

.243's accurate useful barrel life in competition is between 800 and 1000 rounds. I think I'll pass.

......but outside of competition at unkown distances or hunting, a flatter trajectory isn't that valuable. We have accurate range finders and scopes that dial for drop.  

Thanks for all the info guys. I was already well aware of the short barrel life .243. I remember reading about 2k rounds or so. I won't be competing with this rifle and highly doubt I'll ever touch that many rounds with it. If I do I'll rebarrel and probably consider a different caliber at that time but we'll cross that bridge if it ever comes.

As far as accuracy goes as long as it will hold a decent goup at 200 and I can ring some steel at 500-600 I'll be beyond excited to say the least.

You'll be able to that, just fin the heaviest match type bullet that your barrel will spin and enjoy it.

I worked up a load for a buddy with the same barreled action. Used 90 or 95 gr Berger hpbt target and 44.5gr h4350.  It shot .5-.6" 5 shot groups and speed was 3280.  The speed actually carried that bullet well to 1k yds.

There's always someone that chimes in with barrel burner, gone in 800rds.  They either have never owned a 243 or they took one pd hunting and ran through 900rds in 3 days of hard shooting.  My last 243 barrel I replaced, it was a remage, had 2500rds on it and still shot 5/8 moa.  I had no fliers at extended range, yet, but if lost 125fps.  I was shooting 107smk and 42.5gr h4350@3125, pre velocity loss. The barrel was 2 yrs old when I replaced it.  New remage criterion is a 243ai, 105 hybrids at 3275, it's a freaking laser.

That's what people are talking about, the barrel can still shoot great. 125fps is quite a bit.
People get sick of chasing lands and upping powder charges to make up for the deterioration or they simply can't get their load back where they need it to be.

Yep.  I'll still use them for practice barrels and stuff, but for match use they are toast and they get to bee too much of a liability when they get into that danger zone for speed loss.

You definitely need to start reloading to get the best from any precision rifle. It would also be good to take a look at the bore with a borescope if you don't know how many rounds have been fired. Lots of powder, primers and bullets get wasted trying to find a good load for a bbl with terminal issues.

The .243/6mm diameter bore is a main stay in most all forms of competition. From 100/200 yd Benchrest matches to 1000 yard matches you will see 6mm's listed high in the scores. The .243 is just a bit more powder than is needed to get the job done which contributes to the alleged short bbl life. If you read about the development of the 6X and 6XC cartridges you will see how much splitting of hairs there is in precision rifle ammunition. They went through a lot of effort just to have a cartridge that held 7 fewer grains of powder. "They" being national champion type shooters at Camp Perry, etc.

I know the barrel currently has about 400 rounds threw it. The previous owner reloaded for it and has offered to give me all the previous load data he has for it. He claimed he was getting .6 3 shot groups with his loads shooting 100 gn Amax's I beleave. But this was just his word of mouth and only 3 shot groups so I took it for what it was worth.

Unforutunaly for me I don't have a good area at my house to reload currently. I plan to someday build a room in my garage to make a reloading area but it's going to cost me at least $1200 to just get the space and then another $800+ to get rolling on reloading. Just not in the budget right now.

thanks for the encouragement.

That isn't hard to believe.

At least you have the right twist rate.  I bought a used 243 IA with a shilen barrel.  It has a 1-12 twist.  I can't shoot the heavier target bullets.  But, I still want to try some 55 grn.  I should be able to push them over 4000 psf out of the 28" barrel.

I've always been kind of a 24 caliber nut. Probably because I started hunting with a 6mm Remington. In fact, my .243 AI should be back to me in the next couple weeks. 

You're good up to 100gr bullets, and I've seen 105 A-Max's work in a 1-9" twist. I'm not sure if that bullet is still being made though. Midway doesn't list it anymore. 

I would look for something with a good BC in the 90-100gr range and you will be able to shoot 500-600 yards without a problem. 

Don't worry about burning out the barrel. They're cheap compared to buying enough factory ammo to shoot it out. 

Mine likes the 95gr ballistic tip and 95gr berger very low drag loads but will not shoot the 105 berger. We are only about 600 feet above sea level. Higher elevation will allow you to get away with a bit more than my location.  I haven't tried the Amax. Now my mod seven youth rifle loves the 85gr speer boattails.  And Hornady 87gr boattails in front of Win 760. Speed wasn't there with the short barrel but it has made a lot of kids happy over the last 25 years. Oh it will shoot the Sierra 85gr bullets to.  Now it doesn't like the 95gr's at all but it will shoot the federal 100 gr partition bullets really well. But they don't expand to well on small white tails. But they punch through hog's really well. The berger bullets like to kiss the lands and the noslers are not as finicky.

