.243 Light Load Question

[MattB]

That's awesome! Congrats to both you and your son.

Any tips for getting a youngster started? Age? Where did you find the stock? I have a 2 year old and a 6 month old, so I'm a bit early, but pretty excited to get him into it. My Father in Law wants to start them with WW2 '06's etc. I want to be well prepared and ahead of this family feud

(Sorry for the thread drift)

I started my daughter with a .22 when she was 8 (chipmunk single shot) and she loved shooting it. I then got her a Savage youth .22. When I was going to move her up to a hunting rifle, I settled on the .243 as something we could start really light (Trail Boss or H4895 reduced loads) and that she could grow with. There are a number of youth rifles on the market with shorter stocks, but my daughter is LH which limits the choices. I ended up buying an XLR chassis (great folks) which has a ton of adjustability in term of LOP of cheek weld. That made it easy, esp. in your case with 2 kids that 1 gun may need to fit.

Don't start with an 06 no matter what.

 

[MattB]

We had out moment of truth over the weekend and my daughter made a great shot on a 150# boar. The light load I had worked up (70 gr. Hammer over 33.0 hrs. Of H4895 at ~2,700 fps) performed nicely. She broke the onside front leg and the bullet shank and one petal ended up between the shield and skin on the offside. 90 yard shot, 80 yard recovery, and one very happy little girl.

All the work paid off and it.might not have come together nearly as well without the recommendations from this forum. Thanks again.

 

[BRTreedogs]

Awesome.
Tell her congratulations

 

[Ndbowhunter]

Blue dot and 4198 are the bees knees for reduced loads from my experience with 7mm-08 and 243. H4895 is okay but erratic in nature and had a lot more bang then necessary.

For 70gr

 

[Ndbowhunter]

I think as a whole Hodgdon relies on h4895 60% rule because it universally works.

but it’s dirty as heck when loaded light. And as you noticed huge velocity swings.

Whereas reloder 7 does a lot better, and 4198 is really good in that estimated 50,000psi range.

It’s pretty much identical in felt recoil between a 223 with 77gr and an 85gr with 30gr 4198

ballistics are really similar as well

but blue dot loads are Hilarious. 10-15gr with 58 vmax or 55 Nosler ballistic tip shoot tight groups at 100. and they shoot really similar poi with full house 108gr loads.