.243 Winchester Load Data

[Gunreference1]

https://www.shootingtimes.com/editor...ad-data/460607

Steve

[JTHunter]

An interesting article as I load for a Rem. 700 in .243.
When I first shot this rifle in the late '80s, I was using Remington, Federal, and Winchester 100 gr. bullets while trying to set the scope up for a 200 yd. zero. As I was shooting one round at a time off of sandbags, my "sight picture" changed every time but that couldn't explain why those three loads were all over the paper. Disgusting.
I wrote to 7 or 8 powder manufacturers as I was looking at reloading 60 gr. HP, 75 gr. HP, and 100 gr. PSPBT bullets. One of the responses I received was from Accurate Arms and that gentleman suggested their 2230 powder as it would work for all three weights. He noted however, that the 2230 was a faster burning semi-sperical small grain powder which this article would probably deem to be too fast as it recommends "medium to slow-burning powders".
I used fired brass from multiple sources (Fed., Win., Rem., Savage-Stevens) and Sierra bullets, starting with the 100 gr. loads. The manual said a MAX of 33.5 gr. for this bullet so I started at 31 gr. and advanced by 1/4 gr. increments, scaling all loads. The best accuracy was from 32.5 to 33.5 with no bulging cases or blown/dimpled primers at 33.5 gr. The next sets were 0.1 gr. from 32.6 to 33.5 with the best accuracy at 33.2-33.4 grs.
I set up a Lee progressive press with their "auto powder measure" (2 stacked plastic discs) that gave me 33.3 +/- 0.1 grs. With those loads, I put 7 shots in an arc with 6 in the arc of ~1.25" horizontal by 2.25" vertical and a 7th "flier" that made the horizontal open up to ~2.25". A co-worker who shot for the Missouri Benchrest club advised me afterwards that I should have used one brand of brass as the "web" around the flash hole varies a fair amount and that can change the pressures. He also said that some of the club's shooters will take a box of 100 bullets and scale ever, single one of them, separating by weight any that varied by more than 0.1 gr.
Later, in setting up the 60 gr. HPs, their MAX was 38 gr. and once again, their best accuracy was within 0.5 gr. of that MAX. And shooting those at 200 yds. with hits about 1-1.25" up and left of POA, as I made no changes to the scope. All of these shots were taken with a 3-9x scope set at 9x. I have also been advised that, being a "faster" powder, the 2230 will likely cause more "throat erosion" somewhere down the line.
In a much more recent reloading manual, I could not find 2230 listed for the .243 any more. Fortunately, I still have a sealed 1 lb. container that will last me the rest of my life.