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I'm making up a Savage 243 project this winter and have a Savage 243 heavy barrel, my understanding is that the twist for a Savage is 1.9.5 twist. Given this what would be the best bullets to shoot. I'm doing mostly paper punching up to 500 yards, I do have a couple of boxes of Sierra 70 Gr. Match, gut would Sierra 115 Gr. Match be better or Berger VLD's., your comments and recommendations.
Thanks,
dbuck
I really like the 95gr Berger VLD and the 90 Bergers too! I'm not sure how heavy of a bullet the factory barrel will stabilize,but the 105 A-Maxs work well as well.
Yes you are correct the factory 243's are a 1 in 9.25 twist with that said anything over 95gr is at the edge of the envelope. For a 115 gr bullet like the Tubb dtac or berger they require a faster twist, they both recommend a 1 in 7.5 twist. David Tubb told me that the 115 will stabilize in a 1 in 8 twist if you get the muzzle velocity over 3000 fps. I have had good luck with them in my 1 in 8 twist 6x47 lapua.
Going back to you question, I have shot 95 gr SMK's and berger VLD's out to 1000 yards in a factory 243. I found that my barrel would stabilize the 107 SMK's , but some will not. Seems like the 105 a max is a popular bullet that other have had good luck with. You may be able to shoot the BIB 108 flat back, because of its design it is recommended for a 1 in 10 twist barrel. All of them bullet I would use 4350 powder.
If your only shooting out to 500 I would say that the SMK 70 gr bullet would do fine, my 243 loved them. I found it was easy to shoot a five shoot 100 yard group in the .3 area with them. They just shot great and it keep the recoil down.
I used to shoot spitzer 100 grain bullets in the 1:10" twist 243 that I had. I have a 26", 1:9.5" twist barrel also and plan to push it to shoot at our local club 1,000 yard matches and was looking at the 95 grain Bergers but I wonder if the 107 grain SMKs would work?
I read someplace where David Tubb won Camp Perry using the Sierra 107 match bullets. I guess my save bet would be to use the 70 Gr. match and it may stabilize the Berger 95 gr. bullet.
The 115 gr Dtac is made by Sierra, it is very similar in design to a 107 SMK. The 107 SMK is no joke, it is a great bullet and has won a lot of 600 and 1000 yard titles.