Nosler .243/6mm 55gr. spitzers

[rjm158]

I saw these bullets listed on the 2nds page of the Shooter Pro Shop and the description said they were an over run of a production batch intended for Australian kangaroo hunters.

The price was great ($103/1000) and I thought they sounded viable for inexpensive practice or varmint loads.

Anyone try them before or know what kind of accuracy/performance potential they have? Could you use loads for the 55 gr BT's with them?

Ron

 

[JD338]

Back in my 243 Win day, the 55 gr BT wasn't out and I shot a lot of 70 gr BT's. The 55 gr BT is excellent on coyotes but can be a little rough on pelts.
You got a great deal!

JD338

 

[rjm158]

Back in my 243 Win day, the 55 gr BT wasn't out and I shot a lot of 70 gr BT's. The 55 gr BT is excellent on coyotes but can be a little rough on pelts.
You got a great deal!

JD338

JD, I haven't bought any yet and, just to clarify, these ARE NOT Ballistic Tips. I think they are "regular" bullets, just lightweight. I'm basing this on the picture that's with the entry on the page.

Ron

 

[JD338]

Back in my 243 Win day, the 55 gr BT wasn't out and I shot a lot of 70 gr BT's. The 55 gr BT is excellent on coyotes but can be a little rough on pelts.
You got a great deal!

JD338

JD, I haven't bought any yet and, just to clarify, these ARE NOT Ballistic Tips. I think they are "regular" bullets, just lightweight. I'm basing this on the picture that's with the entry on the page.

Ron

My bad, I misread and was thinking BT.

What you are refering to are the SHOTS bullets. I bought a few bags of the 22 cal 50 gr bullets for my 22-250 and they are acurate. Infact, I recall shooting a group at 100 yds that went .187" c/c.
Pretty good roo bullet for the fellas down under. 8)

JD338

 

[SJB358]

Back in my 243 Win day, the 55 gr BT wasn't out and I shot a lot of 70 gr BT's. The 55 gr BT is excellent on coyotes but can be a little rough on pelts.
You got a great deal!

JD338

JD, I haven't bought any yet and, just to clarify, these ARE NOT Ballistic Tips. I think they are "regular" bullets, just lightweight. I'm basing this on the picture that's with the entry on the page.

Ron

My bad, I misread and was thinking BT.

What you are refering to are the SHOTS bullets. I bought a few bags of the 22 cal 50 gr bullets for my 22-250 and they are acurate. Infact, I recall shooting a group at 100 yds that went .187" c/c.
Pretty good roo bullet for the fellas down under. 8)

JD338

Jim, during my last deployment I had the pleasure of working with some really good Aussies. Them and their buddies from the more rural areas of Australia told me about hunting roo's. They said on a good night they would kill 600-800 of them!!!!!! Talk about alot of dog meat. I guess they come into there planted veggie fields and just tear the heck out of them. Most of the time, I guess they feed the roos to dog meat canneries or something like that. Roo meat is really good. That is like shooting 150lb prairie dogs, as the big Red Roos will stand 5-7ft tall!!!! Scotty

 

[species8472]

I use a lot of Nosler SHOTS in my 223. As a pro shooter in OZ they work great. We have to have all head shots to be able to use the meat. :shock:

 

[FOTIS]

With a Savage 11 22" tube in 243 win I got well under MOA with Win 760 and well over 4K fps!
Flatter than Kate Hudson!

 

[2ndtimer]

Has anyone tried these in a .243 Win yet? I am considering ordering some, but have read on some other forums that they are thin jacketed designed for the 6x45 cartridge popular in Australia. Some have reported that they don't hold together at higher velocities. I don't plan on running them at 4000 fps, but do want them to be accurate at reasonable velocity, say, 3400 to 3500 fps. So any real world experience? Loads? I was considering 35.0 gr of Accurate 2015, as their old data showed that for the 55 gr Ballistic Tip for around 3450. A poster on a different forum suggested 30.0 gr of Reloder 7 as a mild load that gave good accuracy. Appreciate any feedback as I am itching to order some, but don't want to be stuck with a bunch of bullets that won't shoot.

 

[BalisticsNut]

Has anyone tried these in a .243 Win yet? I am considering ordering some, but have read on some other forums that they are thin jacketed designed for the 6x45 cartridge popular in Australia. Some have reported that they don't hold together at higher velocities. I don't plan on running them at 4000 fps, but do want them to be accurate at reasonable velocity, say, 3400 to 3500 fps. So any real world experience? Loads? I was considering 35.0 gr of Accurate 2015, as their old data showed that for the 55 gr Ballistic Tip for around 3450. A poster on a different forum suggested 30.0 gr of Reloder 7 as a mild load that gave good accuracy. Appreciate any feedback as I am itching to order some, but don't want to be stuck with a bunch of bullets that won't shoot.

Shooting my Weatherby .243 Winchester:
I have had some great success with these just this past week. Right out of the Nosler Reloading manual, I loaded up some IMR 4320 and conducted a ladder test. What i found out was this is a great flat shooter. The book suggested 45.5 gr of IMR4320 with a FPS around 3942 average. My loads tested well from 44.0-44.5(max tested) shooting three shot groups at 200 yards at 1.1". I was so excited about this that I made up some additional loads and did some long range shooting. The shots were consistant out to 600 yards in my limited testing. (limited by saying I was able to hit targets of varying sizes with the expected trajectories at distance) 600 yards though sure seemed to be the max distance for any accuracy due to bullet drop.
I am also in the process of setting up some loads with RL15.

