I think the 243 is plenty big enough for deer in Lousiana and Arkansas most of Texas. It seems like it be a bit puny for some of those big northern deer....

Enough gun if you know it's limits. Premium bullets such as the Nosler partition. Try to keep the shot in the boiler room though premium bullet will bust through shoulders, but why chance it. Keep your range under 300yds. With these in mind it's very effective.>John

Please don't through darts at me. I was wanting a short action and thinking of the 7mm-08 in a light gun, but there are not that many made. They all seem to be .243 and .308 and a few .260's. I have a 30-06 so I don't want a .308, therefor the .243 is the chambering most avaiable.That is why I am asking if the .243 is ok for hunting the whitetail deer? Thanks.

The advice I was given was:

If your going to mainly hunt varmint with an occasional deer, buy a 243. If you are going to hunt deer with an occasional varmint, go with a 25-06. I bought a Savage in 25-06 and it's a good accurate rifle.

I only shoot reloads so I load 100 gr partitions. I have personally watched alot of blacktails and a couple elk shot with factory remington 100 gr corlocks. For deer the a stout 100 grain bullet like a partition or even a corlock will bust right through the shoulder and just kill it now. A heart lung shot will always kill the animal but not aways without a tracking job.

It's good in open country where you can observe the results of your shot . However , in my opinion , the deer will tend to run a little further than when hit with bigger calibers and the blood trails tend to be skimpy or non-existent .



For those reasons , I'd prefer a larger bore and heavier bullets in typical dense eastern whitail country..........

Curious as to why you are averse to the .308? It is a better cartridge for deer, and can be loaded for very flast flat shooting. Very wide range of bullets available and one of the widest selections of rifles of any caliber, if not the most. It is supremely accurate. That having been said, I think the advice others have offered is prudent. I have seen a lot of deer killed with the .243, the 25.06 is a better round for them as well as the .308 however. I have seen many deer hit and not recovered with the .243, I haven't seen that nearly as much with the other calibers mentioned. As always shot placement is king and the .243 will certainly do the job with proper shot placement. I have a friend who is a sniper with a large county SWAT detachment, and his wife, who he has trained to be an excellent shot, shoots a .243 exclusively and has had 100% success--around 35 whitetails of varying size. Just some feedback, Good Luck and Good Hunting!

Generally I think bigger is better so I've never owned one. But I've had many clients bring them with great success. We hunt mostly wild boar and a few deer so most of my experience with the .243 has been on pigs. But they're pound for pound tougher than deer so it's a good test.
I've always said as long as you stick to good game bullets (Partitions, Barnes, etc.) and don't take "Texas heart shots" you should be okay with the .243.
My favorite thing about them is that clients usually shoot them extremely well. I'd much rather have clients put a little 100gr. .243 bullet through the lungs of an animal than a 180gr. .300 bullet through the guts, hind leg or nearby tree.

Kyler

Leo- It can be done but there are better alternatives. The 7mm-08 is one of the better choices. Two of the best are the Model 7 in stainless and the Savage Sierra. That's my .02.

Fish30114 - Nothing against the .308, it's just close to the .30-06 which I have. I guess I don't want another .30 caliber.
Cobra - Thank you, I had completly missed the Savage Sierra on their web page. That is exactly what I am looking for.

The 243 will work but, it is just on the edge of not being enough gun.

I have killed a pile of small hills deer (100-120#) w/ the 243 win and the 6mm Rem. All of the animals expired fairly quick but, I have helped track many others shot by the same cart. and we lost some animals. Blood trails are usually very thin and even when hit through the vitals, the animal can cover alot of ground.

Penetration was usually never an issue, just small wound channels and little internal damage. I know one fellow that shot a bruiser 9pt in the rear while running away from him. The bullet penetrated through the entire animal (hit right below the tail and exited the chest). I believe it was his lucky day but, the 243 will work.

Someone said 25-06 in a previous post. That would be a better choice in my opinion. W/ the 25-06, you can hunt animals from varmints to Elk.

