.243 Match Gun

[jpipes]

I am passionate about precision rifles, and regularly compete major matches as well as local club matches. I've gone from 308, to 260, and now to 243. I run a straight fast twist 223 as a practice rifle.

My goal with this rifle was to have a minimal recoil producing rifle with very, very good ballistics. It's a lot easier to "stay on the gun" in uncomfortable positions when you are fighting recoil. I am also trending away from brakes, and towards suppressors, for multiple reasons.

Anyway, here is what my gunsmith and I decided on:

Surgeon RSR
Brux 8 twist, m24 contour, finished at 22"
243 match chamber, cut to kiss the 105 Hornady BTHP's at around 2.837"
AICS with Viperskins
Jewell @ 2.5 lbs
Bushnell HDMR w/ G2...not a fan of Horus reticles at all
Seekins rings
FTE for when I am not shooting suppressed.
SWR Omega 300 until my Thunderbeast 30P-1 is approved in 6 months.
I didn't want it to be painted at all, because the barrel will be dead in about 6 months.

Here it is with the FTE

Here it is with the Omega 300, which is a huge and heavy can...


Here is a test target...It has potential


I arbitrarily loaded 105 BTHP's, that I pointed in a Whidden Pointing Die, in neck sized virgin winchester brass. 42.5 H4350, Tula 7.62 primers. The above target was the second 5 rounds out of the barrel, with zero load development... I'm going to play with seating depth and put it over the chrono this week If I am anywhere near 3k, I'll call it good and rock and roll until the barrel dies.

Aaron Roberts, of Roberts Precision Rifles, put it together and I can't recommend him enough. He put together my 223, which is an absolute hammer, and also put a new barrel on my 260 after I burnt it out. Aaron is a hell of a guy, and he does very good work. Every rifle that he's worked on was done in approximately 1 week. Super, super guy that does an excellent job.

Should be an interesting 2013 season...