243WIN performance on deer

I've shot 2 or 3 and the wife has shot 1 with the 243. Perfectly adequate performance with 100 grain Winchester or Federal non premium (aka plain Jane cup n core) offerings. I will say this, that the blood trail seems somewhat lacking compared to larger calibers, but just follow the tracks and light blood splatters 100 meters, and there's your deer.

If you're chasing coyotes, and use a lighter 65? grain v-max, the results are gross.;) Cook a pizza pop and flip it open. that's about what the exit hole on a yote will look like.
 
Also lacks the knockdown power at 300 + yards on deer that say a .270 would have ,but being smaller that's understandable.
 
Thanks all for the advice.

I think the impression im getting is a premium bullet type is preferable for deer?

Ive never felt the need for premium bullets for deer in my 30 cals, however those bullets weight twice as much and are bigger. Im certainly not opposed to premium bullets, and I like exit wounds. Distance is not a concern for me, as I doubt if I'll ever shoot a deer further then 200m around these parts. Most of them are within 100m.
 
Premium bullets? The small-ish 243 rifle that I had made, was borrowed multiple times by a guy I worked with, for his young son to use - at least three years - they had 3 deer zones where they lived. Rifle always came back with part boxes of standard "Federal Classic" 100 grain factory rounds - seemed to work fine for them. Also, was what our neighbour's wife used in it to get her mule deer. So, based on that, and the local fellow here, I don't think that you give up anything with 100 grain "cup and core" for the ranges that you mention. Earlier poster is correct - might not be the "best" choice for reaching "way out" - but bullet placement is always way more important than "power". A good rule of thumb is that most bullets (there are some exceptions) need about 1,800 fps impact speed to curl back and mushroom - so do the look-up for your round and that gives you an idea of "effective" range.

My own first deer rifle was a Win 70 in 308 Win - 165 grain Speer HotCor @ 2,800 fps. Bought it new in 1976. Our son still uses it. I moved on to a 7x57 - 150 grain Partitions. Have also taken deer with a 30-06 - factory 165 or 180 - do not remember. Do not recall taking a deer with a cartridge with a belt, but took two elk with 338 Win Mag 225 grain. Took first elk with that 308 Win. Never personally took a deer with the 243 that I built up. But I do have a Ruger Compact in 243 Win on order for myself - will likely be the next one to get a deer, if it ever shows up.
 
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I shot two deer with 95 grain Federal Fusions (young buck and mature buck) and it did the job with no issues - this was close range shooting (under 50 meters).

Currently use 85 grain Federal Trophy Copper - but have not yet shot a deer. Given my past experience with Trophy Copper/TTSX in other cartridges I have no doubt it will perform well.
 
I've killed more deer with the .243 than I can remember including 4 one opening morning. Most shots were up to 100 yd but have hit them out to 200 yd.
Keep it simple and cheap. I use handloads with 100 grain Remington bulk bag core loc bullets. They work. I wouldn't go fancy or expensive with bullets. Most shots were pass throughs. The odd one I recovered were one piece and mushroomed like they are supposed to. Once I used my groundhog load of 85gr Sierra HPBT. Turned the heart to pulp but left no blood trail and we almost didn't find it. Would not do that again.
Hunting buddy has shot a pile of deer with his 6mm Remington using factory 100 grain and handloaded core loc bullets.
they are deer. Hit them in the right spot and they are dead. They don't care what you hit them with.
Use lighter bullets that expand faster on coyote like 85 grainers.
 
saskgunowner101 said:
If you're chasing coyotes, and use a lighter 65? grain v-max, the results are gross.;) Cook a pizza pop and flip it open. that's about what the exit hole on a yote will look like.
Click to expand...

Imagine what it the 'yote would look like after being smacked with a Winchester .243 Varmint X 58 grain whizzing along at 3850....!!
 
My father-in-law decided to start hunting at 67. Was looking at .270 and .30-06, I asked if he'd ever shot a rifle like that off a bench. He tried my brother-in-law's Savage Axis in .270 and it kicked him into next week. We spent some time shopping around, he wanted blued metal on wood and we found a gen 1 Tikka T3 Hunter on the shelf at a small shop. .243 Winchester - perfect.

I've had several before and always good luck with factory loads so never handloaded it. I've tried Hornaday Interlocks and Nosler Partition and Ballistic Tips. All worked well.

We decided to try the Federal Fusion 95gr load and he got one right behind the shoulder at about 120 yards, it jumped, landed, stumbled a second or two, and hit the ground. Nice mushroom.

I was planning on trying some handloads and doing a little tuning, seeing how it likes Berger 95's loaded out a bit (T3 is long action so has some room to load it a bit long). Might do that this spring.
 
Not the same caliber but I run 100gr Sierra SP's in a .250 Savage Rem 700 Classic two grains over max and use 100gr Partitions for the bigger stuff .Performance at 300 yards is 60-70% retention and the deer hobbles 30 yards and falls over.
 
NHunter said:
Imagine what it the 'yote would look like after being smacked with a Winchester .243 Varmint X 58 grain whizzing along at 3850....!!
Click to expand...

This is what one looks like hit with an 87gr V-Max @3100 muzzle at about 120yds. I was aiming back a bit to lessen pelt damage, how'd I do, lol.

UmSjov1.jpg
 
Killed a heck of a lot of deer over the years with the .243 Win. Most any 95-100 grain bullet does the job well. Accurate, fun to shoot, reaches out there. recoil is not objectionable, just a great all round cartridge.
 
NHunter said:
Imagine what it the 'yote would look like after being smacked with a Winchester .243 Varmint X 58 grain whizzing along at 3850....!!
Click to expand...

Half of the guys I hunt with use them and have found for the most part they are not as bad as one would think. Hit them long way through the guts and yep its a mess, keep them up front and I have seen coyotes shot from 50 to over 400 this year with the bullet and they have boarded pelts. I prefer a Nosler ballistic tip in 70 grn. We finished with 49 dogs between myself and a few neighbours and 15 came within sight of the house. 12 with mange.
 
Eagleye said:
I do not judge the performance of a bullet by whether a deer dies on the spot or makes a short [<100M] dash before collapsing.

For the OP with your 243, I would be shooting the 90 Accubond, the 90 Scirocco II, the 95 or 100 Partition. These get the job
done, even when the presentation is not perfect. Dave.
Click to expand...

Hard to deny these but I also like the 95 grain Nosler ballistic tip and 95 grain fusion, these would be my first choice but I wouldn't sweat using a boring old 100 grain corelockt, interlock, hotcore, powerpoint or any other cup and core.
 
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