The Accurate Reloading Forums THE ACCURATE RELOADING.COM FORUMS Rifles Small Calibers Why do you like the 243 Win?Go | New | Find | Notify | Tools | Reply | |
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Why do you like the 243 Win? Nice little calibre and distinctly better than the 223 on deer. +-+-+-+-+-+-+ "A well-rounded hunting battery might include: 500 AccRel Nyati, 416 Rigby or 416 Ruger, 375Ruger or 338WM, 308 or 270, 243, 223" -- Conserving creation, hunting the harvest. | ||
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416 The first commercial rifle that I bought was a Browning Safari grade 243. I learned about reloading, accuracy and killing power with that little rifle. I spent the summer loading 70 and 80 grain Sierras for groundhogs and 105 grain Speer for deer. By the way the no longer made 105 grain round nose Speer was the most accurate bullet I ever shot thru that rifle. I traded that rifle for a Ruger to give to my Grand Sons. It was a bit worn after 20 years. Jim "Whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force." --Thomas Jefferson | |||
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I started 1965 with Browning Safari grade 243 and still have rifle. Barrel been replaced few times now has a Kreiger on it. I did shot lot of varmints using Sierra 85gr HPBT bullet and took a few deer with it. My new play toy is 243AI. VFW | |||
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Great light recoiling, long range round shooting 95-115 grain match bullets (in a fast twist barrel). I've shot it out to 1,000 yards in F class competitions. Devastating on varmints with the 55-60 grain bullets at 4,000 fps and accurate with the 70-75 grain bullets out past 600 yards. Fun for deer sized game with the 85-95 grain Partition or 90-100 grain game bullets. Frank "I don't know what there is about buffalo that frightens me so.....He looks like he hates you personally. He looks like you owe him money." - Robert Ruark, Horn of the Hunter, 1953 NRA Life, SAF Life, CRPA Life, DRSS lite | |||
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Woodchucks and deer. I have my godfathers M700V from the 70's. Pop's pre-64 M70. I'm having some fun with the rem.  | |||
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My dad bought me my 243 when in was 13 years old as my first deer gun. I've killed a pile of deer with that rifle and a few antelope as well. I got away from the rifle after I bought a 7mm-08. However, I've since replaced the barrel and found a very accurate load with the 80 gr TTSX. Last year, I took an Oklahoma whitetail buck and doe, and a CO antelope with the new barrel. This year, it will likely accompany me on my CO mule deer hunt. Next year, it will be going to South Africa with me to take oribi, common reedbuck, vaal rhebok, bushbuck and possibly baboons. It is a great little round and very effective on the animals I have and intend to take with it. Graybird "Make no mistake, it's not revenge he's after ... it's the reckoning." | |||
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It burns barrels quick enough to make changes often and rifles nuts love that  By the way, they are very popular in SA. I still need to get around to one. | |||
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I like the 243 for what it does not do: recoil and meat damage. | |||
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Works well on our smallish deer with deer bullets, and is he hell on coyotes with about any bullet. Also makes hogs sick enough to run off and die in the brush. Plus, I enjoy carrying the pre64 FWT that Dad bought for Mom in '55. | |||
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Perfect for our Roe-deer, using 90-100grs bullets M | |||
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Sorry I never have cared for it. Now I do love my 6mm Rem.  Why? Most of my rifles are built on a 98 action of some type. I prefer the longer case. Will a 6mm really do anything a 243 won't? NOPE. Except maybe longer heavy bulletsAs usual just my $.02 Paul K | |||
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I don't... it started life as a varmint cartridge and some hotshot writers decided it would kill deer if a bigger projectile was used along with a faster twist. The rest, as they say, is history. I think there are probably more deer shot and lost with .243s than any other caliber out there, but I could be wrong. And finally, the only rifle I ever tried to handload for without success was a Remington Model 7 in .243. That rifle wouldn't have accurately shot 100-grain bullets with divine intervention. | |||
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I bought a Rem 700 CDL in a .243 to be used as a varmint set up using those 55g NBT at 4050fps. Works just great for that application and I did take a couple of bucks with that set up. I started hunting smarter coyotes that were really out there and moved up to a 70g NBT at around 3700fps and solved the problem. Great on deer as well. The accuracy in mine has been good, not fantastic but under 1" most of the time. I got enamored with the .223 in a suppressed mode and it has occupied most of the hunting/shooting time since. Still like that .243 and that shooter but am spending time elsewhere. | |||
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I don't. Aim for the exit hole | |||
