Anyone Using Hornady Superformance .243?

[Opus Dei]

I put the unfired .243 barrel back on my rifle and think I might try it for deer hunting this season. To that end, I picked up a couple of boxes of the Superformance 95 gr. SST ammunition. I probably should've checked with y'all before buying any, but it was all that was on the shelf.

So, if you've used it, were you pleased with the results or not? If you have any information about wound channels and shot placement, that'd be appreciated. Thanks.

[Westcliffe01]

I was using the 95gr SST load before going to Bergers after I got my 8 twist barrel. I have only shot coyotes with it and it is very effective at killing them. I only had 1 shot that was not a pass through and that's because it entered at the base of the tail and blew apart most of the spine. Within 300 yards it is fine but will start bleeding off energy after that since the BC is not comparable to some of the state of the art bullets in the same weight. If I recall it is a flat base bullet.

The superformance are fairly "hot" loads. I noticed that Hornady started crimping the primers on the 223 superformance loads, I don't know why. Makes it a PIA to reload. You also can't get powder to duplicate the loads but I think if you try H100V it will produce nearly identical results. I bought 8lb of superformance powder only to find they don't recommend it for 95gr bullets? It is as slow or slower than other powders used in the 243, so I still intend to try it out. I'm just short CCI 250 primers which I think are needed to ignite the ball powder.

[darkker]

I've tested the 204, and 308 versions of superformance ammo over the course of several years, and lot #'s.
My rifles used to test, also shot a"check" of standard Hornady ammo, purchased at the same time.
In the 308, the standard ammo checked within about 50fps of the claims. The superformance was slow by 150 fps.
The 204 was the bad one, standard ammo ran about 150fps slow, and the superformance ammo is typically 250-300fps slow.

[Westcliffe01]

I don't have a chrono, so I was not specifically concerned with claims of blazing speed. I was primarily concerned about how consistently a specific factory load shot and what type of bullet was loaded. I chose the superformance SST because the SST had one of the best (factory) BC's and the velocity was expected to be "good". I did find it to perform consistently and I put about 3 boxes down the pipe before I got reloading supplies together and started reloading with Bergers. This was of course after I installed the 1:8 Shilen barrel with AI chamber.

It only took 1 batch of reload trials with the factory 1:9.25 barrel to realize that 95 and 105gr Bergers were going to be out of the question with the factory tube, even the 26" long one on my model 12. I consider myself fortunate to have got about half the price back of the Shilen when I sold the 26" factory barrel.

[shovelheadave]

I've shot it in both 204 and 243, I didn't run either through the clock to confirm speed, I just wanted to see how it shot.

They both shot ok but, not well enough to hook me on it.....but every barrel is different, yours might like it.

[sendero72]

I've had great success with the Hornady 105 Amax with Superformance powder. Shooting 44.5 grs , CCI lr200, seated .010 off the lands. Model 11 w/9.25 twist. At 300 yds it will make a complete pass thru on the shoulders of a deer. Internals with turn to jello! I use the 162gr amax in my 7 mag and shoots great out to 1100 yds yards.

[efm77]

Can't speak for the 95 grain but I'm using the 58 grain vmax in the superformance in my Ruger and it likes them. I think some barrels are just slower than others or you could get a certain lot of ammunition that maybe the power charge or mixture isn't exactly right and that will affect velocity. Either my Ruger's 26 inch barrel is slow or the ammo is slow because I get about 100 fps less than advertised with it. However, I also shoot superformance ammo in my 300 and 338 win mags. They both have 28 inch barrels and I'm getting close to 100 fps more than advertised with those loads which tells me they are right near what is advertised since they advertise their speeds from 24 inch barrels.

[Willifish]

My 12 year old daughter shot a large cow elk last year at 125 yards with her 243 shooting 95gr sst superformance. She hit the cow just in the front edge of the shoulder broadside. The bullet went through the shoulder meat, spine and was found very expanded against the hide on the other side. I could put my fist through the hole in the spine. The cow flipped over flat on her back four feet in the air and didn't even kick. My velocity readings were about 100 fps less than advertised from her 22" barrel. Hope this info helps.

[JASmith]

My 12 year old daughter shot a large cow elk last year at 125 yards with her 243 shooting 95gr sst superformance. She hit the cow just in the front edge of the shoulder broadside. The bullet went through the shoulder meat, spine and was found very expanded against the hide on the other side. I could put my fist through the hole in the spine. The cow flipped over flat on her back four feet in the air and didn't even kick. My velocity readings were about 100 fps less than advertised from her 22" barrel. Hope this info helps.
I am highly encouraged by your daughter's participation in the shooting sports. Let's hope that many others follow her example!

Regarding velocity, most factory loads are listed for 24" barrels. Not all of them are, however. Be sure to check what the reference info is to get a feel for whether your rifle is likely to shoot fast or slow. I used the calculator at http://shootersnotes.com/calculator/velocity-estimator/ to estimate the change in velocity with barrel length using the nominal 3185 ft/sec muzzle velocity with the 95 gr SST. I guessed that the test barrel was 24" but am not certain. Velocities going from 28" down to 16" are"

28" - 3280 fps
26" - 3235 fps
24" - 3185 fps
22" - 3129 fps
20" - 3086 fps
18" - 2994 fps

These numbers are approximate with a rifle-to-rifle scatter in velocity of plus or minus 50 fps about 65% of the time. Hence the observation of "about 100 fps less" is reasonable. It could as easily been about 50 fps and would have been viewed as on the mark.

[efm77]

http://www.hornady.com/store/243-Win-95-gr-SST-Superformance/

Hornady shows a 24" test barrel on their standard 95gr sst load but it doesn't specify on the superformance load. However, it's probably a safe bet that it's a 24".