Black Hills Gold's 80-grain CX is for shooters who want Hornady's CX bullet in a softer-kicking .243 load. The CX is a copper-alloy bullet with a polymer tip and no lead core. The load leaves the muzzle at 3,150 fps with 1,762 ft-lbs of energy, and Black Hills does not name a game for it. Among the 80-grain .243 loads on this site, it starts the slowest and kicks the least.

Compared with Hornady's 80-grain Outfitter CX, the Black Hills loads the same bullet and starts 50 fps slower. In return it kicks about 2 percent less in the same rifle. Compared with Fiocchi's Hyperformance 80-grain TTSX, which Fiocchi tags for big game, the Black Hills starts 125 fps slower. The TTSX uses the Barnes Tipped TSX, another polymer-tipped copper bullet with no lead core, and it kicks about 5 percent harder in the same rifle.

Buy the Black Hills if you want Hornady's CX bullet with the softest recoil of the 80-grain .243 loads. Pick the Outfitter CX if you want the same bullet with a little more speed, in a load Hornady markets for medium game. Pick the Hyperformance TTSX if you prefer the Barnes bullet and more speed and do not mind a little more recoil. Pick Fiocchi's Backwoods Hunter 80-grain, a copper hollow point, if you want the most speed of the 80-grain loads. For varmints and predators, Federal markets its American Eagle 75-grain JHP for everything from prairie dogs to coyotes, and it kicks about 4 percent less than the Black Hills.