.243 trajectory question

[hairofthebear]

I'm new to coyote hunting and have a pretty basic question. How far away can I hit my target without adjusting for drop? If I was using a Winchester supreme 55 grain with my .243 and put the scope cross hairs right on the kill spot is that good for 100 yards, 200 yards or more? I don't want to go through boxes of shells to find out. Realistically I probably wouldn't want to shoot a coyote unless it was somewhere between 50-150 yards away.

[broper]

It depends on how you have your gun sighted in. All .243's will shoot basically the same but not all people shoot the same. You will have to spend some time shooting on paper if you want to shoot right. You'll have to sight it in and get to know your gun. It doesn't matter if you shoot factory loads or reloads. Shooting and tinkering with your gun is a must if you want to shoot well. Besidess, it's fun. With a .243 you should be able to shoot coyotes out to 300 or 400 yards pretty easy if you get sighted in properly and know your gun. You can't just load any gun, no matter the caliber, with ammo and go shooting. It takes practice, practice, practice. There is nobody that can tell you exactly where you and your gun will shoot without doing quite of shooting at targets at different ranges, if they do, they don't know what they're talking about. There's no way of getting around shooting up some ammo to be a good shooter. Just get out there and do it, it's fun and you'll enjoy it. And save your brass, if you don't reload somebody you know or meet does.

[Eric]

Full agreement with Bob on this. If you have a smartphone get the program called "strelok" and become familiar with it. Its a trajectory program for your phone that has helped me dial in my loads for long range shots. My longest range coyote was taken at 430 yds with a. 204. But i had to put in some trigger time shooting at stepped ranges out to 500 yds to be comfortable shooting at those distances. The. 243 spanks the trajectories and range limitations of the 204 . WITH PRACTICE you could take coyotes at a much greater distance .
I chronograph all my loads and routinely set up targets and milk jugs at 300, 400 and 500 yds to find out exactly how many elevation clicks are required or how many mil dots of holdover i need in a time sensitive situation.
Strelok also provides a trajectory chart for your rifle that you can print out. I have these trajectory charts shrunk down and affixed inside my scope caps for quick reference but memorizing your elevation holdovers or clicks is a good idea too. Once youve gathered up all the data you can pinpoint your MPBR (max point blank range) or the distance that you can hold on fur without any elevation adjustments. If you zero at 200 yds you should be able to hold on fur out to 300+.

[hairofthebear]

so if I'm hearing you two right your saying I need to shoot a lot of ammo to get sighted in on a target of 100 yards or less? I'm not planning on shooting anything more than 150 yards. I will be using factory loads only. I don't want to spend the money for a re-loader.....don't target shoot that much anyway.

[broper]

If you bore sight your gun and scope it shouldn't take over a half dozen shots or so to get it sighted at 100 yds. Sometimes it doesn't take that many. But why only 100 - 150 yds.? I can almost guarentee that if you get serious about varmint hunting it won't be long before you're shooting farther. There's lot's of times that coyotes hang up at 300 yds. or farther and you either take the shot or lose it. If you're going to shoot rock chucks you'll be shooting farther than 150 yds. I don't really understand why you'd want to limit your self to 150 yds.

[Timber Butte Outdoors]

If you think you are going to come to Idaho and only shoot out to a 150 yards, guess again! Dude, you will be lucky to get a shot at a coyote at 150 yards, it will be more in the 300 to 1000 yard shots.

You can have short distance shots on coyotes if you are good at setting up a stand, with all the factors working in your favor. You will be able to call coyotes into shotgun range, 5ft to 50 yards, with most of the shots coming in at 80 to 125 yards.

More time than not, you are going to do your stand, without a shot being taken. I have figured out, one coyote per 12 stands (+ or - 3 points) is the average in SW Idaho.

Even if you don't reload, shooting alot is required to get good at shooting in all situations. A Baseball pitcher will not take the mound if he has not been practicing, it is the same with you, you have to practice, to build your muscle memory, you understand hold over, you understand windage, as well as understanding when to hold right on, learn to take a running or moving shot. I have shot many coyotes that would not stop moving, trotting, loping.

