I am currently looking to acquire a light recoiling deer-capable rifle for my wife and later my little girls to shoot. I was looking a little at Ruger's SS syn. stock Ultra-light 243. It is equiped with a 20" barrel vs. the usual 22".

Does anyone have any experience with a short barreled 243 such as this? Is the muzzle blast rough? How much will velocity suffer? Would this make the somewhat underpowered 243 become too marginal to be a reliable deer killer?

The rifle spec says it weights 6.25 lbs (w/o the scope) so this is a fairly light rifle. What would the recoil be like?

Does anyone know if the Ruger UL barrel is stiff enough to shoot worth a crap?

Would I be better of to go with somehthing a little heavier and stronger such as the 260 Rem?

Thanks for the help,
Mark in GA

P.S. I have shot a lot of rifles and done quite a bit of handloading, but I have zero experience with the smaller rifle calibers like this. A 30-30 is least powerful rifle caliber I have played with to date. 270, 30-06, and up have been where my time has been spent.

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Is the muzzle blast rough?

Very little different than from a 22" barrel which most .243 rifles are.

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How much will velocity suffer?

roughly about 50' per second loss from a 22" barrel

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Would this make the somewhat underpowered 243 become too marginal to be a reliable deer killer?

There is absolutely nothing underpowered about a .243 for deer hunting. Even from a 20" barrel. The fact that it's not a .30-06 has no value at all....the .30-06 is vastly overpowered as a deer rifle. I've seen the .243 in action and it's truly an impressive killer of deer.

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The rifle spec says it weights 6.25 lbs (w/o the scope) so this is a fairly light rifle. What would the recoil be like?

Recoil from the .243 is it's shining star. It's very light and an ideal rifle for a lighter people that are recoil sensitive. Even a 6.5 pound rifle will have very little noticeable recoil.

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Does anyone know if the Ruger UL barrel is stiff enough to shoot worth a crap?

I'm not a Ruger fan but that aside the 20" barrel is adequate for the task. Light weight barrels typically can be a little finicky but I wouldn't let it bother me ast all. Glass bed the action, free float the barrel and work up a load that it likes. You should be fine. Personally I'd look to the M-7 Remington.

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Would I be better of to go with somehthing a little heavier and stronger such as the 260 Rem?

The .260 Remington shares a lot of the .243s good points. Light weight, low recoil, typically accurate but has the advantage of a lot of good 120, 130, and 140 grain bullets to pick from. There is a trade off in this and it's a bit more recoil. Personally I think it's minimal and I'd move up to the .260 (as I have in my own gun). That said, there's a heck of a lot of dead deer in freezers all over the country put there by a .243. It's truly a great deer cartridge.

Mark in GA: Everything that vapodog said is right on - get your 20" .243 and don't look back - it will be ideal for your needs. Thirty five years of shooting one leads me to believe that your might find yourself liking it too!

The Win Model 70 Super Shadow in .243 WSSM would be a great choice for the wife and daughter. It only weighs 6 lbs, and has all the power you need.

The model 70 classic compact is nice, if you can find one. 20" barrel, 12" pull. Only currently available in 243 win and 7mm-08. Older production included the 308 win.

I have the perfect wife/child (and sometimes me) gun. It's a Remington 600 in 243. I have found no drawbacks to the short barrel. In fact, thats what makes it awesome!!!! Light to carry, and pretty accurate too.

I have a Win M70 Lightweight Carbine in .243, 20" barrel (actually my ex-wifes gun my son is using) this gun has lots of one shot kills on deer and antelope to its credit and on top of that it is a tack driver with 42 gr of IMR 4350 and a 100 gr Sierra, also same load with an 85 gr Barnes x. The Sierra shoots sub MOA.
Also have a Ruger Ultra light in .257 Roberts that shoots 100 grain bullets ahead of IMR 4064 powder way over max into sub MOA groups. I'm a big fan of these little light weight pencil barreled rifles but when you are at or aproaching max loads and given that they are light little rifles they do kick as much for the kids as a heavier rifle in a heavier caliber would. My son has been shooting the .243 since he was 9 years old and doing it well but I do limit his bench time with it so he doesn't get gun shy.
Both of these, .257 and .243 put down deer size animals with real authority much beyond their small size would let you believe.

Mark in GA

I had a Winchester Model 670 Carbine it had a 18.5 inch barrel. It would consistantly shoot five shot .5 MOA groups with 42 Gr. of IMR4350 and Hornady 87Gr. Interlock bullets. I shot one 2 point with it at 50 feet. The deer dropped like a brick tried to regain his feet and couldn't. The whole rig including scope was under 7 pounds.

Sold it my buddy for a deer rifle for his kid. Man I been kicking myself since. But now his kid is gone and he uses it. The thing was unbelievable shot like that right out of the box.

It did have some muzzle blast not enough to worry about. The MV for the bullet I loaded was close to 31oo fps.

No flies on the 243, especially if you handload it with a Nosler Partition. Be sure to shorten the stock and finish it with good recoil pad (with rounded edges) to the ladies' length of pull.

Coloradomatt, the LOP on the Classic Compact is 13". I have one in 243 and it weighs just over 6#. Under 1" gps with light weight bullets such as the 55 gr , but so far, rifle does not like the 100 gr Nosler at least in factory Federal loads. Had a Ruger in 243 and I like the Winny much better. Ideal wife, kid, truck gun.

Used to hunt roe deer with a Rem. Model 7 in 243 for some years. It had the standard 20" ss tube and composite stock.
A real dandy to carry, but I could never get used to the flash, and the short barrel with so little weight forward made it a bit "wobbly" to shoot offhand.

Roe hunting is mostly done at dusk and dawn, thats why the mighty flash was an disadvantage.
Otherwise, the litle rifle was just lovable.
I sold it, but still miss it ........

Thouse little rifles are wery handy and all I know who owns them, like them.