My FIL recently passed away and left me his Winchester Model 70 in .243. It's a beautiful rifle and I thought I would just save it. But he left it to me because I feel he would want me to use it. So..I want to add another cartridge to my reloading bench. With a world of powders which one seems the most productive? I have H4350 and Varget. Which would you prefer cuz I really don't want to add another power to the inventory.

No reason not to start testing with those two powders, both should work fine. H4350 will be better on the heavier bullets, Varget would work better for light bullets. Try them both.

Exactly.

H/IMR 4350 work great with 100 grain bullets. I'd start there.

If I could remember I used IMR 4350 exclusively for the 6mm Remington and its very similar to the .243
You may want to give that powder a try.

I've used varget, 4350 (imr and hodgdon) and imr4451 all with 90gr Nosler accubonds with good luck.

I'd start with 4350 and 95gr Ballistic Tips.

Have had good luck with IMR 4350 and 100 grain sierra prohunters and 100 grain hornady spbt's. My best load for both bullets is 40 grains even.

H4350 is what I wanted to use but I have not been able to find any for quite some time.

I'm running 105 amax out of my rpr with hybrid 100v, I get the best speed and accuracy out of it so far. I think it will work best with the heavy bullets. For 87gr bullets I've been using imr4064 getting the best accuracy.

JLS, I thought you were going to sell that rifle. I guess you are liking it too much to sell it.

I'm liking that Super Grade!

That RPR is an awesome shooter, I bought a 6.5 barrel for it but I think the 243 will go another 1000.

My RAR wound up liking IMR 4451 with those 95g BT"s, app 45g IIRC. It really does best with the 105 AMAX and RL26 @ 2900fps. I've been surprised how well that AMAX works on hogs.

I really like the .243 ; 95gr partitions (for kiddo's deer gun) and for me 55gr Nosler Ballistic tip Varmint (MY coyote/coon load -nearly 4000fps and accurate like a laser) ; both using H4895 powder. Have also loaded very-low-recoil 58grain H.VMAX loads for kids/momma to 'practice' (ALSO using H4895 per it's specs for light loads)

I'd find the twist rate of that very barrel.

Then I would look at Lilja barrels twist rate chart, as well as Shilen barrels twist rate chart. Both will tell you the optimum bullet weight (length) for twist rate.

Then I would investigate if IMR-4451 is a good powder for .243. Reason being, H-4350 is not looking like a long term, reliably available powder. IMR-4451 is reported to be a great substitute for H-4350 in 6.5 Creedmoor. I would think it would be a great substitute in .243.

That's what I would do, anyway.

Anyone shot the hornady ELD-X 103 grain bullets in a 243?... its kind of on subject.

I had good indentions to shoot the 103ELDx out of my AR-10 but there just to long for my mag.

You know if they will stabilize in a 1:10?

My bet is no.

http://riflebarrels.com/calibers-and-twist-rates/

http://www.shilen.com/calibersAndTwists.html

check the barrel twist I have my old model 70 243 and it likes the 85 gameking best and a max load 4831 sc as far as accuracy and hunting

My wife's Model Seven is an absolute tack driver with that exact same IMR 4350 & 100 grain Sierra Prohunter load.

Have you shot it over a chronograph?

No, thought about it but with the short barrel I figured I'd get obsessed with the speed more than the accuracy. I do know it's a hammer on hogs and deer, though.

For sure, mine has done well on several deer and hogs. I originally bought it for my wife, but she prefers to shoot my 270 Sendero instead... she can use it but that one is still mine!

I ran into that situation when I got her a T3 in 7mm-08. My go-to rifle is a T3 in .30-'06 that I put in a B&C Hunter stock. I figured why not do the same for the -08, so I did. She used it for two seasons before shouldering the Model Seven, which fit her much better than the full size -08. She got a new rifle, and I got her T3 already set up like I wanted it in a great cartridge.

It was a win-win.

H4350 and an 87 gr vmax out of my 1-91/4 " twist shot one ragged hole for me out of my .243