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My own experience with small calibres comes from the 222 and 223. We used to use them in Africa for shooting geese and small antelope, mostly oribi, and an occasional Tommy. The main problem was watching slighty larger animals like Uganda cob require multiple shots. At the time the only way to deal with the matter was to decide that any shots on a cob needed to be with a 270 or greater. We didn't have a 243Win. Now we have a 243, a recent addition for upcoming grandkids. The 243 Win looks like a great calibre for animals up to 300 pounds or so. Yes, of course, the 243 will take larger animals, but the presentation needs to be broadside for a sure kill and the range not excessive. On the other hand, it will easily handle the Tommy, Reedbuck, and Impala at whatever range the accuracy and wind allow a shot to be taken. The 243 comes in many great little rifle packages and the newest member of our rifle family is a Win M70 compact featherweight with a 13" LOP. We're still doing load development. It looks like the 80TTSX will be the bullet of choice for meat hunting. We may try the GSC 75 gn HV, but the bullets are about twice as expensive as the TTSX. +-+-+-+-+-+-+ "A well-rounded hunting battery might include: 500 AccRel Nyati, 416 Rigby or 416 Ruger, 375Ruger or 338WM, 308 or 270, 243, 223" -- Conserving creation, hunting the harvest. | |||
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 It must have had the ambilical cord still attached. That was the year it was introduced.  rogerOld age is a high price to pay for maturity!!! Some never pay and some pay and never reap the reward. Wisdom comes with age! Sometimes age comes alone.. | |||
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Actually Winchester introduced the 243 as a dual purpose cartridge, varmints and deer, with 100gr Power Points for deer and 80gr bullets for varmints. But it was first offered in the M70 FWT which was more of a deer rifle than a varmint gun. | |||
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I only have 3 favorites, and they are common I suppose for good reasons. .22-250, .243, and .270 | |||
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I have .244 (6mm Remington)M722, 24" barrel Remington, and a .243 in a 670 Winchester with a 20" barrel. I logically like the .244 better and it should be better because of the longer neck, slightly greater powder capacity, ease of reloading, and it fits better in a Mauser length action. However, the model 670, for reasons I can't explain, is much more accurate and will shoot a variety of loads very accurately. The .244, though accurate, is very finicky on what loads it likes. That being said, the .243 is my favorite of the two for accuracy alone. joe | |||
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I am glad you chimed in with that, because I did not want to be the first. I have seen many deer killed with the .243, AFTER people started using proper weight bullets. The first few times I saw folks shooting deer with a .243, they were using 75 or 85 grain varmint bullets and those things were fabulous on head and neck shots, but really did not work worth a damn on a broad side shoulder/heart-lung shot at anything over 100 yards. I was involved in one too many fruitless tracking jobs or situations where the deer had to be shot a second or even third time before giving up the ghost, and it turned me completely off the .243. However, I do love the .257 Robert's and ballistically the two are not that much different. Even the rocks don't last forever. | |||
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You sir, are a man after my own heart.  Add a .375 of some description & you have my ideal centrefire battery. | |||
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Mixed feelings. I started out in 1970 using a .22-250 for deer - varmint projos and all. I was recoil sensitive, and had read PO Ackley's book several times. I was smart enough to lung or neck them in open fields. Never saw much blood trail, never had an exit. Truth is, open fields are not a common set of conditions up here. Mostly it's like northern MI or WI, very easy to walk past and lose a dead deer lying just 10 feet away in a cutting or cedar swamp. Anyway, it worked under those conditions and I lost zero. Maximum travel distance of about 100 yds was not a problem. Lungs were pulped. Later I gravitated to the '06 and .300s. They gave a heckuva lot more blood trail and usually exited. I used 180s, which means they didn't always kill quicker than the .22-250. When my son turned 10 we need a youth rifle. I downloaded some 150s for a .308 RSI. But over the next three years we wrestled with recoil - even 2300 fps was making him "think" about it. For whatever reason we never had a stationary buck to shoot - but we learned alot about deer and had some of the best times together. We had agreed: no does. I picked up a WBY UL .243 when he turned 13. I could tell from his smile after the first shot (100 gr Fed Premium NPs) this was going to work. Funny, but a nice 6 pt wandered in @ 150 yds a few weeks later, and stood long enough to get a surgically placed partition. I could tell he had killed it, but it still ran just over 100 yds downhill in cover. There was just a touch of anxiety b/c I couldn't see one speck of blood on remaining snow patches. But the kids eyes are better and he found the finest pink mist. Then he birddogged it like a pro. The experience left me feeling kinda ambivalent - there was nothing more I could have asked of a bullet, complete penetration double-lung quartering shot. But gosh, even the exit hole was tiny. I was happy when, one year later, he told me he was ready for the .300 Roy. And why not? He was towering over me. Well, his next deer was a 266# (live weight) buster that's on the den wall. Necked, it went nowhere. And the following year he got a 260#-er that's also on the wall. That one ran about 60 yds, but there was a very decent blood trail. Sorry for the long answer to explain why I think the .243 has only a limited application as a general purpose deer rifle in central ME. In a more specialized application - smaller deer shot in the open on my terms, no pressure to take a specific animal on a given day - I'd be fine with it....or a .223. Sam | |||
