243 Loads anyone?

[dbach]

Originally Posted by JLA

You aint kiddn. I have a about a 40 pound collection.

Do you load any other cartridges with the varget?

No. I only load .38, .357, .40, .45 and the .243. I think I'll go after some IMR4350 and call it a day.

I'll do a little more research and see if my Varget will work on anything else, or maybe trade it to someone here. I used to have HazMat certification to ship things like this when needed, but I let it expire a few years ago. Anyway HazMat shipping is a PITA unless you do it all the time.

[Caneman]

I have had sucess with Varget and the Barnes bullet got it to group MOA with the .243, but it didn't group as well as H4831sc and H4350...

edit: since you live in TX you may want to consider Varget because it is completely temp insensitive, it actually decreases chamber pressure slightly as ambient temp increases

[JLA]

Well if you dont wanna hassle with that, My wifes cousins live just hop away from you in Clute and Freeport. We are gonna go down and fish the gulf here prolly after the holidays are done. Ill shoot you a PM when we head down and if you still have it ill swap you out for a can IMR or H4350. I use alot of Varget. Its great for .308 and 7.62X54R.

Varget will work good in the .243 but is best suited to light Varmint projectiles.

[dbach]

sorry, repeated reply.

[dbach]

Originally Posted by JLA

Well if you dont wanna hassle with that, My wifes cousins live just hop away from you in Clute and Freeport. We are gonna go down and fish the gulf here prolly after the holidays are done. Ill shoot you a PM when we head down and if you still have it ill swap you out for a can IMR or H4350. I use alot of Varget. Its great for .308 and 7.62X54R.

Varget will work good in the .243 but is best suited to light Varmint projectiles.

OK its a deal. I'd like to have some IMR4350 if possible. I'll return your pm with my cell phone number.

[JLA]

Ite. Sounds good. ill Pm ya when we get ready to head out. Prolly be just after christmas is done with. First or second week of Jan.

[dbach]

Loaded some .243 with the Varget yesterday. I was antsey and wanted to shoot the new rifle (new to me, I bought it at a pawn shop). Here is what I saw:

No signs of overpressure.
Rounds cycled well thru the rifles action.

Using a Hornady 87 grain V-Max, new Winchester brass, and WLR primers.

5 rounds at 37.5 grains Varget - tightest group, very little recoil and seemed to shoot the best.
5 rounds at 39.5 grains Varget - Scattered group did not shoot well at all.
5 rounds at 41.5 grains Varget - Even more scattered, not satisfactory.
All published loads (for 85 grain BTSP and found in the Speer #14 Manual.

So if I continue to use Varget, which is not likely, I'll keep the charge around 37.5 grains.

These were my first rifle reloads and I did have one issue. The problem came with not seating a few of the primers completely. I had a few that were sitting proud. These rounds would not chamber at all. It took me a bit, but I finally figured out what was wrong when I set the rounds down on a table and noticed they were rocking around : ) Duhh.

I have a RCBS Turret press and I have found that it takes a bit of extra effort to seat the large rifle primers correctly. All I had to do was press them a little deeper and the problem vanished. I also started using the RCBS hand press and I found it to be a little more user friendly. I also learned that loading for rifles is not fast. I hand primed and weighed each individual round. The benefit was accuracy. This ones a little hard to swallow but I do have a wittiness. At 100 yards and very little wind my first three shots were touching. The other two were within an inch.

[Caneman]

Originally Posted by dbach

Loaded some .243 with the Varget yesterday. I was antsey and wanted to shoot the new rifle (new to me, I bought it at a pawn shop). Here is what I saw:

No signs of overpressure.
Rounds cycled well thru the rifles action.

Using a Hornady 87 grain V-Max, new Winchester brass, and WLR primers.

5 rounds at 37.5 grains Varget - tightest group, very little recoil and seemed to shoot the best.
5 rounds at 39.5 grains Varget - Scattered group did not shoot well at all.
5 rounds at 41.5 grains Varget - Even more scattered, not satisfactory.
All published loads (for 85 grain BTSP and found in the Speer #14 Manual.

So if I continue to use Varget, which is not likely, I'll keep the charge around 37.5 grains.

These were my first rifle reloads and I did have one issue. The problem came with not seating a few of the primers completely. I had a few that were sitting proud. These rounds would not chamber at all. It took me a bit, but I finally figured out what was wrong when I set the rounds down on a table and noticed they were rocking around : ) Duhh.

I have a RCBS Turret press and I have found that it takes a bit of extra effort to seat the large rifle primers correctly. All I had to do was press them a little deeper and the problem vanished. I also started using the RCBS hand press and I found it to be a little more user friendly. I also learned that loading for rifles is not fast. I hand primed and weighed each individual round. The benefit was accuracy. This ones a little hard to swallow but I do have a wittiness. At 100 yards and very little wind my first three shots were touching. The other two were within an inch.

aint it fun?! great job, why wouldn't we believe you...

so those first 5 all grouped within an inch, thats 0.75 MOA, hard to beat that, and with Varget you get a powder that is temp insensitive...

[JLA]

Actually most all extruded (stick) powders are temperature insensitive. Only ball powders are as picky as my wife is..

[BlackEagle]

Hi all;
I'm looking for good target load suggestions for my BLR .243. From what I can see it has a 1:10 twist.

Currently I have some N140 that I'm using for the .223, and would like to keep the powder inventory down if possible so would like to stick with the N140 if possible, but if something works significantly better I could go for that (if the gun store has it in stock).

Thanks

[JLA]

N140 will work but youre gonna be restricted to light bullets.

N140 is listed here with bullets up to 80 gr. Remember to reduce 10% and work up
http://www.lapua.com/en/products/rel.../relodata/5/50

[BlackEagle]

Originally Posted by JLA

N140 will work but youre gonna be restricted to light bullets.

N140 is listed here with bullets up to 80 gr. Remember to reduce 10% and work up
http://www.lapua.com/en/products/rel.../relodata/5/50

Thanks, Josh.