If I get this right a 243 (6mm) is not quite enough for deer. Now a 7x57 is a elephant gun! Not much room in the middle there is there? Guns are either varmit rifles or elephant guns.
I have used a 243 for 20 years on nice sized muledeer and even a elk. I have never had a failure because of the rifle or load. My load is a 100 gr hornady at 3150 fps. It was named the death ray by my friends.
Gun magazines have led us to beleave that the only guns that kill have the word MAGNUM on the case. Ron

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if you do things right every time yes but instead of following the 7-08 lemming colony look at a 7/57 same performance upto 160gr better above when handloaded and works for elephant just ask WDM BELL.

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I have killed a few deer with a 243, my wife has killed several whitetail and antelope as well as a few mule deer. She has killed antelope as far as 350 yards and a big mule deer at @ 250. We never had a problem. We always used either a 100 gr Sierra or a 95 grain Partition. All shots were either mostly broadside or head on. For that type of shooting I consider the 243 fine. I would not use one for jumping deer in the thick stuff, where a raking shot might be required.
I switched my wife to a 308 when we got on a deer lease that has a lot of pigs.If I was starting a youngster out I would get a youth model in 308 and use reloads or Federals new reduced power 170 grain load.
In fact when I can find some of them I am going to use them in my Blaser 308 or in my wifes drilling in 30-06 for a deer and a pig or two and report on the results.
Once upon a time I loaded some 150 grain 30-30 projectiles in a 308 with 37 gr. of IMR 3031 for a bubdy that had a Ruger short bbl 308 with a Mannlicher stock. Full power loads kicked him to much. Those loads killed deer like a 300 WBY.

For stand hunting PA whitetails a 243 is great. Other circumstances may differ.