Well I picked up a box of federal power shock 100 grain soft points and a box of hornady custom light 87 grain sst. Hoping to shoot it tomorrow afternoon.

I could be wrong, but cartridges loaded to the MAX will burn out ANY barrel, in ANY caliber faster than sensible loadings.   In the .243, a minimum loading of 3000 fps will extend your barrel life.  And, if you are just the average shooter with the gun, you probably will never have to change barrels.  If on the other hand, you load to the max and shoot 2-300 loads per day, every day, without letting the barrel cool down, then expect to replace it quickly.  Barrels lose their accuracy to throat erosion, with a combination of sustained high heat.  That is why most machine gun barrels have to be changed out after a thousand rounds or so with sustained fire, they turn into junk.

Happy Trails.

So you don't need a separate to or an 800 reloading set up. For 4 years I hand loaded with a simple hand press. It was a pain, however made me learn everything at a slow pace. I enjoyed it. Now I have a garage and actual workbench with everything set up on it. I still on have a single stage press, but it's OK with me.

I live in the middle of farm country so using my open garage for some semi-precision tooling is a no go for me. It just stays way to dirty year round that any equipment will be a constant fight to keep clean enough to trust to be accurate as far as I'm concerned. Also I have 3 kids under 6 so I can't really just set it up in the kitchen or living room corner. Too many little hands to make a mess and play.  As far as equipment I'm looking at starting with two rcbs rock chuckers and all the other beginning equipment being pretty basic and came up with a minimum price being $800 plus but maybe I'm over complicating it. I usually do.

We'll got to shoot it a bit tonight, shooter better than I do for a begginer. I really need to pick up a Harris bipod for it. I was using a trash bag box for front support and my hand for a rear support. I started with the federal 100 grain soft point and got on target in 7 rounds making about a two inch group at 50 yards.  Not a bad start for a new rifle. 

Grabbed my sbr to sight it in at 50 also and give the barrel a few minutes to cool. Then moved out to 100yds. Found the rifle didn't like the 100 grain federals at all. Was shooting about a 4" group very erratically. I knew I wasn't pulling them it just was all over. Swapped to the 87 grain Hornady sst and literally pulled the smallest 5 shot group I've ever shot. I measured it with a ruler at a honest 3/4 of an inch.  I took 2 shots at my 33% ispca silhouette at 200 yards but  couldn't tell where I was hitting so I gave up on that idea for the day as it was gitting dark. 

I am all grins  at this point and am completely ecstatic about the gun. I would throw up pics but I can never figure out how to. 

I have a Winchester Model 70 in .243 with a 26" varmint profile heavy barrel.  It was manufactured in the early 1970's.  Does anyone know what barrel twist these had?  I inherited it from my Dad.  Thanks for any help you can provide.

.243Win is a great chamber for women and children and men that don't need to have the carp kicked out of them with every trigger pull for the purposes of machismo. It's good to a mile in proper loadings and positively murders deer sized game. .243AI is a nice little improvement for those that handload. Several more grains powder capacity but you don't have to use it. That said, the case likes to be full. It's usually pretty easy to pull out a plum when load developing if you put the slightest amount of effort into it. Below are the first efforts at load tuning in my new .243AI barrel (this is a drop-in pre-chambered barrel that I installed myself). I picked a fire forming charge of 39.3 grains basically from the air and visually made sure it'd fill the case enough for fire forming (right up to the shoulder body junction). I set initial jump at touching the lands and then went -.010 - -.120 off the lands in 4 stages and what do you know. Solid load on the 3rd try and all of the loads are way more than acceptable for hunting, most are good enough to use in some matches I compete in. These are, however, just for fire forming 250 rounds of brass before I put together the full house 3200fps loads that I'll use in matches.

If you shoot a .243 fast and/or hot and you'll have a new barrel on its way no time at all, less than 1 day of prairie dog shooting isn't hard. They're throat torching machines. That's one of the benefits of the Ackley Improved version. Longer throat life and longer brass life with very little trimming.

OP's twist rate is going to keep him from using the best bullets for long range but it's still a 500m deer harvester any day. A 100 grain soft point will open up a coffee cup sized hole at 500m. At least the one's I have seen hit as such had big ol exit holes.

.243Win vs. .243AI


Load development. Mine likes .080 jumps with 108 ELD-M's at 2780fps (light forming load)


The rifle. It's in the middle of being painted with a Dodger Dog theme. Don't ask. That's a Savage 10FPSR, MDT LSS, MOE stock, Weaver rail, Vortex HD2 4.5-27x, Black Hole Weaponry 26" 8 twist MTU taper barrel, JP brake & burris signature XTR rings. It's a switch barrel rifle with multiple barrels.


I don't like to waste shots from such a rifle on anything closer than 200m. They're such laser beams it seems like a shame. Honestly, under 500m you don't even see much of the awesome.