.243 Win. and big game

I thought the best thing for moose hunting in Newfoundland was a Mazda 6 or if you were not comfortable with the foot pounds of energy in the Mazda go with the venerable Ford F250 behind the 7.3. Go with the turbo if you wanted a hotter load.;)
 
I have stated before, Dad shot an elk with a high power. One shot kill. That does not make it a suitable choice! I do not understand the search to kill a game animal with the littlest cartridge you can find. It has long been said " use enough gun " if I had a shoulder shot on a big bull at 150, I would sooner use my old Enfield than one of my coyote gun 243. Why risk a loss of an animal because you thought it might work? I have seed many deer run a long time after being hit with the 24s. On the prairie a 200yd shot is a pop and 400 is often seen you still need to put a good bullet in the boiler room with enough to drop it. All JMHO
 
I shot a very respectable Yukon black bear with my little full stocked Ruger 77 RSI in 243 using 90 gn Speers. It just happened to be what I had with me and the bear was open although not anticipated...........next thing you know BANG, bear rug...........
 
I certainly haven't read all 85 posts, but I have read enough to see it is no different than the other similar threads that come on here with regularity, which is the 243 is suitable for coyotes, but when you go hunting, use a hunting rifle.
And to clarify, that is not my thinking. A good hunter will use a 243 on moose and not consider he is handicapped by using it.
I plainly remember the great variety of firearms the meat hunters used to shoot great numbers of moose and elk, in the depression years. The 25-35, the 32-40, the 250 Savage, the 351 Self Loading, even the 32-20 was used by a trapper I knew, who killed moose with it.
There should be little argument that the 243 is superior to any of these calibres for big game.
Read any book on Mountain goat hunting and note what they recommend for a rifle. The 30-06 is usually considered minimum. I guided our fourteen year old son on a goat hunt and sat by him while he made a one shot, bang/flop kill with his 243, on a better than average billy.
A couple of years later he was going to Jr. High, I was away, but one Friday in the late fall, he and his school pal, who was driving a pick up truck, decided to take the day off and go moose hunting. His pal also had a 243.
When I came home he told me about it. They were walking through the scrub bush, with my son behind, in the position I had taught him to walk when with another hunter, when a bull moose appeared ahead of them. His pal fired one shot and the moose fell, dead when they got to him, no other shots required.
I asked my son what ammunition his pal was using and he said his friend, "didn't have any shells for his 243, so I gave him some of your hunting loads!" My hunting loads were 100 grain bullets chronographed at just over 3100 fps, in my 243 Ruger with 22 inch barrel.
And by the way, they dressed that moose out, got some more friends to help them and saved all the meat!
So don't get too hung up on ballistics when talking about hunting rifles.
 
H4831 said:
I certainly haven't read all 85 posts, but I have read enough to see it is no different than the other similar threads that come on here with regularity, which is the 243 is suitable for coyotes, but when you go hunting, use a hunting rifle.
And to clarify, that is not my thinking. A good hunter will use a 243 on moose and not consider he is handicapped by using it.
I plainly remember the great variety of firearms the meat hunters used to shoot great numbers of moose and elk, in the depression years. The 25-35, the 32-40, the 250 Savage, the 351 Self Loading, even the 32-20 was used by a trapper I knew, who killed moose with it.
There should be little argument that the 243 is superior to any of these calibres for big game.
Read any book on Mountain goat hunting and note what they recommend for a rifle. The 30-06 is usually considered minimum. I guided our fourteen year old son on a goat hunt and sat by him while he made a one shot, bang/flop kill with his 243, on a better than average billy.
A couple of years later he was going to Jr. High, I was away, but one Friday in the late fall, he and his school pal, who was driving a pick up truck, decided to take the day off and go moose hunting. His pal also had a 243.
When I came home he told me about it. They were walking through the scrub bush, with my son behind, in the position I had taught him to walk when with another hunter, when a bull moose appeared ahead of them. His pal fired one shot and the moose fell, dead when they got to him, no other shots required.
I asked my son what ammunition his pal was using and he said his friend, "didn't have any shells for his 243, so I gave him some of your hunting loads!" My hunting loads were 100 grain bullets chronographed at just over 3100 fps, in my 243 Ruger with 22 inch barrel.
And by the way, they dressed that moose out, got some more friends to help them and saved all the meat!
So don't get too hung up on ballistics when talking about hunting rifles.
Click to expand...

See this is the kind of first hand experience you hear from quite a few people.

I'm new to the .243, but I plan on seeing what it can do this year.

I know a lady up here who successfully hunted everything in the Yukon, except Bison and Polar bear, with a .243, and never lost an animal. For her it was no big deal worth bragging about, and certainly not some sort of trick to impress anyone.
 
sc336 said:
Well maybe the regs have changed, but a 150 grain bullet as RECCOMMENDED minimum still leaves out the 243. Also, the moose hunt draw there you would be very lucky to get a tag every 2 to 3 years, and if you shoot 20 moose, that would take apx 50 to 60 years, that's doing things legal. Being you need to be old enough to apply plus the 50 to 60 years to get tags enough to harvest 20 moose, that would be quite a feat all things considered
Click to expand...

Define recommended. Then define mandatory minimum. Don't really see a problem with 20 moose shot
in that time period. Over the past 50 years, I have shot a good many more than that. Dave.
 
This Ruger RSI, .243 will be on our deer hunt this fall, but for larger game I have much better options to carry. Should the shot present itself on moose or bear, I'd have to be pretty confident in my shot before I took it with a .243. Of course, its easy to say that now when you don't have buck fever pumping through your veins. Its my lack of experience with the .243 that makes me say that. Perhaps after a few seasons in the field, I'll change my mind.

 
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