tarheel
Well-known member
for this years hunt in wyoming,Im thinkin of using my ruger .243 with the hornady superformance sst factory loads,,,how does this combo work out at longer yardages{any input},,Im thinkin if its real windy of pullin out my 7mm mag w 150 gr bullets,but the last 2 animals i got with my 7mm really got some herendus meat damage in the shoulders,,,have shot my 7 mm out to 600+ yrds but have never tried my .243 out past 400,,,will a 95 gr .243 have enough knockdown out at say 500? the .243 appears to get wind drift much easyer than the heavyer 7mm bullets.appreciate all inputs.
Dan, from all the data I can scrape up the optimum game weight for that bullet at 300 yds. is 160 lbs. For the same bullet at 400 yds. it's 125 lbs., so following the same curve, I'd say that at 500 yds. it would be below 100 lbs., and given the average weight of a pronghorn it would require perfect shot placement (rare at 400 or 500 yds. in any wind) or just blind luck to get a solid hit on a goat and make an ethical kill. I know that stories of miracle shots have made the rounds of many a hunt camp and BS session, but I wonder how many of those shots were made with the use of a range finder, and how many were just wild ass guesses. A rifle bullet of average BC at 3000 fps MV will lose 56% of it's energy at 2000fps (about 325 yds.), and 75% at 1500fps (extrapolates out to about 500 yds.), so you'd only be carrying 475 ft. lbs. of energy at 500 yds. Hardly enough to get a bullet to expand properly or break much bone.
Wind drift for that bullet at 3100 fps muzzle velocity and a 30 mph direct crosswind with a range of 400yds is appr. 50.8 inches, (103" at 500). One good gust of a higher speed or brief lull along the bullet path could throw that off by a foot or more. 3100 is what I load my 95's to. Hope that helps in your decision.
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