I've never been a .243 fan. Well at one point I was. Around 2007 I did some horse trading and got a Rem 700 CDL in .243. This was when I was doing weekly hog hunting and usually trading into a different firearm each week to try on the pigs.

I threw a spare Leupold on the rifle and sighted it in. 95gr Ballistic Silvertips. First day I had two coyotes come running in to my Foxpro Fx3 before I had a round chambered. Lesson learned.

Snuck up to one of the feeders that evening and had a decent 150lb boar under it before the feeder went off. Feeder goes off and he is broadside....Boom! Camcorder showed a nice behind the shoulder hit...150 yards later through the sand dunes we hit the property line. Good blood under the feeder.

Lost a whitetail buck the next weekend and sold the rifle the following.

Fast forward to last week and I had a Cooper Model 22 poking at me at a shop that my friend is the manager at. Well I really wasn't interested when they told me it was in .243. Bad experiences)))

My best friend hunts in a lot of 24/48 hour coyote and bobcat calling contests. They love the 243 for varmints. I decided I needed this gun for redemption.

Cleaned the barrel and mounted a 3.5-10x50 VXL on top.



Hopefully this weekend I get to go shoot it. It came with 300 Berger VLD 95gr Hunters along with some Swift Scirocco II 90gr and Nosler Custom prepped brass. Exciting new stuff.


So what do you use your .243 for? Varmints? Whitetail? Target shooting? What is a good powder for this? I have Varget that I like to use for .308 but perhaps there is a better choice for the .243

.



From across the pond - roe and fallow, fox, badger and as per the picture mountain chamois! Hope to use it for CWD and muntjac too. Have used .243 in Africa for impala, duiker, springbok, mountain reedbuck and more.

Wouldn't use it for pigs or the likes unless going for head shots.

I like the .243. A big little versatile caliber!

Charlie

.

I’ve shot several whitetails with the 243. In my Ruger 77 I shot the factory loaded Sciroccos and they did outstanding! Furthest I had a deer run after getting hit with one was 15-20 yards and most went down right there. You will probably have a lot better luck with those on hogs than you had with the ballistic silvertips. In my dads No. 1 243 we load up Sierra Gamekings, but I don’t remember off the top of my head what powder we were using. I would start out trying some RL23 or RL16.

I've killed a number of deer and a few hogs with the .243. I'm pretty much sold on the 100 gr. Partition for deer / hogs. My stand by powders are 4350 and 3031.

About 35 or so years ago, went hunting with my future son in law and he had a .243. Next trip he only had couple rounds of ammo and thought he could borrow some from a rancher that ran cattle where we hunted. This made me think if I had .243 one or the other of us should have ammo. Ran across a never fired Win mod 70 at a price to good to be true and that's what I've carried ever since. I use 100 grain cup and core--Remington bulk packed or Winchester bulk packed (from Midways) and 4831 powder. Fast forward several years and grandson hunts with us and uses his dad's .243 or mine. I had nephew use mine to get his first deer. Been a bunch of deer killed with it and no stalking jobs needed. Last deer I shot with it was one of the most unusual deer I ever shot.
I had put two of my cousins on the stand and I was just hanging around if they needed any help. I had sat under a small mesquite tree, couple hundred yards away, didn't really expect to see anything. A forked horn buck walked up. I was able to use a low limb as a rest and he was broadside to me, perfect presentation. At the shot, the deer didn't flinch, didn't jump, didn't fall nor did it run. None of the usual actions. It just slowly walked with some staggering. I could see blood where I had hit it and knew I had made the shot I wanted. The deer walked a few yards and stopped and I could see it was swaying. I knew things were about over and I walked up to the deer while it was still on it's feet. I could have kicked it over. I considered a finishing shot, but knew there was no need. After a short while it dropped. Both the liver and heart were gone. How that deer took one step is beyond me. The few yards that deer traveled was the longest of any that I recall that were shot with my .243.

