What's the best 243 best ammunition for accuracy?

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What's the best 243 best ammunition for accuracy?

Post by Dallaskj » 13 Apr 2021, 4:57 pm

I sometimes shoot at a nearby Rifle Club in the sporter class comp with a Howa 1500 243 SS. My scope is a Bushnell trophy x30.
The comp is at either 300m or 400m and i'm running factory winchester ammo.
I'll put a couple of nice shots in, scoring excellent on the 'warmup' shots and then declining accuracy. This happened 3 times on saturday due to the format of the comp, including a bullseye and a couple of 5's followed by reduced accuracy (still on the black though.)
So the issue is rapidly declining accuracy after 2 shots, and i'm not sure what the source of the issue is. The rifle seems capable.

Will a 100-115g projectile be a better solution than the 80g wins?
Could there be a barrel heating issue? If so, will a varmint or fluted barrel help?
Has anyone experienced this and what else can i check to rectify it?
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Re: What's the best 243 best ammunition for accuracy?

Post by in2anity » 13 Apr 2021, 5:16 pm

You need a heavy varmint barrel.
At what point does lack of maintenance become patina?
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Re: What's the best 243 best ammunition for accuracy?

Post by bladeracer » 13 Apr 2021, 5:25 pm

Dallaskj wrote:I sometimes shoot at a nearby Rifle Club in the sporter class comp with a Howa 1500 243 SS. My scope is a Bushnell trophy x30.
The comp is at either 300m or 400m and i'm running factory winchester ammo.
I'll put a couple of nice shots in, scoring excellent on the 'warmup' shots and then declining accuracy. This happened 3 times on saturday due to the format of the comp, including a bullseye and a couple of 5's followed by reduced accuracy (still on the black though.)
So the issue is rapidly declining accuracy after 2 shots, and i'm not sure what the source of the issue is. The rifle seems capable.

Will a 100-115g projectile be a better solution than the 80g wins?
Could there be a barrel heating issue? If so, will a varmint or fluted barrel help?
Has anyone experienced this and what else can i check to rectify it?


Sounds like your barrel is getting too hot, or the heat is allowing it to move and touch against the stock.
Do you get enough time between shots to use a chamber fan to blow air through the bore?
Otherwise, load your own ammo at reduced velocities, less powder means less heat.
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Re: What's the best 243 best ammunition for accuracy?

Post by bigrich » 13 Apr 2021, 6:35 pm

Dallaskj wrote:I sometimes shoot at a nearby Rifle Club in the sporter class comp with a Howa 1500 243 SS. My scope is a Bushnell trophy x30.
The comp is at either 300m or 400m and i'm running factory winchester ammo.
I'll put a couple of nice shots in, scoring excellent on the 'warmup' shots and then declining accuracy. This happened 3 times on saturday due to the format of the comp, including a bullseye and a couple of 5's followed by reduced accuracy (still on the black though.)
So the issue is rapidly declining accuracy after 2 shots, and i'm not sure what the source of the issue is. The rifle seems capable.

Will a 100-115g projectile be a better solution than the 80g wins?
Could there be a barrel heating issue? If so, will a varmint or fluted barrel help?
Has anyone experienced this and what else can i check to rectify it?


the heavier projectiles will be moving slower and producing less heat . the barrel heating up and moving around is the issue . it's why long range shooters favour heavy projectiles with better ballistic coefficiant moving at slower speed . 308 and 6.5 swede are good calibers for this
a varmit barrel would help as would learning to reload . hornady and sierra make match bullets 95 grain and up , or even 95 gn sst's are very accurate . hope this helps :thumbsup:
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Re: What's the best 243 best ammunition for accuracy?

Post by scoot » 13 Apr 2021, 6:51 pm

As above... +
It may be a rash personal generalisation but I've found Winchester ammunition across a range of calibres/styles to be a little ho hum. Not necessarily bad but there seems to be better alternatives available at the same price points.
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Re: What's the best 243 best ammunition for accuracy?

Post by SCJ429 » 13 Apr 2021, 7:11 pm

You will find that 6mms dominate when shooting 100 metres out to 1000 metres. For 100 metres to 300 metres you can do best with a flat based projectile around 60 to 90 grains. Further than that the 100 plus grain VLDs come into their own, better BC keeps the speed up for longer.

Your 243 burns a lot of powder and that makes your barrel hot, the bigger the barrel, the more heat sink you have. If your barrel is stinking hot after three shots, this may be opening up your groups.

Howa barrels are often quite rough, is yours copper fouling badly? Do you have enough time to clean your barrel between targets?

If you reload, a Speer TNT is a budget bullet that will shoot well out to 300 metres. Otherwise get some Bergers.
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Re: What's the best 243 best ammunition for accuracy?

Post by GQshayne » 13 Apr 2021, 7:23 pm

Sounds like it is the time for you to enter the world of handloading. Like many people I enjoy making my own ammo, and I reckon you most probably will to. And of course you can work up the best load for your rifle.
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Re: What's the best 243 best ammunition for accuracy?

