.243Win - Tell me about it!!!

OP, I believe your idea about the .243 fitting between the .223 and the .308 is correct. The .243 has lots going for it. Its accurate and mild mannered, there's a great selection of components for it, and its deadly on game up to 100 pounds or so.

But, IMHO folks get a little carried with their enthusiasm for the .243 as a big game cartridge. While it can perform well on caribou (which give up easier than their bulk might suggest), small deer, wolves, and antelope, it lacks the bullet weight necessary to meet the requirements of a general purpose big game cartridge, which in the North American context includes moose, elk, and large bears. I bet if you name any cartridge you’ll find someone who has killed some big critter with something smaller; even if doing so doesn’t make it wise.

As for concerns about barrel life, in terms of a hunting rifle, you can set those aside. Competition shooters get nervous when their rifles won’t hold a quarter minute, but that level of accuracy can’t be exploited in the field over normal ranges. How much you shoot a rifle determines how long it will keep its edge, but even with frequent use its hard to imagine that you wouldn’t get many years out of your .243 barrel before it wouldn’t hold 2 MOA.
 
Buy it , reload, and practice and watch the animals drop!!

Todays technology- firearm accuracy, bullet design and powder formulation make accurate , consistent and humane kills much easier to obtain, however you still must get confident in your firearm.

I'll put a confident shooter with a .243 vs a flincher with a 300WM up against a moose at 200 yards any day!
 
My buddy has one for yotes, loves it except it costs a lot to shoot if you dont reload compared to the .223 . For Deer down here in Southern Ontario I'm gonna get a 50 cal muzzle loader. Get a longer season than with centerfire where I live that way.
 
Well - I'm going to be the antagonist. Using a rifle that spits out light weight high velocity bullets for game like deer, makes one dependent upon premium bullets and excellent shot placement. At our deer camp, the prevailing sentiment is that a 243 is responsible for a lot of wounded animals.
Why not add a half a millimeter to the caliber - your bullet weight range increases dramatically - up to 160 gr.
 
243 is a great round for white tails and coyotes. Perfect for southern ontario. I was looking at buying one for yotes and a 270 for pronghorn hunting but I decided for a 1 gun does all to go with the 2506. Beats the 243 and can do everything a 270 can basically. I love my 2506 and ill say a 243 is better for southern ontario then a 270 simply due to bullet design. To many road warriors with 270s using 130 gr premium and 150gr bullets bouncing bullets across fields. 243 is less likely to carry on after hitting dirt. I know some 270 shooter will flame me for this but its true. Happy shopping
 
Kelly Timoffee said:
Buy it , reload, and practice and watch the animals drop!!

Todays technology- firearm accuracy, bullet design and powder formulation make accurate , consistent and humane kills much easier to obtain, however you still must get confident in your firearm.

I'll put a confident shooter with a .243 vs a flincher with a 300WM up against a moose at 200 yards any day!
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Thats the other one that comes up, if you flinch with a .585 Nyati, then you need a .22 Hornet for moose. No. If you can't handle the recoil that comes from shooting a .300 magnum, then clearly its the wrong cartridge for you. The answer then is to drop the velocity, bullet weight, and powder charge until you reach a recoil and blast level that you can handle. To achieve this you could either down load the .300 to .308 levels, which is still sufficient for any North American game. You might want to work with the rifle until such time as you can handle it full powered, but in the meantime a 150 at 2700 or a 180 at 2500 is pleasant enough to shoot in most rifles, and those ballistics have reliably taken game since the dawn of the 20th Century. I loaded some 130 gr TTSXs at 2600 fps for my nephew's .30/06 and he shoots it well, and they kill game decisively. But if you're a moose hunter with little interest in powerful rifles, you can choose an intermediate rifle cartridge like a 6.5, a .270, or a 7X57. These cartridges are available in light weight rifles and their ballistics have a long and distinguished record on big game on 6 continents. There is no need whatsoever to use a bullet that weighs less than a 130 gr bullet for game which runs a half ton just so you can avoid a bump on the shoulder.

In the end though, people will do whatever they choose to do, and some will shoot big animals with small bullets. Its been that way since the 6mm Lee Navy made its debut in 1895. PO Ackley even suggested that the .17 Remington was suitable for big game. I have a great deal of respect for Ackley, but a .17 for big game? :slap: The .243 has its niche and performs exceedingly well within that niche. Its performance outside that niche is on a sliding downward scale as game weight increases, although it gets a bump if the shooter chooses a premium bullet. But IMHO, if your only viable shot is a head shot or to slip one in between the ribs, hoping not to hit a bone, then you need to use more gun.
 
I would bet that 90% of the people who shoot coyotes with a 243 do not skin them for the hides themselves. If they did they would use a smaller caliber. My 6mm is very leathal on coyotes but I only use it when I know the shots are long or I need to remove problem coyotes. When I'm hunting for hides I use a 204.
So if you are not worried about a coyote hide why not move up to a 25 cal or the 260. I shoot a pile of deer every year with my 25-06 and 117 gr bullets and it is a fine tool for the job. The only other thing I could recommend is you buy a 243 and something a little bigger, because a guy can never have enough guns or a reason to use them.
 
B-78 said:
I would bet that 90% of the people who shoot coyotes with a 243 do not skin them for the hides themselves. If they did they would use a smaller caliber. My 6mm is very leathal on coyotes but I only use it when I know the shots are long or I need to remove problem coyotes. When I'm hunting for hides I use a 204.
So if you are not worried about a coyote hide why not move up to a 25 cal or the 260. I shoot a pile of deer every year with my 25-06 and 117 gr bullets and it is a fine tool for the job. The only other thing I could recommend is you buy a 243 and something a little bigger, because a guy can never have enough guns or a reason to use them.
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I sure hope you're not in my area!
 
The 243 is a great cartridge, i`ve been using it off and on for 40 years. It`s a little hard on fur but if you do your job it`s good on deer. I would hesitate to go past 350 yards on a deer but i`ve only shot one further than 200 and that was with a 264 win mag at 500. Just picked up some Nosler varmagedon 55gr. bullets to try in my 243, should be carnage in the gopher patch.
 
I have had nothing but success with harvesting up to whitetail sized game with the 243

i do not recall a negative experience in our camp with one. Deer or smaller sized game normaly lay down on the after eating a bullet. Is it superior no i would not say that, but the ease of shooting and the accuracy from the round likely contribute to a well placed kill shot. They hydrostatic effect of this speedy hard hitting little round cant hurt either. But a word used around our camp when field hunting is (Flattened him)

good luck

j
 
The .243 is another favourite of mine, feed it with TSX and fill the freezer with meat.

Also as for the hunting camp stories...methinks anyone that can only wound deer with a .243 needs to spend more time practicing at the rifle range.
 
I know someone who claims to have killed 20 moose with a .243. In my own experience near perfect shot placement on deer is even more critical then something in the 30-06 class. For example if you hit them just a little too far back the animal is harder to recover. A .243 would be an ideal size for wolf and pronghorn sized animals.
 
Woodbeef said:
I'd say go a bit bigger. To me the 243 is too close to the 223. I'd say 257 Roberts,25-06,6.5x55,or 260 would fit in better.
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Oh really?
 
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