Bugle---This was at Silver,Tx (about 50 miles from San Angelo) where do you hunt? BTW not being ready and having round chambered is not a .243 fault (don't really think that is what you were conveying). I shot a yearling deer with my 30-06 left a 6" exit took out heart etc and that deer staggered couple hundred yards. Proves my one point, doesn't matter what you are using, you don't know until you have pulled the trigger.
The grandson I mentioned moved up to a .308 several years ago. Not that he needed bigger, the .243 was working perfectly. Was a matter of my having a .308 I thought he would like. (Win 88) (He loves it). He now has twin sons and we had intended to start them this year, but didn't get to it. I have a Rem 600 in .222 that I cut the stock down on. .22 centerfire 55 grain cup and core in the vitals and you have a dead deer. Lots of experience with this.

I've killed more deer with a 22 LR than all my guns put together, I've said this before...also with 222/222 mag, 223, 22-250, 220 and 22-243...NEVER HAD A PROBLEM with any IF I used the right bullet AND placed it correctly.

SAMO-SAMO with the the 6mm/243 calibers and I have/had cartridges from 6 FB, 6 BR to 6-284/6-06 and messed with larger cased wildcats belonging to the shooters.

What you like and what/how you shoot determines your thinking and "proving"...AND your shooting abilities determine whether or not you collect your quarry.

I DON'T blame my gun or the case/caliber IF I SCREW UP a shot...it's NOT THE GAME'S FAULT if it doesn't "bang-flop"...IT'S MINE...NO ONE wants to blame themselves for a flubbed shot for the most part, it ALWAYS something else....PUT THE BLAME WHERE IT BELONGS...NO AMOUNT OF CYA or words will cover up a bad shot or a bad pick.

ENJOY whatever toy you have and start practicing more...pick the right bullet AND range for your shots AND tune your rifle/ammo so it shoots the very best.

Good Hunting

Hey Carpet, it is amazing how far these animals will travel once wounded. I think that is why I have stayed with .30 caliber+ for the most part. The Foxpro worked better than I thought (and the coyotes were close). I should have been better prepared and had one in the chamber before starting the caller.

I usually hunt around either Sterling City, Snyder, Monahans or Lamesa. If I am in San Angelo I'll have to give you a shout. I plan on chasing crappie this spring at Twin Buttes with the recent rains. My boat is probably hating me since it didn't see much use this winter.

Bugle--6 years ago Twin Buttes got some water, so I bought a new Honda 20 for my old, very old Arkansas Traveller. Seems next day Buttes dried up so the boat has sat for 6 years. Water again guess I'll have to BOAT (bust out another thousand) again.

Bugle--PM sent and yes by all means give me a shout.

I got my 243 to use for rock chuck shooting.
it shoots the Hornady 58gr V-max bullet pretty good.
it's not a fan of the 100gr bullets.
once I get the throat worn out it will become a 6.5 err 260 Remington or the like.

I've shot a lot of long range ground squirrels, prairie dogs and coyotes with the 243 along with antelope, coastal mulies and whitetail deer.

I don't see a .243 as having any problems.
One of my ex wives and my oldest son have had great results shooting Whitetails, Antelope and Mule Deer.
Great cartridge.

Varmint shooting where you get a lot of shots, the .243 is more recoil than I want. For this a .222 or .223 is better suited in my books. This is not saying it is a real thumpper, but it adds up.

No experience for me other than watching my cousin kill a truckload of mule deer and 17 18 elk with his 243 shooting 85 Sierra hp over 4350 before he gave it to his wife to use. She is still killing elk with it quite nicely.

quote:

Originally posted by Charlie64:
.



From across the pond - roe and fallow, fox, badger and as per the picture mountain chamois! Hope to use it for CWD and muntjac too. Have used .243 in Africa for impala, duiker, springbok, mountain reedbuck and more.