Post by pomemax » 13 Apr 2021, 7:25 pm

I shot at Malabar once with a club that made all shooters use one brand of ammo FACTORY Winchester so that all were on an even footing I found that strange at the time never did go back . First thing i thought of when reading you post if that is the case how does it go with other ammo. But it does sound like heat build up
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Re: What's the best 243 best ammunition for accuracy?

Post by bladeracer » 13 Apr 2021, 7:55 pm

pomemax wrote:I shot at Malabar once with a club that made all shooters use one brand of ammo FACTORY Winchester so that all were on an even footing I found that strange at the time never did go back . First thing i thought of when reading you post if that is the case how does it go with other ammo. But it does sound like heat build up


That only makes a level playing field if it happens that all the rifles shoot equally well with that ammo - very unlikely.
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Re: What's the best 243 best ammunition for accuracy?

Post by pomemax » 13 Apr 2021, 8:20 pm

MY Mrs was with me at the time she said very loudly thats crap Now you know why I never went back
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Re: What's the best 243 best ammunition for accuracy?

Post by in2anity » 13 Apr 2021, 8:26 pm

Once every 2 months, our service rifle club runs a novel "telescopic sights" match, up to 400m. To keep things fair, it's further subdivided into different categories, including classic sniper rifles but also "sporter" and "state of the art" for modern rifles. Basically, Sporter = light barrel, SOTA = heavy barrel. For this match, we are allowed to use a light harris style bipod or a front sandbag. In many ways, these telo matches are similar to the new Sporter/Hunter F class (which I think Dallaskj is referring to). In fact I've casually shot a little bit of that S/H class myself, just for something different, over on the fullbore range.

In theses novel telo matches, unlike a regular service match, shooters are allowed unlimited sighters. Yet it's common for shooters with light hunting rifles (in the sporter class) to choose to expend only a single sighting shot, to help mitigate heat build up. In a sporter weight, it's very observable problem to see groups really open up after 5-10 rounds. After sighters, the match requires 20 rounds in under 4 minutes, so the barrels get hot.

Getting back to S/H class - for a time I used a factory Tikka T3 CTR with its "medium" contour factory barrel. Considering it wasn't a proper target barrel, that barrel was exceptionally consistent; vastly superior to any factory barrel I've ever used before (considering the profile). Very impressive indeed, Tikka. Nevertheless, it was hard work to clean that 5 ring, very hard work, harder than it should have been. I've since had it rebarrelled with a kreiger varmint, and it's notebly more consistent once it heats up. That little bit more wiggle room makes all the difference, especially toward the back-end of a match when the barrel is getting hot. It's also still under the 6.5kg weight limit, with the scope/harris bipod, in compliance with S/H rules.
At what point does lack of maintenance become patina?
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Re: What's the best 243 best ammunition for accuracy?

Post by SCJ429 » 13 Apr 2021, 9:52 pm

If the rifle shoots well during the warm up target, fouling of the barrel is very likely to contribute to his issues along with barrel heat. Cleaning between targets gets rid of the fouling and cools the barrel.
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Re: What's the best 243 best ammunition for accuracy?

Post by Larry » 13 Apr 2021, 11:28 pm

I have found that the Berger 90grn Target bullets work very well for accuracy.
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Re: What's the best 243 best ammunition for accuracy?

Post by Dallaskj » 14 Apr 2021, 6:24 am

Larry wrote:I have found that the Berger 90grn Target bullets work very well for accuracy.


Thanks for the tip, a couple replies have mentioned Berger - i'll go get some.
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Re: What's the best 243 best ammunition for accuracy?

Post by Dallaskj » 14 Apr 2021, 6:29 am

Thanks for the solid info and replies! Lots for me to look into.
I will look at using heavier ammo with this rifle, in particular some Berger, and <deep sigh> maybe get a new rifle with a better barrel.
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Re: What's the best 243 best ammunition for accuracy?

Post by in2anity » 14 Apr 2021, 9:07 am

Dallaskj wrote:Thanks for the tip, a couple replies have mentioned Berger - i'll go get some.

At least in my recent experiences, sadly we currently cannot be choosy with our pills, due to worldwide shortages. Maybe you can find some, somewhere, however...

W.R.T to a new barrel. A match grade barrel can be supplied and fitted for well south of $1000. That's something that will be easier to achieve, for now.
At what point does lack of maintenance become patina?
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Re: What's the best 243 best ammunition for accuracy?

Post by SCJ429 » 14 Apr 2021, 7:43 pm

in2anity wrote:
Dallaskj wrote:Thanks for the tip, a couple replies have mentioned Berger - i'll go get some.

At least in my recent experiences, sadly we currently cannot be choosy with our pills, due to worldwide shortages. Maybe you can find some, somewhere, however...

W.R.T to a new barrel. A match grade barrel can be supplied and fitted for well south of $1000. That's something that will be easier to achieve, for now.

Agree, nothing wrong with a Howa action. A Maddco barrel chambered in 6mm BR would transform your current rifle.
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Re: What's the best 243 best ammunition for accuracy?

Post by in2anity » 20 Apr 2021, 11:07 am

At what point does lack of maintenance become patina?
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