Cast Bullets in .243 any comments and experiences are welcome. dd

[donald duck]

I just have started loading cast bullets in my .243. Using 85 grain cast, gas checked bullets, with 6.5 grains Green Dot. Does anyone have a favorite light accurate load in the .243?? Thanks !! dd

[Maven]

I use the Ly. 85gr. Loverin CB in my Ruger #1 and am very pleased with its accuracy. 9 - 10gr. Unique under that CB work very well for me, d d.

[Rcmaveric]

I reload a compareable cartridge, the .260 Rem, so the following is opinionated and can be comparable:

NOE has a bullet designed specifically for the .243 Win. I like to use bullets designed for the cartridge. Any thing with a good amount of bearing surface will work well though. Any results gained with any bullet can be extrapolated latter with new bullets. My 260 Rem was the most troublesome cartridge i have reloaded. I barely got it shooting with general molds until I purchased a mold more designed for it. Actually the bullet was designed for 6.5 CM but the throats on 6.5 CM and 264 Rem are darn near the same. I took an educated gamble and it worked well.

If you use Green Dot you will have to break that ground your self. I do see Red Dot loads in manuals. I prefer Unique or Tight Group for the low velocity. Blue Dot and 2400 for the mid velocity. Reloader 7 and 4198 for the higher end. Limited experiments with h4895 show promise. I reload the 264 Rem which is only slightly larger diameter than the 243 Win and the same parent case.

It shouldn't give you any problems with an alloy of around 10 to 12 BHN. If going for pure accuracy then heat treating may tighten the groups at higher velocity. I find actual BHN to not make or break groups but to make good groups shoot better.

My biggest concern would be your twist rate. While you can do anything you put your mind and skills too with anything being possible. A 1 in 9 or slower twist is easier to get shooting nice and accurately with a range of velocities. Faster twist takes some skill to get shooting faster than 1400 fps and has discouraged me more than once but I kept at it after a cooling off period and have had limited success. Just set your self up for little victories so you dont get discouraged while pursuing your ultimate goal.

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[gnostic]

I'm about to load the RCBS 95 grain GC, sized .244 and lubed with Lyman Super Moly with 10 grains of Unique for my Ruger 6mm #1. The bullet will be seated .001 from the lands....

[Rich/WIS]

Use the NOE bullet, 246-105, in front of 12.5 grs of Blue Dot or 20 grs IMR 4198. Both are pleasant to shoot and good for less than 2 MOA. Never tried to do better as these are my 6 inch steel plate loads. Rifle is one of the FN made M70 FWTs with a fairly long throat. Had a Lyman Loverin style mold that had been damaged and I milled back for a 70ish grain PB that worked well with 5 grs of Bullseye in a Rem 788 I had with a short throat but not in the longer throat of the M70. Tried the RCBS but the NOE shot better.

[MT Gianni]

Try the 243 with 12 gr 2400 and either the Lyman 85 gr or the RCBS 95 gr. Either worked well in my gun.

[Bill*B]

SAECO makes a .243 mold that drops an 80 grain truncated cone bullet which works very well for me. Over 12.3 grains of #2400 (that is what my Little Dandy pistol measure throws with a #15 rotor), it clocks at 1656 fps from a 20" barrel. Cast from linotype and sized to 0.244" it will consistently shoot 1.5 MOA five shot groups. Sandbagged with scope, of course.