Wouldn't use it for pigs or the likes unless going for head shots.

I like the .243. A big little versatile caliber!

Charlie

.

Charlie, I would like to congratulate you on your photo. One of the best I've seen! Thanks for sharing.
P.S. What is the make of your fine little carbine?

quote:

Originally posted by Charlie64:


From across the pond - roe and fallow, fox, badger and as per the picture mountain chamois! Hope to use it for CWD and muntjac too. Have used .243 in Africa for impala, duiker, springbok, mountain reedbuck and more.

Wouldn't use it for pigs or the likes unless going for head shots.

I like the .243. A big little versatile caliber!

Charlie

.

Beautiful rifle Charlie. Is it a Sako? Which bullets do you load for the larger game?

Justin

Years ago we had a friend hunt deer with my Dad and brothers. He used a 243 with either 75 or 80 gr bullets. He claimed they were "fast" and really killed. We spent more time tracking wounded deer than I care to remember. Finally told my friend to get a box of 100 gr bullets or go hunt somewhere else. Huge difference in effectiveness. Any of the lighter bullets 80 grs and down or any of the explosive ballistic tip type bullets should be used on varmints. They just do NOT penetrate enough on larger game. I have seen good success on deer with 100 gr Hornadys, as well as Speer and Sierra 100 gr bullets. Even better is the Nosler Partition.

Had a 243 years ago. Shot a mule deer at 100 yards, broad side, 100 grain partition. Perfect shot placement. Finished the deer off several hundred yards away. Sold it and won’t own another. Friend that contest hunts coyotes a lot uses one and swears by it.

Charlie, that is a great photo. It makes me want to go for a Chamois here in the Carpathians. I am not sure my legs are up to the challenge, but I better decide soon, as I am not getting any younger. RJ

The 243 has a couple possibilities. Shorten it a half inch and make a dasher. Same velocity with 3/4 the powder and better accuracy. Or neck it up to 30 cal for a very well balanced cartridge. The 243 is a typical over bore. Good for making noise, but little else.

I can't swallow the stories about "perfect shot placement then the deer runs off".
I've killed and seen killed dozens and dozens of deer with cartridges less "capable" than the .243.
I don't know if people don't know where a deer's heart is or they just can't hit it but if you put a bullet through a deer's heart or the plumbing close to it or let the air out of both his lungs he is dead.
I guess some people are satisfied with poor shooting then blame the cartridge or the rifle or bullet "failure".
The .243 flat works and if you can't kill deer or hogs or whatever with that then you need to take a long hard look at your shooting or where on the animal you think a perfect shot is.
Everyone can make a mistake, if you do you should admit it not try to convince others in your delusion that the "243" isn't big enough for deer.

A few years ago I was hosting a friend's wife on a whitetail hunt, hunting from a blind on a small wheat field. She wanted to kill a meat doe, and happened to be using a .243, though the caliber is really irrelevant, which I'll explain.

I had a digital camera with me and had a steady place to set it in one window of the blind. I set it on "movie" so I could record her shot. Eventually, a doe from a group on the edge of the field grazed within the shooter's line of fire and she took the shot at no more than 40 yards. The shot was as perfect as you could ask, right at the top of the heart, also through the lungs.

At the shot the doe hardly reacted, but trotted rather unhurriedly back across the field to rejoin the group of deer, all of which time my camera was recording. The wounded doe was in a difficult place for the shooter to take another shot, but I knew it wasn't going anywhere, so I told her just to watch it. In just a bit the deer began to sway, then fell in a heap.

When I gutted the deer I found that the heart and lungs were an unrecognizable mass of jelly -- there was nothing left of them intact -- and the bullet was lodged in the far side hide. Then when I later reviewed the movie I timed it from the shot until the deer fell and found that it was one minute and eight seconds. It was on its feet for OVER ONE MINUTE while nothing of the vitals of that deer still existed in any functional form. It had no heartbeat for over one minute. It could not breath for over one minute. Yet it stayed upright and ran for some distance, and could have run a greater distance if need be to rejoin the group.