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I currently own a 243. I've shot groundhogs, prairie dogs, javelina, etc. for over 40 years with a 6mm of some sort, enough to burn the barrels out of several. IMHO, I've found the 243 to be much easier to load for, as in finding an accurate load. I like the 6mm R. but it is finicky, most will only shoot one or two loads well and maybe not the bullet that I want to use. velocity is like a new car, always losing value. BC is like diamonds, holding value forever. | |||
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 Why do I like the 243 Win? It's used in a rifle.  rogerOld age is a high price to pay for maturity!!! Some never pay and some pay and never reap the reward. Wisdom comes with age! Sometimes age comes alone.. | |||
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I like the .243 because it has minimal recoil, shoots very flat, and has enough power for everything up to deer-sized game. | |||
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Actually, I don't like it. It's not the calibre's fault. It's the users' fault. Bear with me a moment, and I'll explain. Back in RSA, a lot of very good shots used the 243 for almost every type of non-dangerous game, up to wildebeest and kudu. Now kudu are fairly large (I think up to elk size) and wildebeest are about the same body weight, but (to my mind) tougher. These experts would take these animals with very careful shot placement, You know the thing, head / neck shots, behind the shoulder into the lungs, etc. So then someone would come along looking for a rifle for a beginner to use, that "doesn't kick too much" and find the 243 was perfect, because it could take down anything short of a buffalo, but they wouldn't read the fine print, which said "with good bullet placement". And they would use PMP ammo, where the bullets weren't all that robust. The result would be a series of wounded animals jaws shot off, shoulder shot with bullets blown up below the surface and so on - a litany of horror. Of course the 243 was a shit calibre now, nothing to do with amateurs using it incorrectly. I am starting to think about getting one, but I now have a 260 Rem, which is everything the 243 is, with a bit more ..... I probably won't get one. Probably my loss because those who CAN use it properly like it (a lot). -- Promise me, when I die, don't let my wife sell my guns for what I told I her I paid for them. | |||
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The lack of noise and recoil are nice, cheap brass, lots of bullets to choose from, easy to shoot straight from a handy rifle makes shot placement simple and results in dead everything, good selection of rifles, and it was my first rifle. | |||
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Low recoil good accuracy.....the neck could be longer....55grain to 100grain....whats not to like? Iv'e killed a mess of deer with a 243 model 788 I got for Christmas when I was 13. My first HotRod centerfire. Still got it still like it. My Son killed his first deer with it and I hope my Grandkids kill their first deer with it. Oh and all those deer where killed with Sierras or Corelokts........Did I say that out loud on AR?????? What was I thinkin..... . | |||
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Perhaps another candidate for a 2 favorite battery could be.......22-250 and a 300Win Mag for North America. What think ye? I know, I know, not a lot of fun collecting shooters for all kinds of special use and not what I have in the safe but perhaps an option. My caliber battery is .22lr, .223, 22-250, .243, .300WinMg, 45-70 | |||
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I've had a number of .243s over the years for both varmints at long range and deer and antelope. I'd sell one, then decide I'd like one again. About 5 years ago, I decided I needed to keep one around just as a casual walking-around rifle. Found it. Picked up a Browning x-bolt micro rifle that was new and on sale for a ridiculously low price and fell in love. Only problem is the short length of pull and my 34" sleeve length. Thicker recoil pad took care of that. My son (a monster) has a .300 RUM. Shot an antelope with it and blew the off-shoulder away. Next year, took my ex's Rem 660 in .243 and saved all the meat from the antelope. Ex says she probably will never get the rifle back. No problem, she hated hunting and going with me. .395 Family Member DRSS, po' boy member Political correctness is nothing but liberal enforced censorship | |||
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'cuz it's the round that my middle son, now in university, used out of a Ruger RSI on our first "big game" hunt together on a dear friend's ranch outside Camp Wood.  | |||
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It was my first rifle in several ways, first centerfire, first bought with my own money, killed my first deer and pronghorn with it. My family didn't hunt and all dad owned was a couple of .22 LR and 12ga shotguns for varmints and small game that I got to use. When I turned 18 I bought at auction an old PH .243 rifle that had rode its whole life in a ranchers back window gun rack. My latest endeavor into the .243 has been a different direction. I slapped a 1:7 twist varmint contour barrel on a Savage action and decided to run 107-115 Sierra and Berger's and see how far I can reach I just wish my new job would allow me more time to go out and see what this rifle can do.  | |||
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Olarmy, why don't you do some research involving a guy by the name of Warren Page? You might find out the 243 originated as a wildcat, made by necking down the .308 case, and it happened long before Mr. Page designed the "prototype" case and submitted it to Winchester... | |||