Good Luck!

Reloader

Who needs a short action anyway, get a 270 or 25-06 and be really happy. I used the 6MM Rem and the 243 a lot over the years but no longer own either. Never could get them to perform well enough on feral hogs, especially the bigger ones and have rebarreled both and now have a 308 and 7x57 mauser. I never liked the varmint/deer rifle concept preferring to use a dedicated varmint rifle like a 223 or 22-250.

Leo,

You are going throught exactly what I went through last year. I had a 30-06 and wanted something lighter for deer as well. I narrowed my choices down to 7mm-08 and 308 and settled on my first choice, a 7mm-08. I actually found that many gun manufactures produce the 7mm-08. I ended up buying a Savage because they were the only manufacturer that produced a 7mm-08 in stainless steel with a composite stock in a left-handed action, which is what I had my mind set on.

From what I remember, gun makers that produce the 7mm-08 include Remington, Winchester, Browning, Tikka, Savage and possibly others. I believe a few also make smaller lightweight guns in the 7mm-08 including Remington, Browning and Savage.

I love my 7mm-08 and I would suggest that if it is your first choice, you won't be unhappy with because it is a great round for deer. Keep looking, you should have plenty of choices.

George

Get one of the .260s you found. Or, keep looking for a 7mm-08; they're out there. What about a Model 7 in 7mm-08???



RSY

I've killed about 10 whitetails with a .243 and its not the cartridge the 30'60 is by any means!Just ate the last of the tenderloin of the .243 killed buck from last fall and I hit him right behind the shoulder with a nosler 95 gr. BT and off he ran! Me and my dad and my dogs looked for him for about 45 minutes and just as I was about to give up I spotted a tiny speck of blood on a bare tree limb he had brushed against. He had ran only about 50 yards but had burrowed into some honeysuckle and we had walked (I ride, disabled) right past him several times. I can tell you other stories of deers that ran with perfect broadside hits from a varity of bullets in .243. My 30/06 drops them in their tracks with the 150 nosler BT. The longest run was about 10 yards. I've had so many "sick minutes" with my .243 on thinking I had made a bad hit that I'm not planing on using it anymore. I've never lost a deer shot with it however, just lots of looking/tracking and thats tough to do off a ATV. I'm having my old mauser 30/06 rebarreled to 25/06 to see if thats a good compromise on recoil and "in their tracks" killing power. If where you hunt is open land get the .243, if much cover get a .260 minimum. FNMauser

I loaded up some 100 Grand Slams and 95 partitions for a good friend to use in his custom 243 for deer. I have no experience with it personally other than watching him lose some deer after shooting them with the 243. One comes to mind...



Not because it didn't kill the deer but because we were hunting on public land and the deer ran pretty far. Some other hunters shot it again and put it down. Even though the trophy buck was hit perfect (with the 243) and at no more than 70 yards. It made it over 150 yards through the woods top speed to the next property. My friend didn't bother telling the other 2 hunters that he shot it first.



It would have been his best deer. So, with that one witnessed experience under my belt, I choose not to use such a caliber (unless I'm hunting my own property and can see good enough and far enough for the deer to go down). That would be the ONLY way I would consider it. Also, the blood trail was damn near nonexistent. I don't like that.

Remington also has the 7mm-08 in the mountain rifle nice and light. Bought for my son a couple of years ago. Accurate and easy for him to carry. I also ahve a .243 tht i ahve used at different times and has not yet failed me.

While I love a 260, 6.5 x 55, 7 x 57, 7/08, I still would never feel undergunned with a 243 or 6mm Remington for deer hunting.

It is all about shot placement and the 243 MAY require some more precise shot placement in some guys opinions. However I have taken deer with a 243 and seen numerous one taken with bigger rounds. I still stand by shot placement over FootPounds or Caliber/Bore Diameter on anything under 30 caliber. ( 44 calibers just plain work).