The lesson from this is that deer (and other game animals) often run a long way even after suffering cataclysmic trauma. Other times they drop on the spot from seemingly much less trauma. Crediting or blaming the caliber with which they were shot simply makes no sense. And from the post-mortem of that doe shot with a .243 it is obvious that a .243 is capable of causing more than sufficient trauma to kill deer "humanely".

I suppose I could also tell you about 100% of the several deer which never moved a step after being shot that I've taken or sat with youth hunters who took them with a .223 -- or my friend who wanted to try out his .338 Winchester and was surprised and disappointed that the whitetail ran 100 yards after a perfect lung shot.

Whether a caliber is appropriate for deer depends on how much trauma it can cause them. How quickly they drop depends on something else, mainly the luck of the draw.

Stonecreek--I agree with every word of your post. Something tells me you been there done that---in real life--not at your keyboard.

Don't tell my wife and 4 hunting daughters that the 243 Win won't kill mule deer posthaste or they'll know you're fibbing! They've all done it near countless times now and all the girls are now married adults and still use the 243's.

My wife went out alone, this past season, while I way guiding a grand daughter and the wife killed her own buck with her 243. Some good guys saw her struggling and helped drag and load the fine buck.

1 shot, that's all they ever need!

Maybe whitetail are exceptionally durable and nothing but a 30 cal will do....oh wait...I've killed several whitetail and find them about equally durable. There goes that theory.

Too much damage for coyote pelts, if a feller is saving them, and too much recoil for a big prairie dog town but it's all fine if round-count is kept at about 50 per day....according to me.

Zeke

I wasn't trying to hurt anyone's feelings about my original thoughts of the .243. I'm not sour with the .243 as I just purchased another one. I am sure a head shot with most rimfires at close range would kill anything we have all attempted to hunt in our life.

The hog and whitetail may have been recovered if I was not hunting a private ranch in Texas. Once it goes over the property line it is lost.

It is impressive to see how far an animal will go once hit. Even when it is 3 hits of 250gr Nosler Partition through the vitals and front shoulders..




Justin

What Snellstrom said. I will say I have had 1 bullet failure on my second biggest whitetail. Not a .243 problem but a ballistic tip at 15 feet problem. That said, I still recovered that deer after it fell 60 yards away with a massive sucking chest wound. Entrance wound 4" round. With Partitions, Gamekings, Sciroccos, TSXs, and Interbonds the results have all been the same. Whether I shot, my sons, my dad, and on and on. A reasonably placed shot and dead deer within 60 yards.

I did have a bullet failure---well I guess really a failure on my part. I tried a 95 grain cast bullet in a .243 on a spike buck. Both me and my grandson had a shot at it and I see no way either of us could have missed. Not a drop of blood found and deer bounded off never to be seen again. No more cast bullets on deer. I'm sure in much larger calibers they work, but why take on a rainbow trajectory and possibly heavy recoil when a jacketed bullet in .243 (.223 or .222for that matter) works just fine?

Zeke---I thought at first you were going to tell the story of a wife that shot a deer. A man came up and the woman thought he was going to try and take her deer. He told her, "yes it's your deer, I'll help you gut it if you'll let me have my saddle".

quote:

Whether a caliber is appropriate for deer depends on how much trauma it can cause them. How quickly they drop depends on something else, mainly the luck of the draw.

Well said Stonecreek, I find this to be absolutely true for deer and Elk and the more of each I see killed the more it reinforces that belief.

Hornady made a 100 gr roundnose bullet in 243 cal. I still have a box and 4350 was the best powder for me. In the '50's Les Bowman was a guide for elk when the 243 came out and he would let the people shoot elk with his loaner 243 Win. He reported that there was better kills for the customer and the ones using the larger caliber rifle had more to track. I was sold on the 243 Win. featherweight rifle.

