95g vld and 105g amax for 243 win

remingtonman_25_06 · May 3, 2010

I'm going to start playing with some 95g vld's and 105g amaxs out of my stevens 243 for some LR shooting out to 800 yards and for the coyotes that dont wanna come in any closer then 500 yards or so.

Just curious as to what people are using powder wise and getting for groups and velocity.

I have IMR4350, RL22, IMR7828, and H1000.

Hoping to get 1/2-3/4 MOA, 3000fps w/105's, and 3100fps w/95's.

In all actuality, I'm hoping the AMAX's shoot better for a couple reasons. For one, the BC is a tad higher, I know the difference is very minute .500 for the amax and .485 for the VLD, but hey its higher. For two, the plastic tip on the amax will help initiate expansion at LR on coyotes, plus I love red, its just a sexy looking bullet! For three, there $10 cheaper per 100, and that adds up after awhile.

jmad_81 · May 4, 2010

Remmy I went through three or four different forums yesterday and wrote down all the loads that people said shot good with those powders. RL-25 was one of the top ones as well. I have half a pound of it left, I'll trade ya some for some H1000. some people were also using Retumbo, but said that the jacket was to thin on the 105 Amax to compress it without distorting the jacket. Every rifle is different but I thought it would be a good starting point.

This is the best group I got with the 105 AMax. After this group I put a few hundred 55 NBTs down the tube at 3900 +fps. Next time I tried this load it didn't shoot very well. I think what happened was that the rifle was fairly new whn I got this group (less than 100 rounds) and after I shot it a bunch the lands got worn down and I was no longer in the lands @ the 2.800".

The 105 Amax did a great job on this guy at 460 yards.

I have a box of the 95 VLDs that will be here this week. I'll trade you a few for a few 105 Amax and we'll see what we can do!

remingtonman_25_06 · May 7, 2010

Well I loaded me up a good batch of 105 AMAX's with 4 different powders, IMR4350, rl22, IMR7828, and H1000

Loaded up 3 loads of each powder at the upper end in .5g increments. 40-41g IMR4350, 47-48g H1000, and 44.5-45.5 of rl22 and 7828. Should get 2925-2975fps with the above powders.

Using Rem cases, Fed210 primers, and an OAL of 2.790" which is right at the land in my stevens 243. Good news is they fit in the magazine so can use them as a repeater.

Hopefully I can get out this weekend if the weather cooperates.

remingtonman_25_06 · May 9, 2010

Did a bit of shooting yesterday morning with the stevens 243 and some 105g Amax's and 70g nbt's.

44.5g of rl22 or 7828 seems to be the ticket so far. Rifle didn't care for H1000 or IMR4350 much.

Need to play with seating depth as it was doing 2in1 out on most loads. Might do a primer swap as a last resort.

Got the 70g nbt's to shoot .8"-1.2" from 45.5-47.5 of IMR4350, but it was doing the 2 in 1 out on all groups to, so mess with seating depth on those as well.