Your rifle is an extention of your person, you have worked and practiced with your hand and arm to make it function the way you want it. It is the same analogy with the rifle or shotgun, you have to make it a part of you, using it without thinking about what to do. Get comfortable with the gun, but always remember that safety comes first! Never point a gun at what you don't want to destroy. And keep your finger off the trigger, until you are ready to shoot.

Gary

[Eric]

Feb 19, 2013 11:18:32 GMT -7 hairofthebear said:

so if I'm hearing you two right your saying I need to shoot a lot of ammo to get sighted in on a target of 100 yards or less? I'm not planning on shooting anything more than 150 yards. I will be using factory loads only. I don't want to spend the money for a re-loader.....don't target shoot that much anyway.

Yeah ammo can get expensive but if your serious about shooting lots of varmints you'd really be surprised at how quickly a reloading station can pay for itself. After the initial investment You can buy the components for reloading and reuse your brass a lot cheaper than buying hard to find ammo right now.
I took the plunge and purchased a good reloading setup right when I got my first rifle. At somewhere around 800 rounds the equipment paid for itself when compared to buying 800 rounds of factory ammo. That may seem like a lot of bullets but in my first year varmint hunting Ive reloaded somewhere around 1800 rounds.

You are correct though! If you will only ever shoot out to 100-150 yds you can certainly bore sight your rifle and get it sighted in to shoot at 100yds using about 10 rounds of ammo (give or take a few). You wont need to holdover at 150 yds when your sighted in at 100 as the trajectory of that 55gr bullet should be pretty flat and devastating at that range. You also wont need a lot of ammo for coyote hunting so its quite possible that purchasing all the reloading components wouldnt be cost effective. But do save your brass!
I think what everyone is saying is that if your going for coyotes exclusively you might consider practiciing at further distances. Im relatively new to coyote hunting (meaning Im not good at calling them in close ) Ive only ever shot 5 coyotes and the average distance has been around 300 yds.
From what Ive read the .243 is an awesome caliber and very capable of distances much greater than 400 yds. I have been recently considering purchasing a 243 or something in the 6mm range so that I can shoot at greater distances than my 22-250 or 204 can offer.

Eric.

[Eric]

Hey! I found a really cool winchester specific ballistic trajectory calculator that can be tailored to the ammo you want to shoot. Check it out here:
ballisticscalculator.winchester.com/

It looks like with a zero at 100yds you can hold on fur (top of the coyote) out to about 300 yds which theoretically gives and estimated 6" drop.
We of course encourage you to verify those elevation adjustment claims before shooting at a coyote. Wounding an animal due to poor shot placement is bad juju. Ive been in that situation not because of a poorly placed bullet but because the bullet I used was not suited for the varmint I was after. Ive since corrected that error.

[72camaro]

What I've done with Hornady .243 58 grain super performance and my scope is about 2-1/4" up if I remember right, 100yds up .6" above center, 200yds up .6 above center and at 225yds it is at zero and at 250yds it is low about .8. So what the just of it is is that it is within 1" up or down from center from 50yds to 250yds. Now the problem could be I have to move up to a heavier bullet to save the hides and that would change everything, plus I still have a small stash of ammo left to use up. I use the Hornady ballistic calculator as I think that you can put more information in it and come with a more accurate guess of windage and drop.

[broper]

That sounds pretty good. But you still need to get out and do some shooting on paper to get familiar with your gun and load. You need to practice enoughtthat you know pretty well where you're going to hit when you fire. I think if I was shooting a .243 for coyotes I'd use something in the 70 - 80 gr. range. You should sight your gun for the bullet and load you're going to use most. And periodically shoot on paper just to make sure it's shooting like you want.

[hairofthebear]

This is all great information guys and I'm taking in everything said here. I've gotten the impression that killing a coyote in SW Idaho for the average hunter (at least on this forum) is tough. One thing I read a lot is that new hunters are asking about ammo that won't ruin a hide. For those of you who have tried to sell their hides has it been really worth it....considering the labor to skin and whatever else is done to prepare it for a fur buyer? I don't see the need to collect furs and just pile them up someone or hang them up in the den....my wife would never go for furs laying around the house.. If you do sell your furs what is the process to do it....I'm more interested if it is worth keeping furs for profit or just pulling the tail off and
leaving it for the worms and buzzards to eat.