I have a red wolf shot in 1960 and mounted on my grandson's wall.. Now they are on the endangered list. That same year I shot a whitetail buck facing me at 100 yds with 100 gr roundnose bullet and the deer made a complete flip over backwards. It is the best all around caliber for my use.

I had an experience with a 6mm Rem. (nearly identical to the .243) that made me avoid the .243 calibers for deer. I was hunting in the Texas Hill Country with a Ruger M77 in 6mm. Rem. loaded with the 105 gr. Speer spitzer. It was a very accurate load. I shot a nice 8-point buck at about 150 yards right behind the shoulder. He was almost perfectly broadside but downhill. When I shot he ran into some fairly thick brush. It took about 10 minutes to find him. He was laying down and looking at me. He got up and ran, so I shot again. He was down for good then. The second shot angled from the back of the ribs diagonally through the chest and out the opposite shoulder. The first shot had hit him just behind the shoulder, centered vertically in his body, had angled down through his heart leaving a hole I could stick my finger through, and come out about 2 inches above the bottom of his brisket leaving about a 1 inch exit hole. He had laid there for 10 minutes with a hole through his heart and was still alive. The bullet had obviously expanded. I realize the chances of this happening again are rare, but I lost faith in the .243 cartridges. I could probably shoot hundreds of deer through the heart with the same load and never have this happen again. I went back to the 7x57 and had no more problems. I still enjoy the 6mm Rem. but now use it as a varmint rifle. I agree with Bob Hagel's idea of using a rifle that will do the job when everything goes wrong, not just when everything goes right.

Dale---it is easy to speculate that had you been using bigger, things would have been better. Obviously that is unknown. I once shot a yearling buck, went down at the shot. Took me a while to get to it as there was a tank (in Texas we call it a tank other parts call it a pond). When I approached the deer got to his feet and staggered couple hundred yards. This was with a 30-06. I had taken out it's vitals and there was a 6 inch exit. Short of running over it with a train, don't see how bigger would have sped things up. Never know till you pull the trigger. Had I been using my .243, faulty thinking could of been the 30-06 would have done it better.

Well, Dale, it's hard to know how to respond when you describe the excellent penetration and clearly mortal wounds caused by a particular caliber, then complain that the deer lived too long.

It's a bit like my friend who took a bull elk with a .300 Winchester and 180 grain Partitions. He made an excellent shot into (and out of) the chest at 75 yards or so. The bull kept walking and he put another one though the chest. After the second shot the elk veered into a gully and died in a place that made it somewhat difficult to retrieve. Thinking about the results, my friend wondered if he should move up to 200 grain Partitions. I asked him how, since both 180's completely penetrated the bull, would the deeper-penetrating 200's work any better? "Hmmm, I don't guess they would," was his considered response.

We often come to expect immediate, conclusive results from our shots, but that just doesn't always happen. In a local murder case I'm familiar with an elderly Hispanic man got fed up with his wife's behavior, so he shot her -- twice. When the accused was put on the stand the prosecutor, seeking to establish malicious intent, was quite successful when he asked the accused why he shot her twice. "She no hit the ground when I shoot her the first time," was his response.

Dale — A few decades ago, I hit a whitetail buck with a .35 Remington shot from a 10" barreled Thompson Contender pestol at about 75 yards. The bullet passed between 2 ribs and tore half the heart off.

The deer had been standing broadside to me at the shot and didn't move after I shot. After recovering from the recoil, we looked at each other for perhaps 30 - 45 seconds. I could see the entry wound. I figured he was dead deer standing, so I didn't follow up. He staggered about 10 yards off, heading to my left, turned 90 degrees and staggered another 30 - 40 yards away from me. He turned right, staggered another 5 yards or so and dropped.

He had to have bled out in the 30 - 45 seconds before he took his first wobbly step. But . . .

