Australian Shooter 91

T he quality of factory ammunition has reached the point where many hunters are now opting for the commercial product. Many years

ago I was a keen shotgun reloader and would have a detailed file on what it cost me to load up my favourite hunting and clay loads. I would save anywhere between $40 and $70 (per case of 500) by turning out some decent reloads.

With the seemingly overnight skyrocketing price of lead shot from $20 per 10kg to somewhere around $60, the saving made in loading your own shotshells quickly dissolved, to the point where it is now wiser to buy factory-made shotshell.

Centrefire rifle ammunition is slightly different in that creating custom hand-loads is still practised by many hunters and target shooters alike and rightly so, as these aficionados strive to obtain the most accurate hunting or target load they can. Harking back to a renowned American gun scribe who wrote “only accurate rifles are interesting”, the passion and need to reload your own centrefire ammunition is a valid one indeed.

For the rest of us who don’t hand-load, the availability of premium hunting

ammunition is very welcome and one such brand, Buffalo River, is produced in Australia by Outdoor Sporting Agencies (OSA) and ADI. These two entities have for some time been designing, loading and marketing superbly accurate hunting ammunition, notably in .223 Remington and .308 Winchester.

Following on from the huge popularity of these hunting loads produced in the two mentioned calibres, OSA decided to “up the ante” and market a range of loads in .243 Winchester, one of the most popular hunting calibres in Australia. The three Buffalo River .243 Winchester hunting loads released recently cover a neat range of bullet weights and applications, utilising quality projectiles from Sierra and Hornady, which OSA also represent in Australia.

What would be interesting is how this new ammunition would perform. With the excellent performance of the other calibres in the Buffalo River hunting ammunition range, the performance of the .243 Winchester load would no doubt be a mere formality. This stems from the expertise and quality systems employed at ADI, who load the Buffalo River brand among other commercial ammunition brands

and various government contracts. OSA sent for evaluation samples of the three .243 Winchester loads which comprised of: 70-grain Sierra HPBT (product code OSA243S70), 87-grain Hornady V-MAX (OSA243H87) and 100-grain Sierra SP (OSA243S100). These three loads are offered in attractively packaged 20-round boxes and also in a 480-round bulk pack, supplied in a very handy and secure ammunition container.

70-grain Sierra HPBT Starting with lightest projectile weight of the three loads, the 70-grain Sierra MatchKing Hollow Point Boat Tail (HPBT) loading is specifically designed for varmints, from rabbits right up to wild dogs and dingo and everything in between. The construction of the MatchKing projectile and its noted accuracy, together with its hollow-point cavity, ensure a very flat-shooting hunting load with superb knock down power out to 300m and beyond. The beauty of the 70-grain projectile in this .243 Winchester varmint load is that it’s less resistant to wind drift at extended ranges when compared to .22 calibre centrefire loads and a better bet for tackling larger varmints.

Buffalo River’s .243 Winchester hunting ammunitionby Con Kapralos

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92 Australian Shooter

87-grain Hornady V-MAXThe Buffalo River .243 Winchester load with 87-grain Hornady V-MAX is a cracker of a load for all-round hunting. It can double as a varmint load but is beautifully crafted for goats, pigs and the smaller deer species (where legal). Ballistically, with its muzzle velocity around the 3200fps mark, it’s very close to the 70-grain Sierra MatchKing load but with a slightly heavier bullet weight retains more energy at distance and is a better bet for medium-sized game and varmints at range. The Hornady V-MAX in the accuracy stakes is sublime, with two of the five three-shot groups well into single-figures, the best being 7mm and another at 9mm. I don’t profess to being a benchrest shooter, so

such results were quite pleasing with the average group size being 16mm.

100-grain Sierra SP The third load in the Buffalo River .243 Winchester range is intended for larger game, specifically bigger pigs, billy goats and deer up to the size of fallow. Where permitted, the .243 Winchester with the 100-grain projectile is very efficient on red deer too, so the Sierra GameKing 100-grain Spitzer Boat Tail (SBT) bullet with its heavy, double-tapered jacket ensures reliable expansion and excellent downrange performance. Added to that, with a muzzle velocity around 3000fps and this projectile’s high ballistic coefficient of .429, it results in a very flat-shooting hunting load with excellent energy retention at extended

ranges too. Out to 300m in a sporter or varmint weight .243 barrel, this would be an ideal all-round load for the hunter looking for a single load to cover all their needs. Of the three this would be my favourite.

At the range and in the fieldThe three Buffalo River .243 Winchester loads were range tested through a Lithgow L102 rifle, also supplied by OSA. All three loads were tested at the normal 100m distance, with five three-shot groups being the test regimen employed. The barrel

Range testing of OSA Buffalo River .243 Winchester ammunition

Range testing conducted at 100m, with five three-shot groups shot from Lithgow L102 in .243 Winchester with 560mm barrel. Best Group Worst Group AverageBuffalo River Sierra MatchKing 70gr HPBT 11mm 27mm 20mmBuffalo River Hornady V-MAX 87gr 7mm 23mm 16mmBuffalo River Sierra 100gr GameKing SBT 18mm 27mm 22mm

Spot on: Best group with the 70 gr HPBT.

Buffalo River’s .243 Winchester hunting ammunition

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of the test platform was cleaned between changes in ammunition. The accompanying table lists the best, worst and average of the five groups shot for each ammunition type. What is pleasing to see is all the loads shot average groups of 25mm or less (less than 1-MOA), with some in single figures. It’s just a matter of trying the different loads through your own rifle to see which one it prefers. Fortunately, the Lithgow L102 liked all three. The stand-out load of the three, accuracy-wise, was the 87-grain Hornady V-MAX with an average group size of 16mm which included two single figure, three-shot groups.

In the field, some late autumn deer culling for venison saw the 100-grain Sierra GameKing load pressed into service through the Lithgow L102. With fallow and red deer on the cards, I had complete faith in the Lithgow/Buffalo River combination and it duly delivered, harvesting several fat deer in prime condition with a single shot each out to 180m. In both instances, with chest-cavity shots, both deer ran no more than 30 metres before expiring. Upon field dressing the deer, the bullet performed as expected, taking out the heart/lungs.

I’m confident both the other Buffalo River loads would be just as emphatic as the 100-grain Sierra GameKing against any quarry it’s targeted at. These three hunting loads for the .243 Winchester loaded under the Buffalo River brand by ADI for OSA are destined to become firm favourites in the Australian hunting field and well worth a look if you don’t handload and prefer commercially-available ammunition. It’s one of the best range of hunting loads, performance-wise, to date. For more information, ask your firearms retailer or visit osaaustralia.com.au .

Buffalo River’s .243 Winchester hunting ammunition

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