243 Win

My wife's hunting rifle is a .243 and she loves it. It has just the right amount of recoil and range for her. MANY deer and varmints were taken with it. It also can be found just about anywhere, such as a rural hardware store, which is a requirement for us for hunting cartridges as we often travel.
 
I have a Super Grade M-70 with a Leupold VX6 2-12x. Decent accuracy with 100 gr Speer’s (avg 7/8” 5 shot groups at 100). I’ve killed a couple of deer and half a dozen coyotes with it. To be honest it’s a bit of a safe Queen. I seem to grab a .275 or 9.3x62 when I sure nuff wanna kill something.
 
Guys,

I am interested in buying a 243 Win.

Tell me more about your experience with this calibre....

What barrel twist do you recommend for 75 to 100 gr bullet?

Who have experience with Howa rifles?

Thanks

I had a Rem 700 BDL in 243 my first big game rifle, so accurate, so little kick, killed a lot of javelina, deer and one elk with it before I traded up to a 270 (I was living in grizzly country). 1 in 10" twist is all you need. I used to load Sierra 70g HPBTs for varmints and 105g Speer spitzers for big game.
 
@F. Vaccaro
I have loaded a few 243s for mates and depending on the rifle the best I could ever get was 2,700 to 2,800 fps with 100s and 2,900 to 3,000 with 87s. Nowhere near the 3,000 and 3,300fps Winchester advertises and reloading manuals say. As I have said the old 250 Savage was doing that a long time before the 243. For the life of me I don't see why people like it but to each their own. As long as you are happy that's what is important.
Bob
Bob, that's the nicest post I have ever seen you write about the .243
 
@F. Vaccaro
I have loaded a few 243s for mates and depending on the rifle the best I could ever get was 2,700 to 2,800 fps with 100s and 2,900 to 3,000 with 87s. Nowhere near the 3,000 and 3,300fps Winchester advertises and reloading manuals say. As I have said the old 250 Savage was doing that a long time before the 243. For the life of me I don't see why people like it but to each their own. As long as you are happy that's what is important.
Bob

I guess my experience was different. My varmint load was a cool load using IMR 3031 and Sierra HPBTs at 3150, my big game load was a 105g Speer spitzer using IMR 4350 for just over 2900 fps. Both worked very well and were extremely accurate.
 

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