[dks7895]

My father lost his battle with cancer back in April. I plan to use his Winchester Model 100 in .243 this deer season. It wears a japanese Tasco 3-9x40 and shoots well. I just used some foaming bore cleaner on it, and it was filthy. I removed the action from the stock and cleaned everything really well. I have a box of Winchester 100gr Power-Points to get the scope dialed in. What factory ammo does everybody prefer for whitetail in .243 Win?

[c3shooter]

You already have a decent cartridge there.

The Model 100 is one of the few rifles I clean anytime I shoot it. If the gas piston rusts, you will not be able to open the action (which you must do to disassemble the rifle)

Please note there WAS a safety recall on the 100- firing pin could break, wedge in the forward position, resulting in full auto fire. Simple fix, different firing pin. You can call Winchester, they can check to see if yours has been fixed- or remove mag, turn rifle over so you are looking into mag well, open bolt, look for a letter stamped inside the receiver above the bolt.

I will be hunting opening day with my Dad's Browning in .243.

[dks7895]

Thanks for the reply c3. The firing pin recall was performed a few years ago. Shot a box of Winchesters today. Groups were fair, about 2 inches at 100 yards. I think I will try Core Lokts next.

[762]

i'd just try several different hunting rounds if i were you. you may find that you can hold tight groups with cheaper ammo. my 700P is happy with cheap box of federal 150 grain bullets that cost $13 a box. match grade bullets are better, but for store bought stuff to hunt with, they work great.

[Werminator]

As far as accuracy out of my .243 I have had great success with 80 and 100 grain Federal soft point jacketed rounds. At 100 yards (give or take) I was able to hit 3 out of 5 rounds inside of a 1" bullseye sticker and the other 2 rounds were close enough that the palm of my hand could cover all 5 holes... My father insists on hunting with 100 grain round nosed bullets but I ended up trying out some pointed soft tip rounds in 80 grains and I am confident they will do just as well. I believe it was a table produced by Federal that showed both the 80 and 100 grain bullets produce force on target within only a few foot pounds of one another. My only concern is that the pointed tip may lead to through shots and not do much bouncing around inside my quarry... There will be 7 of us hunting together this year and 6 of us shoot .243 and one a .270... Both good rounds...

[hardluk1]

You have a very nice deer rifle. If the ammo you have now is 90 to 100 gr you are fine to hunt with it for deer. If you need to buy some more ammo just try to stay with the heavier end like the 95 and 100 gr ammo. good luck

[dks7895]

Bought a box of Federal 100gr soft points from Walmart today. If the rain stops... I'll try them today. I did allow the barrel to cool between my 3 shot groups. But they really opened up the more I shot. Hopefully I can fine tune this scope with only a few shots.

[dks7895]

Shot 10 rounds of the Federals and was not impressed. I scrubbed the bore again as it was filthy... I don't think I got it all out the first time. Foamed it twice and scrubbed with Bore-Cleen, followed up with wet and dry patches. I have never seen so much nasty. I experienced several failures to eject as well. Now that it's clean... we'll see how it goes. I haven't shot Core-Lokts yet.

[dks7895]

Well... I setup a fresh target after work. Setup the lead sled and loaded 3 Federals into the magazine. I fired them and they were right on... but a bit low. I went 6 clicks up and fired a 4th round. I'm calling it done.

[hardluk1]

Way to go,ready for deer now.