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Being the 243 was my first centerfire rifle I have a soft spot for it. Doubless is way off the beam on it losing lots of deer shot with it. I've been doing an informal survey of what calibers were used in deer hunting and how the performed when I meet hunters out in the field. So far, and this is only for me, I have met nobody that has lost a deer to a 243 except one for my brother. He shot at a nice buck with an 80 grain Sierra shoulder shot. He never found it. That's it. I knew a lady that shot 16 deer in a row in 16 hunting seasons. Never lost a one. She also took black bear with it. My current neighbor is using a 6mm Remington, same good results. It doesn't matter what the cartridge started out as it matters more where it ended up as. Winchester wisely saw it as dual purpose cartridge and gave it the proper twist. Remington unfortunately saw it as a varmint cartridge and lost out on the glamor and sales. They rectified that mistake quickly but too late as the 243 Win went on to glory. | |||
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Doubless is right. Many 243s are used by people that are young and once a year shooters. Like the .223 deer hunters they wound a lot of animals. I have owned 5 of them and 3 6mm Rems. My brothers have owned about that many. While they worked ok we have all moved on to other cartridges for deer hunting due to marginal results of both poor penetration and poor expansion past 150 yards. Remington's view of the round was probably the correct one but people will always try a low or no recoil round before learning to shoot something adequate.
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Well, here we go again... I am being challenged on my statement of deer being lost to the .243. Well, here is an anecdote I was personally involved in about 20 years ago... A buddy of mine called me and asked if I had dies for a .243. He told me he had been to his parents' place in the hill country and lost three deer opening weekend. He was using the beloved .243... I asked him to get me the box of ammunition he was using. As I suspected, it was green box Remington and 80-grain projectiles. Don told me that he had had three bucks walk out in front of him and he had shot all three behind the shoulder. All three dropped at the shot, re-gained their feet and blew out as if nothing had happened. He really didn't know what he had done wrong. The problem was, as is obvious to all of us, he was using the wrong projectile. I loaded some 100-grain Speer Grand Slams for him and he went back and filled his tags. I never once said the .243 would not kill deer. It obviously will. What I said was that I suspected more deer were shot and lost with the .243 than any other round, but I might be wrong. I now know personally of four that come to mind readily, and I probably know of more, just don't remember them at present. Here is the issue with the .243: the bullet is less than 1/4" in diameter. Even if the projectile expands to 1-1/2 caliber, the exit hole is going to be about 3/8" in diameter. That just isn't much of a hole for letting blood out. We all know that a lot of the time deer will run, especially if shot through the lungs. Without an adequate blood trail, the deer stands a good chance of being lost. And using one of the premium mono-core bullets like the Barnes or Hornady GMX just compounds the problem, because they don't expand like conventional bullets do. Those are my reasons for posting what I did. I have seen it... Say what you will, but the .243 is at its best both speed and accuracy-wise with 55-85 grain bullets. Admit it... there are far better calibers for medium-sized game like deer and hogs. And oh, by the way, some guy named Charles Askins said pretty much the same thing a long time ago. | |||
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The bullet is more important than the head stamp. | |||
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Doubless that post I agree with you. That deer my brother lost was shot with a Sierra 80 hollow point in the shoulder joint. I gave him all my ammo after the 243 I had was stolen in a house robbery. I had loads for varmints and loads for deer. I specifically told him don't use the lighter bullets or hollow points for deer. He didn't listen and it cost him a nice 8 point buck. Of the rest that I investigated they all used the proper bullets. My favorite was the 100 grain Hornady round nose which Hornady now discontinued. It's also one the more accurate bullets I've shot from any 6mm's for what it is a non target specific hunting bullet. I see a difference terminal performance then you. I see too much meat damage. I see bullet exits all the time. Maybe if it's a very long shot then the terminal performance is downgraded due to lots of velocity drop. So we're not going anywhere. | |||
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Here's the horse hockey from you again...the lighter non recoiling calibers. I suppose you started out with a 460 Weatherby Mag at age 10. Now it depends where you hunt with the 6mm's. If you're out west or midwest and have those looooong shot I admit at distance the 6mm's lose steam. If you hunt back east, north or south, those long shots are few and in between. At those closer distances it has the power for deer and then some. After my 243 was stolen as I mentioned in the other post I replaced it with a 7mm Rem mag. Some of my other deer rifles are 30-06, 7mm-08, 308, and 45-70. That's just some of them. I've never gone back to the 243, not because I didn't like it, but because I enjoy trying something new. | |||
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