Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 243 Winchester, 80 grain Federal Powershock or Federal Vital shok 85 grain Sierr

I see that both are similiar in trajectories but I am interested in knowing whether the 80 grain Powershok loads are a tougher bullet than the Federal Vitalshok 85 grain Sierra load ?Very interested in hearing about deer killed with these 2 loads and their performance .

Craig

I've shot a bunch of deer, coyotes, and 'chucks with the 80 grain Federal PowerShock fired from a variety of 243s and 6MMs. If you can pick your shots, behind the shoulder and into the lungs or in the neck, they are likely to work as well for you as they have for me.

The only 85 grain Sierra bullet that I've ever shot anything with is the BTHP and although it has been a very accurate bullet for me, I have decided that it is too fragile for me to use for deer, so now my primary .243" deer bullet is the 95 grain Partition.

JEff

I would 2nd Jeff's experience, having used both bullets.
Quit the 85 gr. Sierra rather quickly (I still have a few boxes left but only use for targets), because they seemed to perform about the same as the 80 gr. Powershoks. I quit the 80 grainers a long time ago. They did OK under idea conditions, but after bad experiences with an Antelope @ 300 yds, and a Mulie @ 130 yds I switched to premium bullets.
This year I'm trying the 95 Nosler BT (designed for BIG Game), which is loaded by Federal in their premium line. You might try them out, they are Super accurate (in my rifles anyway). There have been a couple discussions about this bullet on the 'fire.

Chuck

I have some Barnes 80 grain TTSX loaded to about 3100 already but was thinking about getting a lighter weight factory ,load that might be close to the same POI as the barnes Load for practice and possibly even longer range shots 250 plus yards for possibly better expansion,I dont know, as although I have a lot of experience killing deer with everything from homemade hickory bows and arrows ,handguns and various different caliber rifles I have never used a 243 Winchester.I have also read about the 95 Nosler BT and while it sounds pretty good I am wanting to stay with the 80-85 grain weight (no specific reason ,Just cause! )
I have some 85 grain Partitions I got from Mule deer that I may load and try out as well but Mainly very interested in 80 and 85 grain weights for deer . Heck I may already have all I need in the TTSX loads at 3100 but you know how it is, always piddlin round with my favorite interest (rifles and hunting).
Right now my latest interest is a A Remington 7600 243 that I have put a Leupold 4x Matte M-8 on.
I am just looking for the neoplusultramostbestest load available for the combo for 300 yard and under shots !

Craig

Craig,
Sound cool, but based on my experience I (myself) wouldn't depend on the 80 grain cup & core bullets to open at long range.
My Antelope "story" ended with a dead 'lope after a 2 mile foot chase of a wounded buck. I hit it 6 times from between 250-350 yds; 1 frt leg, 1 hind leg, throat (severed windpipe), and 3 in the lungs. The first hit was a leg, the last was the neck. I have other stories but I already got myself depressed .

In the olden days, me & my best pard did lots of hunting with our .243's, using mostly 80 gr Speer, & Sierra SP's. loaded as fast as we could get them going; along with factory Federal 80's. Shot lots of deer & even some Elk, but had enough failures that as soon as we could afford it we bought better bullets & bigger rifles.

I've been "back" to using the .243 for deer/antelope hunting for the last few years now, and found the Nosler Partitions work great. But, like you, I'm needing to play so the "new" .243 is getting a different bullet to try this year:).

Craig, I am shooting normally smallish white tails in Texas and the 85 hpbt Sierras have been one of the best performers of any bullet\caliber I have ever used. Text book performance so far. Check out MidwayUSA to read lots of bullet reviews -tons on this bullet. I started, and switched to 100 grainers but keep coming back to these.

Doesn.t sound too good !

If that happened to me I would be depressed as well !

Yes I have read those. I do tend to take a shoulder shot if I can and some of our bucks are over 200 field dressed.

Well, if you want shoulder shots and 200 lb field dressed deer, and under 300 yds which means a hit may be closer ranges if your hunting thick areas like down here....

Personally, A partition will get it done, and so will the 95 BT and Barnes 80/85.

I have witnessed my son drop a few deer w/85s w/deadly results from 250-300 yds, but having blown a c/c 145 BTSP at close range on my first deer - about 180lb, 30 yds, facing me at a slight angle, bullet hit the shoulder and blew. Recovered deer quickly as the 7Mag made a F'g mess of the deer, ruined way too much meat, overly destructive and overly fragile on a shot like that, so I can't recommend anything other than a premium for you. There was no exit, and the bullet disintegrated.

Some who have not shot 95BTs may not feel they can trust they will hold up on tough shots as historically the BTs are on the softer side, but as Steve Timm discussed and pics show, the jacket is very stout. I wish I could show you pics of recovered bullets, but they exited...solid exit holes which tells me there was alot of retained mass left and good frontal area...IMO.

