I am planing on buying the encore in 308 but was wondering about recoil and wanted to know how the 243 winchester in a 15"encore pistol would be for 200 plus yards on whitetails.

I suppose it would work a little less well than from a full length rifle, the bullet being slower and the platform being harder to use accurately in a hurry. There are those among us who wouldn't hunt deer with any 6mm, but I'm not one of them. I've used the 243 successfully on more than a few whitetails. Experience tells me they work fine so long as having a strong blood trail is not a requirement. Were I to try a bottlenecked cartridge in my Encore I'd try the 308 first and use reduced power ammo if need be. I've shot a scoped 15 inch 7mm08 Encore. It wasn't horrible with factory 140s, and I got the hits at 100 yards, but I can see where a bipod would come in handy out in the field.

The 243 Win. should work fine.

That said, I've shot unbraked 308 Win. & 7mm/08 Encore handguns and I didn't think the recoil was that bad. The Encore is a fairly heavy handgun and with it's good rubber grips, in my opinion, recoil in these chamberings is more comfortable than, for instance, a Ruger Redhawk in 44 Mag. If you want the recoil tamed a bit more, get a barrel with a brake.

As far as 200 yard shots are concerned, the Encore is easily capable of that but it will take practice on your part and perhaps good handloads.

Call Gary Reeder and have him build you one of his Ultimate Encores with a 14" or 15" braked barrel, for just a small amount more than you would pay for a factory Encore set-up. I have one in 7mm Rem Mag with a 15" braked heavy tapered barrel and the barrel never moves when it is shot, even off a rest with full power 150gr bullets. No recoil whatsoever, and a damned nice and smooth action too. His site is reedercustomguns.com and it don't cost a cent to look at his guns or speak with him. When I first called about one of his custom Encores without knowing what I wanted...he sent me his own 378GNR custom scoped Encore and a box of loaded rounds...just to try it out to see if I liked the platform. Can't beat that now can you? I now have several(4) and I love them. If you can't wait a few months for a custom set-up you could buy an action and then mount one of his braked barrels...I think he still has some at a special sale price of $375 shipped to your door, but I don't know what calibers he has left. If he don't have what you want on hand, he can turn one out pretty quick if need be, at a little bit more cost.

It's probably not a good comparison but I shoot a .243 in a Savage Striker pistol and it's easily a one-handed gun. With a Harris bipod and a Burris 3x-12x I've taken ground hogs out to 350yds.