.243 Match Gun

General Firearms Precision Rifle - Bolt Gun
1

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 :smiley:

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…

2

very familiar themes in that build… looks like a shooter!

i left the paint off my barrel for same reason. they just don’t last long enough to paint! i’m already missing my suppressor, but the brake does a great job with the recoil. you will love the the thunderbeast. i have 2 and they rock.

what made you go with the rsr instead of the 591?

3

Thanks Taliv. I went with the RSR mostly because my 308 was due for a re-barrel, and I didn’t want another 308. The RSR is an awesome action, and I sure wish they still made them!

4

Yup, suppressors beat brakes every day of the week and twice on sunday. :slight_smile:

5

Always been a fan of the .243 and the 65 - 85 gr rounds … younger, when hunting deer, I was always impressed with how quickly those rounds would put down a deer and mentally equated that to potential human terminal equivalency.

Interesting how years down the road, similar weighted “223” (224?) rounds are proving very effective.

Now, I realize there are quite a few other differences between the rounds but the 243 is a very nice, flat shooting, low recoil round that has an excellent BC … overall a very under rated round.

I will be adding the .243 option to my MWS in the future.

Also, OP … very nice setup, sorry about the soap box.

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A little off topic but how do you like your scope? I am looking for a new scope to put on one of my rifles and haven’t seen a whole bunch of reviews on the Bushnells.

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Thanks WillC. It’s interesting that you make note of 223’s and heavy bullets. I completely agree with you as to how effective a system sending those heavy bullets can be. I run a 6.5 twist (7 twist would be just as good) .223 bolt gun, and I am sending pointed 82gr Bergers at 2900. It hammers, is supersonic to 1250, and shares similar ballistics to my 260. It’s a great rifle, and I plan to mirror it for my 4 year old son…though he is a lefty.

Honestly, I’d run the 223 in every match, if I could. Unfortunately, many match directors have a 6mm minimum…and the wind is a sure a bit easier to slip with these 105’s.

I absolutely love the Bushnells. I sold my Schmidt and Bender to pay for two of them plus Seekins rings. They lack a zero stop and illumination, but neither have been a hinderance to me. They are bulletproof, designed by someone that actually uses their equipment, and are short enough to allow for night vision mounting with no problem.

I have the G2 reticle, and think it’s about the most practical reticle that I’ve used.

8

Well, I ended up ordering and receiving one of the G2DMR bushnell scopes. Looks very nice and clear. No CA that I had been hearing of in some of them. I won’t be able to test out until this week cause the dealer I ordered rings from did not actually send them out until a week after I ordered and payed for them.

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The Bushy is sweet for the coin. I have a couple. I do prefer my NF scopes, but for the coin, Bushy does rock.

How many rounds will you get out of the 243 barrel?

Nice looking rig. I need to try a Thunderbeast, people rave about them often.

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I have a Surgeon 243 with about 50 rounds through it. I was told I should expect around 1500 or so rounds with the Kreiger barrel on it. That would be with the 115 bn coated dtacs somewhere’s around 3k fps. I am not getting quite that amount of speed but still have a little room on the powder to go. Right now I use R25. And yes, the Thunderbeast does rock. I use mine for my 308’s and smaller. I got the TB 30BA so I can move it around to a couple of the guns I have the brake for.