 

[2ndtimer]

Thanks for your input, BallisticsNut. I guess I will have to order some. Now the quandry, 1,000 or 2,000? If they shoot as well as you say, I should probably bite the bullet (pun intended) and order 2,000 and take advantage of the free shipping. With my luck, if I only order 1,000, by the time I verify how well they shoot, Nosler will be sold out and I won't be able to order more of them. On the other hand, if I order 2,000 of them, and they turn out to be not so great in my rifles, then I am stuck.... Decisions, decisions. Probably should go the safe route and just order 1,000 and pay the shipping.

 

[kendog]

With a Savage 11 22" tube in 243 win I got well under MOA with Win 760 and well over 4K fps!
Flatter than Kate Hudson!

Hmmm, haven't tryed 760 yet, H380 gets me those numbers in my Savage 10.

 

[joed49]

I have to ask what is meant by "these are regular bullets not bt"? The reason I'm asking is I'm also on a few other forums. One of the people on the forum is from Australia. He tells me they can still buy Nosler .257 100 gr solid base bullets there. Said they are quite popular with kangaroo hunters.

Doesn't make sense to me. Why would Nosler still make the solid base bullets and only sell them in Australia?

 

[rjm158]

Joed, what I meant by "regular" was these have an exposed lead tip and not a polymer one like a Ballistic Tip has. In addition, the interior design of the bullet will be slightly different as well.

Regular bullets require a certain level of velocity to cause them to deform the lead core/copper jacket, or "mushroom". Ballistic tips require velocity, too, for proper bullet performance, but less because of the "advanced" bullet design.

Hope this helps.

Ron

 

[2ndtimer]

Well, I am in for 1,000. I sure hope they work as well as the .22 cal SHOTS bullets. I shot a lot of ground squirrels with those in my .223 Rem. and was quite pleased with their performance. Not quite Ballistic Tip or V-Max explosiveness, but decent "hang time" for the little varmints. I am curious to see how fast they can be pushed and maintain their accuracy and integrity.
Can't wait to get them and test them out. Look forward to hearing about others experiences as well.

Chuck

 

[BalisticsNut]

Well, here is some additional info. I did some heavy load testing yesterday with some RL-15. I was able to achieve sub MOA at 200 yards and the consistancy was not quite what I had seen with the IMR4320.
With RL-15 45.0gr I was getting average 4015 FPS my 6 shot group was just over 2". If I remove the one flyer I am at 1.6". This grouping warrants another test.

I tried some RL-17 with 45.0 gr (could not find any recommendations on RL-17 with this round) and saw huge losses in FPS. Averaged around 3150FPS. I am sure that is because the RL-17 is a magnum powder and burns at a different rate. Shot groups with RL-17 are not even worth discussing at this point.

My availability to powder selection is very limited at this point. Have to drive 50 miles to get any sort of selection, costs me more in gas then it does for the powder. I will be making another trip soon and picking up a few more to test.

 

[SJB358]

Seems like with some tweaking, your RL15 load is going to be super. I can't imagine anything much flatter than those 55's at 4K! That is some awesome load work. Scotty

 

[jmad_81]

I had .5 MOA groups with the 55 BT in my Savage 12 using RL-15, H380, and Big Game, all over 3950 fps I believe. I used all the RL-15 up and don't have anything else that uses it so I started cleaning out my powder shelf with the others. I might have to buy some of these, as I really like the 55gr for yotes, and all you guys seem to be having good luck with them.

 

[SJB358]

I am thinking of firing some of them up for my sons 243. They would make a great practice round for him to work on his shooting with and not break the bank. Scotty

 

[2ndtimer]

I am thinking of firing some of them up for my sons 243. They would make a great practice round for him to work on his shooting with and not break the bank. Scotty

The other benefit for younger or recoil sensitive shooters is that those 55 gr loads don't recoil at all compared to, say, factory 100 gr loads. I will be testing mine when they get here with Accurate 2015, IMR-4064, Varget and Big Game. Whatever works the best, I will then stock up. I could even try Ramshot TAC, but I will have to email them to see if they could provide me a starting load.

 

[2ndtimer]

Quick update on my initial experience with the 6mm 55 gr Spitzers and the .243. Loaded up 10 each with 35.1, 36 and 37 gr. of Accurate 2015, with Federal cases and Remington 9 1/2 primers. Given the rather short COL (about 2.50 inches) and the long throat of my Sako A-7, the cases all came out covered with soot. Apparently, none of my loads were generating sufficient pressure to obturate the case and seal the chamber. The loads were accurate enough, around an inch or less at 100 yards from the bench. Velocities seemed a little low on the chronograph, averaging a little over 3100 fps for the 35.1 gr load, 3220 for the 36 gr and 3318 for the 37 gr load. I loaded up 10 more rounds each at 38.0 and 39.0 to see how they shoot. If they still leave soot on the brass, I will try Varget, IMR-4064 or Big Game and see how they work with those powders. Still, I think the bullet has great potential, and if I can find a really good load I will probably order another thousand or 2.