PM SLG888, Stoney has killed DOZENS of deer at woods ranges with his 243 using 95 BTs. As to Jeff's experience using 85BTHP, everyone has different experiences, but call Sierra and they may confirm that the bullet was 'beefed up' as often bullets have undergone re-engineering over the decades. None the less, as much as I like the 85BTHP, it is not IMO in the same league on 'worst case scenario' shots.

PM SLG888, I would say Dogzapper, but his wife is in the hospital so I would think now is not the best time to reach him, and lastly JB, as Mule Deer has a wealth of experience, both his and witnessing others.

Using lighter weight bullets that are c/c to save money for practice is fine, but I would be cautious on using 80-85 CC in your scenario for the hunts. If you put an 80-85 into lungs, neck, or head, it will take them out fast. If you want to take shoulder shots, I'd go for a tougher bullet yet as a shot at close range as my shoulder shot above, is prone to putting alot of stress on a bullet.

It would just suck if you lost a nice buck for a few pennies for the cost of the better 6mm bullets. They will all kill, but if you have a deer run, and don't have an exit/blood trail, w/o a dog you could lose it. I recall a guy on a lease I hunted, who made a shot on a deer opening day using a 243, factory ammo, he did not know what bullet he used, I strongly suspected a light 80gr which are typically designed for varmints.

He found that deer many hours later, which as you can imagine scouring thickets, gave him lots of grief. I tried helping him for awhile, but figured it was a lost cause, no blood so I figured it was a non vital hit.

Had it not been morning, he may have never found the deer, or when he did it may have spoiled.

FWIW, alot of debate goes around about 6mms on deer. Ran across an article by a writer John Wooters, titled, 6mms are NOT enough for deer, or something to that effect. Times have changed, as bullets. With good shot placement and bullets, success is very good with 6mms IME.

Good hunting.

I used 85 gr. sierra pro hunters on a deer control shoot about 10 years ago. I shot 70 deer without any problems. Most were neck shots but I did shoot a bunch in the heart/lung area and never had go more than 20 yards. Shot one a couple of years ago with an 85 gr. TSX, It went 5 yards. During the deer control many were shot with the 80 gr. federal loads with no trouble also but these were neck shots at short range.

Those are my observations.

PS a friend has shot a few lopers with the 80 gr. load. He prefers it in his 243.

Back when Wooters was writing those aticles I had a young family and was busily whackin' and stackin' deer with a .223 and 55 gr. SP's. There were times in those days when my family would go hungry if I didn't collect enough venison so success was pretty important to me. If you think you may "need" to shoot deer in the rear end you may want something heavier, but if you can show enough self restraint to wait for a good shot directly to the rib box a 55 gr .22 or 80-85 gr. .243 will be plenty.

Yes I remember the article By Wooters,not the exact words but something to the effect that 1'st if a kid wasn,t old enough to handle the recoil of a 308 that they probably weren,t ready to deer hunt and 2nd to the effect that if you shot enough deer with the smaller calibers that you would eventually lose one. While I enjoyed reading his articles I have been deer hunting enough and killed enough of them that I will say he is probably right ! At least about the 2nd statement in that if you shoot enough deer you will probably lose one.BUT I think that holds true whether you are shooting a 06- or 7mag, 270 ,insert your favorite caliber etc.
Sometimes they drop right there and sometimes they can run an awfull long ways .If they are doing this in water (creek,bayou)you may not find them. This is one of the biggest reasons I use a shoulder shot when I can and I also am a firm believer in mo bullets if the deer even REMOTELY looks like he might get up and try to escape.I dont believe in admiring my shot but will admire the deer AFTER I am sure he is down for the count.
I figure someone will come back and say they have killed a trillion deer and never lost one.I suspect that if a person hunted in wide open spaces where you could watch a hit animal travel 300 yards or more that the chances of losing one would diminish and I suppose its THEORETICALLY POSSIBLE for someone to hunt in the brush and close to water and not lose one .YET
But theoretically speaking its POSSIBLE for an elephant to wrap his trunk around a daisy stem and hang from the edge of a cliff !But its not very likely !
But I Digress(love using big words even though I dont understand what they mean !)I am just trying to learn as much about this little catridge and what it can do and cannot do and I appreciate any and all input about its effectivness or ineffectivness with different loads.

Craig

Text book performance? Those bullets penetrate through the far side of deer hit in the shoulder?

Why not use 85 grain partitions? They work very well and give some insurance on a bag angle or heavy bone impact shot.

Eyeball- by text book performance I mean all double lung all with thumb size- not fist sized exits and terrific,easy to follow blood trails. Better blood trails than anythign else I have used- coincidence? -maybe. Typical short run after most shots - no different than I get with other calibers. I do not like shoulder shots. Tried one or two and deer seemed to suffer horribly for my tastes. Do understand why others take them.

Blackheart, nothing is a substitute for Shot placement short of C4 Killed a few deer w/70 TNTs b/c that was what the 6BR and 243 of the day I was carrying was sighted in for, knowing the shortcomings, I took neck and double lung shots w/success.

Restraint is a choice some are willing to make and others not when it comes to taking a shot that is less than ideal for a given bullet/impact speed.