With a good quality bullet, and there are more good ones than bad, this round does its job if you do yours. I do prefer the Speer 105 SP the most. But the 95 grain partition or the 85 grain Barnes get honorable mention. Even a 100 grain ANYBODY'S bullet does a good job in my book.

Ballisitc Tips also work well, if fact better, if the velocity is kept under 2700 fps. I have loaded up some 95 grains Ballistic Tips in a 243 with an MV of 2600 fps for a first time hunter this year. Blacktails here are not hard to kill. A 223 works just fine.

However in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin, I have seen a 6mm used quite effectively by a fellow I did not consider the greatest shot in the world.

I don't feel undergunned with it at all.
Good luck
Cheers and Good shooting
seafire
PS, I personally carry a 260 on opening day each year, with a 100 grain Nosler Partition at 3350 fps . It has proven effective at 300 yds, and the deer went straight down.
For what it is worth, eh?

Probably already been said but:

Is the .243 big enough for deer: Yes
Are there better choices: Possibly
My personal preferences (in no particular order):

- 260 Rem
- 7/08 Rem
- 6.5x55
- 7x57
- 257 Roberts

All are mild-recoiling and have enough woof to do the job if you do your part...




Hank

I've used my son's .243 successfully for whitetail using 100 gr. Nitrex factory loads and I've never lost one. But, when I shopped for my new light rifle a couple of months ago I read, analyzed, pondered and bought a 7mm 08. Hunting shots don't always go exactly where you want them to. I decided I'd rather have the 7mm 08's 40+ gr.s of extra punch, and not be so dependent on perfect shot placement. And I got a lot of extra effective range is I get the shot.

Leo, you have some really good responses so far, some good information. I guess I will put in my two cents worth.

I grew up shooting an old .244 Remington, basically the same thing as a .243 Winchester. I killed my first deer with it and my biggest deer with it.

Having said that, I guess I now prefer something bigger. I am a big fan of the 25-06. I see no real advantage of a short action. I have hunted with both and can't tell much difference. If weight is a problem, then we all know that we'd be better off taking some weight off our gut than our rifle.

I have shot a bunch of deer sized game and a heck of lot of wild hogs with the 25-06 and have been quite pleased.

The .243 Winchester is enough for deer but you need to consider that you need very good bullet placement and the range should not get too far.

For a short action gun I would opt for a 7-08 or maybe even a 7X57. I am not very impressed with the 260 Remington at all.

But then, everything changes. I grew up shooting a .244 Remington. I am leaving in the morning to go up on the same mountain that I shot my first deer on 44 years ago. Am I taking a 6mm? Hell no, I am taking my 300 Weatherby because I just might see a big old bear up there.

The .243 will work alright, but there are better choices.

R F

My father has used a 30-06 for longer than I've been aware of what gun was what, and he just in the last few years has switched to a .243!

Not due to lack of performance, but he's older now and the '06 is heavy, kicks more, and a dead deer is a dead deer.
He uses 100gr Nosler Partitions and it has been plenty effective. His shots are pretty close and the only one that didn't have two holes from one shot was a frontal hit.

My own opinion is that it is very close to to small. My personal preference was a .257 Roberts. I load 75gr Hornady HP's for coyotes and have used several different bullets for deer and it has been impressive, mild recoiling, and a joy to carry.

There are many choices and even the .260 would be ok. It is very close to the 6.5x55 Swede. The short action though cute, limits COL and eats up capacity on the longer bullets. It's these longer bullets that make the smaller cal. rifles really shine I think.

Incidentally, I am working on a .25-06 I won as a raffle prize and am amazed with it too. I can hit a 10" gong at 400 yards from a sitting position with ease. It shoots quite flat and with the 117gr. bullets I have no doubt it will be one heck of a deer rifle.

I'm not sure why the short actions are such a big attraction but at this point the only short action that's impressing me is the .270 WSM.

