[Remington243]

Interested in anyone's experience with the accuracy of the Remington CDL in .243 caliber. Are the groups similar to the BDL and other stock Remingtons? Other than the trigger pull, which I will correct, are there any complaints about the rifle?

 

[El Chorizo]

Welcome to the forums! Here's some good info on the .243 cartridge, maybe you've seen it already: http://www.6mmbr.com/243Win.html

Great site with a lot of info...

I don't have experience with the CDL, but I would suspect it would be a very accurate gun... similar to the other Remington 700's. The .243 is an accurate cartridge much like the .308, so I think you would be happy with it and with a working up a load I would think it would shoot very well!

Going with a CDL in .243 will, in a sense, give you a gun with a "heavy" barrel, since it's a smaller caliber than something like a .308. You will have a much stiffer barrel in the .243 since there is less metal cut away when they rifle the barrel.

 

[Remington243]

Purchased the CDL .243 today and plan to scope it next week. I will provide range report within next two weeks.

 

[El Chorizo]

I will provide range report within next two weeks.

Can't wait! Will you be shooting re-loads or factory .243 ammo?

 

[Remington243]

Initially I will use factory ammo from 90 gr. to 105 gr. to determine best bullet weight. I am new to reloading for rifles, only handguns at this point, and understand that it is a different world. The .243 can be difficult to put bullet, powder and brass into the best combination. However, I plan on two strategies:

95 Gr. Nosler B. Tip or Sierra 85 Gr. HPBT and the powder to be either the H4350 or IMR 4350.

If you have any suggestions, I would be very interested.

 

[El Chorizo]

It sounds like you are on the right track. I've been doing a little bit of load development for my AR-15 in .223, and that turned out to be more of a hassle than I thought. I tried several different bullets, and it turns out that my 1:8 twist like the 55 grain v-max the best!

I wanted to shoot the 60 grain bullets, but those didn't group worth a nickle. I could only get about 3" groups out of that. With the 55 grain v-max, I has able to put them into a 1/2"! Turns out that my gun didn't like any bullet from Nosler. It like the Sierra Blitz King 55 grain bullets, but the v-max grouped the best consistently out of the whole group.

I would like to try the Sierras a little more, I think those might be ok to, but I was happy with the v-max performance and stopped there.

I also tried a couple of different powders and settled on Benchmark for my .223, which is a faster powder... a powder that is closely related to what the gun was designed for.

Here's a great website, once you get into re-loading, you can try some bullet samples and see if your gun likes a particular bullet over another: http://www.bulletsamples.com/

I've dealt with Tom on a couple of occasions, and he's a good guy to deal with!

I had been a long time pistol loader before getting into rifle, and I guess I would say that rifle reloading just has a few more steps involved, but pretty much the same principles apply. It seems like with rifle, it just takes a little more to get a load that shoots accurately, since we are shooting at longer distances compared to pistol. As long as a pistol goes boom, I'm happy!

Hope that helps a little.

 

[Remington243]

Thanks for the website referral. I definately will use it. Good luck with the 55 gr. v-max.

 

[jerrschmitt]

Initially I will use factory ammo from 90 gr. to 105 gr. to determine best bullet weight. I am new to reloading for rifles, only handguns at this point, and understand that it is a different world. The .243 can be difficult to put bullet, powder and brass into the best combination. However, I plan on two strategies:

95 Gr. Nosler B. Tip or Sierra 85 Gr. HPBT and the powder to be either the H4350 or IMR 4350.

If you have any suggestions, I would be very interested.

I used the 85 gr Sierra HPBT for years in a few different rifles and always had excellent accuracy with it. Recently I've been using the 75 gr Hornady VMAX in my .243 and get better accuracy than with the Sierra. I've switched to VMAX in all my Varmint rifles now.

I have a 700 CDL in 6.5X55. I had to glass bed the action and adjust the trigger but it shoots good enough to take Prairie dog out to 500 yards. I've also taken my share of deer with it.

 

[El Chorizo]

Recently I've been using the 75 gr Hornady VMAX in my .243 and get better accuracy than with the Sierra. I've switched to VMAX in all my Varmint rifles now.

That's interesting, because I've noticed too that I get better accuracy with the VMAX in my AR-15. The Sierra Blitz King seemed to group consistently, but the VMAX was the clear winner with very tight groups. Nosler was terrible, which I thought Nosler would be a good bullet, but just didn't work for me!

 

[jerrschmitt]

Recently I've been using the 75 gr Hornady VMAX in my .243 and get better accuracy than with the Sierra. I've switched to VMAX in all my Varmint rifles now.

That's interesting, because I've noticed too that I get better accuracy with the VMAX in my AR-15. The Sierra Blitz King seemed to group consistently, but the VMAX was the clear winner with very tight groups. Nosler was terrible, which I thought Nosler would be a good bullet, but just didn't work for me!

My AR-15's used to see nothing but Speer bullets because I had a source for cheap 500 packs. My last AR was a heavy barrel varmint rig with a 12 twist barrel. It just loved the 50gr. VMAX. Now I shoot 50 VMAX in my .223 and 22-250, 65 VMAX in my 6BR, 75 VMAX in my .243 and 95 VMAX in my 6.5X55. I've got a 700 Rem in 7.62X39 that I had made up as a light deer rifle and I'm going to try some 110 VMAX in that for Coyote hunting.

 

[El Chorizo]

Sounds like the V-Max is becoming a popular bullet (well, probably has been popular for a long time)! I'm certainly had good results with them!