.243 Winchester: What's your take?

Just had a 6mm Ackley built.
I plan on buying a 700 CDL-SF in 6mm as well.
A 243 is in the future plans.

I know it will kill anything in NA providing you put the bullet in the right place.

I'm with Supercub on the moose/elk choice. If you have something bigger why not use it?

I know personally I'll never use a 243 on deer because I have some 257's that I mostly hunt smaller stuff with.
 
SuperCub said:
One would be very well served here in Canada with a .223, 243 (or 257Roberts) and a 30/06.
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I'm running a very similar hunting setup right now with a 223, 6mm and 300 WM. I'll get another 7mm-08 when the right one pops up, but for now I don't really feel as though there are any gaps to fill
 
It's easily available in a wide range of guns;
Ammo is cheap and easy to find on the shelves;
It's easy to learn to shoot well due to minimal recoil;
It will ruin the day of any deer, antelope, wolf, coyote, or lesser varmint in a heartbeat;
It tends to be at least reasonably accurate.

With that in mind, there is always room for a .243 in the safe. It really is a sweetheart round.
 
AlexF said:
My favorite small and medium game cartridge:
  • ammo available almost anywhere,
  • very accurate,
  • little recoil,
  • extremely effective on small and medium game

Not as versatile as 27 and 28 calibers but more practical,

Alex
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Agree with this as long as you are only going to shoot up to deer sized game. If you are going to have only 1 rifle I would lean towards the .270 or 30-06 if a non-mag cartridge is what you are looking for.
 
I like much bigger cals. for hunting big game, even deer, but the .243 and 6mm Rem. are about as good as it gets for long range varmints and deer if you can wait for the right shot.
I seldom get shots like that, so I like something with much more bullet.IMHO
 
I liked my 243 but for our northern deer I find it marginal but for varmints, coyotes and wolf not much can beat it, IMO
bb
 
Up north from Montebello to Mont-Laurier you will see many 250 pounds or more, I am 58 when i was 15 i remember seing ond the wheel scale a gutted whitetail at 350 pound and a couple year later at the Ripon Scale a guted deer at 381, those are souvenirs i could never forget... JP.
 
the only reason that I don't own a 243 at the moment is, the right one hasn't come along since I sold my last one. In the mean time, I have two 6mm's to keep me company. :)
 
.243 Win

Personally, I like it.

When rifles in .243 Win come up for sale on the EE they generally don't last long. Must be a reason for that.

And that the .243 Win is just for the ladies & kids is pure balderdash. d:h:

2007-10-27_091302_1aCoffee.gif

NAA.
 
Boomer said:
Not surprisingly the .243 has a strong following. It doesn't kick much although, like a .22-250, it can bark pretty good, particularly from a short barrel. Rifles chambered for it tend to be accurate, that was certainly the case with my SAKO Varmint when I owned one years ago and the Remington/Lilja M-7 I own now. In those jurisdictions that have a minimum bore diameter for big game, the .243 is probably legal, although it's advantage over a .22-250 is debatable.

On game up to 100 pounds the .243 when mated with an appropriate bullet produces sufficient penetration and kills well, but IMHO the idea that the .243 makes an ideal general purpose big game cartridge overstates it's effectiveness. In the North it shines as a wolf/caribou gun, but wolves generally fall into the 100 pound range and caribou are perhaps the easiest of any big game to kill, and tend to be taken broadside. In the southern US where whitetail weight tends to be closer to 100 pounds the varmint to deer monicker is more appropriate than on the Canadian prairies. As a general purpose big game cartridge, the .243 does not meet the requirement of having a reasonable expectation of killing any big game animal with a single shot, from any direction or angle, within the range limitations of the rifle, cartridge, and hunter. There is not enough mass in a .243 bullet to ensure sufficient penetration at close range and as it's velocity bleeds off with range, this does not bode well for long range lethality despite its flat trajectory. Either the 6.5X55 or the 7X57 are better big game cartridges, and both exhibit the mild manners necessary for the recoil shy rifleman to optimize his marksmanship skills, and both have better bullet mass to velocity ratios to ensure deep penetration on large game.

On these pages we occasionally see the .243 touted for bear, moose and elk. While it can and has been used with some success at the large end of the North American big game spectrum, in those cases the .243 should be reserved as the expert's choice, and in many cases an expert would rather have something larger. When he's armed with a .243, the expert knows not to try a quartering shot, neither front or rear, he knows to keep away from large bones, and he knows to work the action at the shoulder for a fast follow up shot should he need one. If you have to wait for the animal to provide you with a text book broadside shot, you need more gun.
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Not much to add here. Great post Boomer,... I concur.:agree:
 
When my son is old enough to hunt and would like to go with me I'm planning on getting him a Savage in .243. I can rebarrel and headspace it myself when he's ready for a bigger caliber and the boltface is the same for 7mm-08, .308, and .338 Federal.
 
A good deer/antelope choice, but keep in mind shot placement is even more important with smaller calibres, irregardless of what flavor of the month bullet you use and what the peanut gallery says.
I hunted with .243 for decades and I say it's a good choice, but keep in mind the limited energy and wound channel size is all.

With the advent of hornady's 58gr vmax lead, IMO it makes the 22-250 obsolete, as it now does everything a 22-250 will do AND it's an acceptable hunting cartridge.

I'm sure others will disagree, but that's my opinion, take it as you see fit.
 
I do agree did not use my 22-250 since i reload some v-max in 243, kind of forgot about it, it is sad but things do get replaced by more versatile things after a while... JP.
 
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