243 Win.

JKump · January 4, 2005, 04:41 PM

I just got a .243 Handi rifle ultra lite rifle by NEF. What is the story (history) of the .243 Win. round. When was it developed and why?

beenthere · January 4, 2005, 06:41 PM

Introduced in 1955. Rapidly gained popularity as a good round with excellent accuracy capable of taking groundhogs with 80 - 90 grain bullets, and deer sized animals with 100 - 105 grain bullets. It's a necked down 308 Winchester. They also necked up the 308 Winchester to provide the 358 Winchester. All 3 are excellent cartridges in medium length actions.

Enjoy. You've chosen an inexpensive package which will hunt a wide variety of game and pests.

Steven Mace · January 5, 2005, 04:32 AM

You also might be able to find some information here:

http://www.reloadbench.com/cartridges/243.html

Steve Mace

.45-70 Rifleman · January 7, 2005, 10:22 PM

I want to pass on a bad experience my son had with his Remington model 600 in .243. We were at the range and I surprised him with several boxes of Winchester's 55 grain Ballistic Sivertip cartridges. They have a published muzzel velocity of over 4000 fps! We thought these would be really fun to try out. Well they didn't shoot to the same point of aim as the rounds he had been using. There was a big difference. We fired several rounds getting the scope adjusted for them. Then over the course of a couple of hours we fired the remainder of the first box of twenty and then a second box of twenty. The gun heated up in just a few rounds so we paused for about ten minutes between each string of three or four shots - definately not rapid fire. We noticed that we were having a difficult time getting it to group. Grouping became more and more difficult until we realized that the rounds were now creating an erratic pattern on the target. I'm talking six inch groups at 100 yds. This rifle had regularly fired honest 2-2.5 inch groups before. After firing the final of a total of forty rounds, we decided to stop and take a good look at the bore. Yikes. The riflling was now just a bunch of rounded off ridges and we could see marks that appeared to indicate the bullets had been jumping the lands and grooves on their way to a more direct exit out the barrel. The barrel was worthless. Forty rounds of that ammo had taken a really nice bore and wiped it out. Only fourty slowly fired rounds.

I was lucky to find a "like-new" barrel in .308 and I had a gunsmith replace the barrel for him. Nice gun, nice caliber, but beware of the ammunition.

January 4, 2005, 04:41 PM	#1
JKump Senior Member Join Date: November 30, 1998 Location: Middle Georgia Posts: 428	243 Win. I just got a .243 Handi rifle ultra lite rifle by NEF. What is the story (history) of the .243 Win. round. When was it developed and why?

January 4, 2005, 06:41 PM	#2
beenthere Senior Member Join Date: November 16, 2004 Location: NE Indiana Posts: 460	243 Winchester Introduced in 1955. Rapidly gained popularity as a good round with excellent accuracy capable of taking groundhogs with 80 - 90 grain bullets, and deer sized animals with 100 - 105 grain bullets. It's a necked down 308 Winchester. They also necked up the 308 Winchester to provide the 358 Winchester. All 3 are excellent cartridges in medium length actions. Enjoy. You've chosen an inexpensive package which will hunt a wide variety of game and pests.

January 5, 2005, 04:32 AM	#3
Steven Mace Senior Member Join Date: November 15, 1999 Location: Clifton, Colorado USA Posts: 724	You also might be able to find some information here: http://www.reloadbench.com/cartridges/243.html Steve Mace __________________ After today, its all historical

January 7, 2005, 10:22 PM	#4
.45-70 Rifleman Junior Member Join Date: December 26, 2004 Posts: 8	I want to pass on a bad experience my son had with his Remington model 600 in .243. We were at the range and I surprised him with several boxes of Winchester's 55 grain Ballistic Sivertip cartridges. They have a published muzzel velocity of over 4000 fps! We thought these would be really fun to try out. Well they didn't shoot to the same point of aim as the rounds he had been using. There was a big difference. We fired several rounds getting the scope adjusted for them. Then over the course of a couple of hours we fired the remainder of the first box of twenty and then a second box of twenty. The gun heated up in just a few rounds so we paused for about ten minutes between each string of three or four shots - definately not rapid fire. We noticed that we were having a difficult time getting it to group. Grouping became more and more difficult until we realized that the rounds were now creating an erratic pattern on the target. I'm talking six inch groups at 100 yds. This rifle had regularly fired honest 2-2.5 inch groups before. After firing the final of a total of forty rounds, we decided to stop and take a good look at the bore. Yikes. The riflling was now just a bunch of rounded off ridges and we could see marks that appeared to indicate the bullets had been jumping the lands and grooves on their way to a more direct exit out the barrel. The barrel was worthless. Forty rounds of that ammo had taken a really nice bore and wiped it out. Only fourty slowly fired rounds. I was lucky to find a "like-new" barrel in .308 and I had a gunsmith replace the barrel for him. Nice gun, nice caliber, but beware of the ammunition.