My experience with the 243 reflects that of many others here. I used one for a few years and all I can say is you better be ready to do some tracking. I use a 257 AI now and it seems suprisingly more effective for as similar as they are.

My advice would be to hold out for that 7-08. I too think it's a fantastic round, it goes a long way toward bridging the gap between the 270 and the 30-06 in a short accurate package. If you arent looking for a new rifle, then you might consider getting one of those 243's and eventually getting it rebarreled to a 7-08.

My first post here so be gentle . I have killed several deer with a 243 and one with a 6MM rem. I have never had a tracking problem. Either they dropped like a sack of potatoes or if they ran, you followed the river of blood. I use a handload consisting of 100gr. Rem. core-lokt bullets and used to use H450 until Hogdon discontinued it. Now use H4831SC. There are several factors involved with using a 243 on deer. The size of the deer, distance, bullet weight, bullet construction, and shooter ability all need to be carefully thought out. Good luck

I think the reason most people don't like the 243 for deer is the choice of bullets. Any 100 grain bullet will do the job nicely. I've shot a truck load of deer and one elk with 100 Gr. Core-lokts, PowerPoints, or Hornadies or 105 Gr. Speers. My son has taken several with it, since I passed it on. I have never had to track one, although a few needed a finisher. These are all deer from ND, Wy., or Mt.

Many years ago, I was looking for a light rifle to hunt deer. My Mod 70 just got too heavy on backpacking trips. After looking at cartridges and rifles, I ended up building a Rem 700 30-06 that weighs 7lb 2oz with a Leupold 2-7 compact. With 150 gr bullets with mild loads, it is deadly on 110-130 lb deer, can be loaded with 130 gr hollow points for varmints, or 180 gr for elk. What's wrong with an -06???As stated previously, if you're getting a varmint rifle and occasionally use it for deer, the smaller cartridges are OK, but if you want a deer rifle 7mm should be the practical minimum OR you will have to pass up some shots that would be doable with the larger cartridge. Now a 7-08 Kimber? That might be nice! Just this old f**t's opine BTW, I've recently developed a fondness for the 375 H&H as a deer cartridge, so you know what my opinion is worth!
Russ

its only to lite if your a bad shot or use bad judgment i have shot 34 elk and over 100 deer both whitetail and mulies with my 243 first with 90 gr speers and now with 95gr nosler bts i have never lost an animal but i dont take bad shots or shots over 350 yds always in the lungs heart area some drop in there tracks some go up to 50 yds.the 243 is easy to shoot ,low recoil easy to practice with and cheap to shoot. just remember a bad shot is a bad shot no matter what cal. you use

BigNate:

I went shooting today with a .220 Swift (700/Shilen barrel)with a fast twist, a 7mm STW (700/Shilen barrel), and a Mod 7 in .300 SAUM. I shot at 500 and 615 sitting using a sling, and from 615 and 700 using a bipod shooting sitting w/a sling.

I was shooting at rocks painted black with a 3 inch bullseye, so I could see each shot after I fired it.

I didn't miss with the first two guns at any range, with the exception with one .220 Swift shot where the wind switched and I didn't measure it (because I was shooting a 3 shot group and the first two were on top of each other). The SAUM had the first shot high (at long range, I usually only shoot once - anything else is really a sighter) by 8 inches at 700, which is a clear miss. All other targets closer would have been dead deer.

Okay, so the .220 Swift (which really has the trajectory of a 7mm STW when it shoots heavy bullets) and the 7STW are clearly better at 700 yards (but don't forget, they have custom barrels as well). At 615 and 500 the Mod 7 was just as effective as the other two. At ranges I shoot game at, which is a lot less than that, I can nail anything with that Mod 7.

One of the very best light deer rifles made is the Encore, and with a 24 inch bbl it is only 38.5 inches long. A couple of years back, American Rifleman compared the hunting effectiveness of bolt, pump, straight pull, semi-auto and single shot rifles and the single shot won, hands down. The scores were based on the time to shoot 3 rounds and Accuracy at 75 yards at a deer sized target.

