204Ruger

I'm going to Montana over thanksgiving to hunt mule deer and was gonna start playing around with some hand loads for my .243. The bullets I have on hand are Sierra 80gr blitz sbt, nosler 90 gr ballistic tip hunting, and hornady interlock 100gr btsp. I have read mixed reviews on the ballistic hunting tips from nosler. If these are not good bullet choices I can see what my lgs has available otherwise would my .280 Remington be a better choice in rifles?

This will be my first out of state hunt so I'm pretty excited .

Thanks for any help.

Although I don't own, or shoot a 280, My choice would be the 280 Rem. You will be shelling out some dough, so That would be my choice. I have hunted out here in the West all my life, and my rifle is a 270, w/130grn bullet. A mule deer is a large animal, and will take some punishment, before going down, if you hit where you need to! For me anyway, I think the 243 is a marginal cartridge, when it comes animals the size of a "Muley" I will probably take some heat for that statement, but a good friend of mine shot a blacktail with a 243 , at less than 150 yards. The bullet hit the rib cage, and just did a lot of bruising, and skipped off. He had to track that blacktail for most of the day. He killed the deer with his wife's 270, so he didn't have to track the deer anymore! This is the story he told me, and would not doubt him in the least. He is not a "BSer"

Thanks for the help futuretrades. The more I've read into I think I'll just bring my .280. I'll load up some 140 or 150 grainers.