.243 boolits

[castormd]

I have been looking at all the normal suppliers of molds and notice there are very few .243 molds available.
Is there something particularly strange about that cartridge, that makes it unpopular to cast boolits for, or is it just an unpopular cartridge as far as boolits?

[Firebricker]

I wouldn't call it unpopular as much as not as common as .30 cal and larger. I had a .243 HP Lyman mould that I bought from an estate. The previous owner loaded a lot of ammo with it. I don't have a .243 so I traded it here for a .30 cal mould. There are guy's here that cast .243 and will be able to tell you a lot more and probably suggest some load's. FB

[castormd]

Fb I think my choice of the word "unpopular" was wrong and "not so common" would be a better choice, but anyway I have just initiated a deal on a 243 which I will soon become the owner of, and I'm just weighing the options as to whether it will be a jacketed bullet gun, or cast ,or both.

[Tazman1602]

Castor,

It's not a matter of being "unpopular" I don't believe. It's a matter of velocity. I'm a .243 guy with rifle but havent' done that much in cast with either .30 cal or .243 as the accuracy I have been able to achieve and the speeds I've been able to achieve out of either of these hasn't been acceptable to ME personally. My .243's shoot MOA with Barnes X bullets, I've loaded them for years and have the load nailed with it, and just don't want to go to the effort of doping it in.

Now with my big bores? .444, 45-70, 450 Marlin? With THOSE calibers I can not only get great accuracy with cast but I can get *close* to factory velocities with my cast loads -- a lot of guys here exceed factory round velocity/accuracy with their cast big bore loads. I'm old enough that I ain't a "speed freak" anymore.

Been working for a year with my big bores and have all the dope on them now, been working with my .357's and am still getting them dialed in -- but I'm a lousy handgun shot and don't mind admitting it.

BRP has some NICE molds and he is a great guy to deal with too, look here:

http://brp.castpics.net/R1.html

at the .243 molds and if you give Bruce a call when he's not busy he can SURE help you decide what you need...................

RCBS makes one too:

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct...tNumber=284678

if you care to look.

...........then if you would post the bullet, weight, powder, primer, brass that you use...........<GRIN>

Hey good luck man and let us know if you do get into cast for .243!

Art

PS -- What .243 are you buying?????

[castormd]

Tazman1602, Thank you!
I found a Remington Mod. 788 ,243 in really good shape. The stock has some normal "hunting and usage" scratches and dings but the rest of the rifle is beautiful.

I saw the gun at a shop while paying off another I had on layaway, and left the shop wondering about it. (history etc.) Then I looked the Mod. 788 up on a couple of sites and saw how good they were, and I could not wait to get back to the shop and put some money on it. After 4 days of sweatin' it , ( that it would have been sold)I got back to the shop and there it was, so, it is on layaway now. A couple reasonable payments and I'll be deciding the big question.... boolit or jacket.

[reloader28]

I use the RCBS 95gr SP. Drops at 100gr and shoots VERY good from 3 243's here. 3/4" at 100yds 15.5 IMR 4198 in mine and my wifes guns.

Tried some 2400 in my brothers gun and at 50yds it shot a ragged hole 5 shot group.

I also have the Lyman 84gr round nose. A friend shoots it very good, but I aint really played with it yet.

I've had very good luck with the 243 cast boolits. I aint really tried for much speed tho. I'm only going about 1750fps with all of them, but this next year I'm going to see if I can crank up the speed some on it.

[1Shirt]

Have the Lyman 85 and 95, and Saeco 85, all GC's. The 85's shoot well in my 243's, but the 95 grainer is to long for my twists.
1Shirt!