With that said, you can pick from a wide range of excellent chambers, including the 243, which will launch a 115 Barnes original at 3000 fps using R25. The difference between this load and a 25-06 is hard to measure and meaningless in the field, since the SD of this bullet is .279. I have tis bbl and a 270 bbl so I can choose the right round for the situation.

Leo M,

Damn straight a 243 Win is too small for deer! Actually, I haven't seen one cartridge/caliber mentioned on this thread that YET that is really a suitable deer cartridge/caliber!

So I will let all you gentlemen in on the little secret of what the ideal deer cartridge is.

458 Winchester Magnum

The ideal deer bullet to be used in the ideal deer cartridge.

405 grain Remington Flat Point (yes the 45-70 bullet)

The ideal muzzle velocity for the ideal deer bullet in the ideal deer cartridge.

2300 fps +/-

I guarantee you if you hit Mr. Deer (or Ms. Deer) in the boiler room (that would be the heart/lung area if anyone doesn't already know that) with the ideal deer bullet, shot at the ideal muzzle velocity, from the ideal deer cartridge at any range less than 300 yards, said deer won't go far (if said deer goes anywhere at all).

ASS_CLOWN

Heh. I have one mounted head, wife won't have it in the new house after we moved, so it's being saved in case I have an office sometime. I'd also just as soon shoot little ones these days; they're all heavy to carry around and the biggest ones seem to involve the longest carries back to the road.

Well any deer I have ever shot with a 243 did not think it was too small, they actually took the time to die pretty quickly.

However I did loose one that had a solid hit with a 300 Mag so does that instantly make the 300 Mag a poor choice?

NO one will state that.

If it works for you use it. If it doesn't I am sure most people will quit using it and then just blame the lack of results on the caliber and gun ( who can't argue back) instead of looking in the mirror and thinking that the failure might have been them screwing up instead.

cheers
seafire

I think it's interesting that a lot of people use the 243 as a starter gun for beginning deer hunters. That's kind of like when I started quail hunting when I was a kid with a 410 single shot- a very humbling experience. If you pick your shots and have the discipline to pass up the marginal shots, there is nothing wrong with the 243. But personnally I started my kids with a 30-30 or reduced load 30-06. To each his own.
Russ

I quit using a 243 for deer some 15 years ago. Why? I gave it to my son, so he could use it for deer.

Most won't remember the early days of the .22 Hornet; there were lots of western Pennsylvania farmers who thought of that as a nice deer round ( they were shooting them off piles of corn shocks after they cut the corn - short shots at stationary deer ). They had no interest in stalking or tracking, just wanted cheap meat after selling the best parts of their pigs to doctors and lawyers.

I've gotten fond of the 6mm-284, which turns into a .243 after two or three hundred yards anyway.

The 243 is a pretty fair deer caliber but I have seen it fail on more than one ocassion with pretty good shots...

I will hunt deer with about any caliber but one has to use those minimum calibers with intelligence..I hunt mule deer every year with my M-94 25-35 and it works great, but I limit my shots to 100 yards and mostly broadside or with very little angle to the heart/lung area...and I have had to pass on some awfully nice mule deer that were just out of my pre determined range factor, but thats Ok with me, I have shot more than my share of the big bucks and don't mind leaving them for someone who has not...I generally shoot spikes and fork horns these days, they eat better.

For a 100% serious deer rifle, I think they start with about a .308, 30-06, as 30 caliber leaves enough entrance hole and exit hole to leave good blood trails 99% of the time.

One last thing, maybe. A lot of it depends on where you hunt. It seems that most of the .243 fans shoot in really open ground, where they can watch what happens and see where that deer (elk, antelope, whatever) runs off to, when it's hit. In rougher, brushier country, the smaller cartridge might not be too good a choice, it's harder to follow the blood trail if it runs off from an off-center hit. I'm sticking to my earlier post.