My point is that stuff happens. Weird stuff. My 35 caliber bullet did what it was supposed to do . . . as did your .243 bullet. There is no caliber that can immunize a hunter from stuff happening that shouldn't happen.

I have no doubt that a .243 with appropriate bullets is good for deer.

But some of the biggest small gun proponents here have hit on why I prefer something bigger.

My experience is that good expanding .243 and .224 caliber bullets do not usually completely penetrate deer.

A bigger hole on both sides gives a better blood trail. When you get one of these oddballs that run 100 plus yards with no heart or lungs, at least around here, your odds are much better at finding him (or the game warden finding him when he runs on to posted property) than a fatally hit but non bleeding deer.

I’ve seen my share of bullet failures with small bores, but I acknowledge that most of those were folks who use varmint bullets on deer.

Many folks, self included, jumped on the 243 band wagon long ago, it worked fantasti on most kills but invariably it failed from time to time..I went back to my 250-3000 that has never failed me in 60 plus years..Ive only owned one other 243 since that experience and it did the same thing..That tells me its really on the border line for deer...I expect it would work well on the Hill country whitetail in Texas, but so does the 222 Rem and 22-250..all of which destroy too much meat..Those little deer are the best of venison in the world..

Stonecreek: I have seen lots of deer with good solid heart/lung shots run 100 yards or more, but they were always dead when I got there. This dear laid down for 10 minutes and was able to run with a hole the size of my index finger completely through the middle of its heart. That is something completely different. I doubt if there is much chance of it ever happening again. I have heard of people who lived for years with a bullet in their heart that doctors were afraid to try to remove. Mabey the hit in this deer missed hitting anything vital in the heart. Whatever the result, as this was my first deer with the 6mm Rem. I was not impressed. I think people tend to use rifles they have good luck with. If you have been happy with a .243, use it. I have had excellent results with the 7x57 on whitetails and will continue to use it.

quote:

Originally posted by carpetman1:
Zeke---I thought at first you were going to tell the story of a wife that shot a deer. A man came up and the woman thought he was going to try and take her deer. He told her, "yes it's your deer, I'll help you gut it if you'll let me have my saddle".

hahaha, I didn't want to bring up the saddle deal in this group!

Zeke

I used the 243 periodically for deer and hogs. Compared to my 308 or 7x57 it was way second fiddle. Deer similarly hit often traveled much farther. I never lost a deer but I did spend some time looking for some of them. Poor blood trails were the norm especially with Partitions. But then again I generally hunt in brushy/thorny areas where a good blood trail is a real commodity. On feral hogs I would only shoot if I could make CNS hits unless I didn't want to recover them. I would use a 243 for Mulies and Antelope as they are usually hunted in more open areas. For me though I would rather have a 270, not much more recoil and better performance in my book. This said I own two of them presently, both tackdrivers. I tried to sell out of the 243 issue but I keep getting good deals on them. For Coyotes I prefer a 22-250.

For me, whitetail deer are hard animals to figure out. I've put bullets straight through the heart and lungs with a .308 and a .270 and had them run over 100 yards - and I've dropped some where they stood with the same basic shot and calibers. I can say that my personal preference is for a caliber/bullet combo that is likely to pass through. In my experience, a passthrough gives me a nice blood trail to follow if the animal runs (I say "in my experience" because I know many don't want a pass-through and I respect that position). My .243 with Hornady Interlocks has killed a deer well, but without passing through. I expect that an all-copper bullet in the .243, like the Barnes X and the like, would pass through, but they don't shoot well at all in my .243. Because of my personal preference for pass-throughs, I now mostly use my .308 Win and .270 Win for whitetail deer (have used my .338 win mag twice for fun as well). A guy I hunt with each year swears by his .243 for deer and has taken piles of them with it. The .243 obviously "works" for deer. In my personal opinion I think it comes down to preference, what one shoots well, the right bullet for the caliber, and bullet placement.