Is the 243 Winchester dying?

jonyork

jonyork

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Hey folks,

Shopping around for a pair of new rifles and part of me kind of wants them matching (I know, I’m wierd).

I notice that once you get out of the bottom price offerings of most every company, the 243 is no longer available.

As an example, the Bergara B14 hunter, yep 243. B14 wilderness hunter? Nope, same for premier.

Weatherby is the same, browning similar, Tikka has a few but most not.

Seems only savage carries it mostly everywhere.

Is this a cartridge on its way out of favor?
 
I hope not. But the youngsters these days seem to want the "new improved " cartridges.

I'm pretty sure ammo will be available for a long time.
 
jonyork said:
That’s exactly why I’m looking for one.
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There's Savage 11 languishing in the EE at a good price, but perhaps because it doesn't have Accutrigger and Accustock no one will want it. I'm sure the trigger is conventionally adjustable and there's always the option of bedding the stock (it's a synthetic.)
 
jonyork said:
That’s exactly why I’m looking for one.
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If I may suggest a decent combination of rifles, which I've personally used for close to 20 years, 243 Winchester and 6mm Remington.

Ok, here's my reason for TWO 6mm bore rifles that are very close/identical in performance until you start using bullets over 95 grains or very long for weight ELDs.

The 243 Winchester in my safe has old school dual set triggers, incredibly figured Circassian Walnut stock, super slick commercial 98 Mauser action and a Waltham 1-12 twist barrel, put together by Voere. It's extremely consistent and accurate with 95 grain or less bullets, but it doesn't shoot heavier bullets well.

I really like this rifle and have taken dozens of coyotes, a few wolves, several White Tails and a spike moose about a decade back. Easily a 350 meter shooter on coyotes, unless the wind is howling.

The 6mm Remington is a put together rifle. The Remington 700 LA receiver/trigger/bolt came in a trade. The 1-9 twist barrel came out of a take off bin at Del Selins and the stock was picked up from a bunch of new, Remington, Walnut take offs on Lee Pierobin's table in Kamloops. Luckily I had a spare trigger guard, floor plate in my spare parts bins.

Again, luckily the barrel screwed on and tightened up with right on minimum headspace. It wasn't indexed properly, but you can't have everything when your going cheap.

Once it was established that both rifles shot well, they both had decent mounts, rings and scopes. The Voere was topped with an old Zeiss Diavari 6 X 42, without parallax adjustments.

The Remington is topped with a Leupold 3i LRP 6.5 x 20 x50, which was a recent upgrade.

OK, OP, the real point of my post was to give you a good reason for having two rifles of the same caliber, because they're useful for different kinds of shooting.

The other thing was, to point out that a consistently accurate rifle should have good quality consistent scopes.

If you go cheap all the way, from basic rifles to Barska scopes, there may not be any point in going for two rifles.

If you can only afford ONE decent outfit, than stick with one.
 
Howa/Weatherby make them, Remington/Winchester/Browning make them, Savage, Sabatti, I could go on.
It's harder to find a company that DOESN'T make a 243 Win.
 
They're a little less popular than they used to be but the cartridge is as good as it even was. The average clown gets a 7mm or .300 magnum as their first rifle and deer gun now, and are satisfied with a basketball sized group at 100 yards from a rest. I can do better than most of these idiot groups offhand. And don't get me started on their hunting techniques, and gun safety abilities.
 
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I have 2, both coyote guns. They are a pleasure to use. Cartridge is not going anywhere. Even if they stopped loading it today, tons I’d 6mm bullets will still be made and 308 brass will be around. The cartridge is loved by too many for it to go away.
 
I had my old '79 Belgian BAR .243 to the range Saturday as per my routine before hunting season opens in a couple weeks....and it likes 100 grains over 95 grains...half inch groups with basic Winchesters ammo, off a perfect rest at 110 yards was >> childs play....great cartridge for certain! And plenty of ammo available everywhere!
I shot a .25-06 for a decade or more, and miss the long legs that cartridge had...however the .243 fits all my hunting needs without any drama..!
 
I don't see the .243 going anywhere, but certainly people are going to be choosing the 6.5 Creed over the .243 for many of the reasons that the .243 was attractive.
 
Gatehouse said:
I don't see the .243 going anywhere, but certainly people are going to be choosing the 6.5 Creed over the .243 for many of the reasons that the .243 was attractive.
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I would think the 6mm CM is the real threat to the 243, as the 6mm cartridges are largely considered dual purpose varmint/predator and deer guns, whereas I haven't seen much in the way of push for the 6.5cm as a coyote gun, its pushed as a great deer/target gun instead. (Not that it wouldn't work for coyote of course)

That said, I don't think the 243 is going anywhere. There are simply too many people using them, too many people with rifles already in the caliber. Sure, they tend to have 1:10 twists which limits them to 100gr non-vld bullets whereas the 6mmCM tends to have a faster twist for those 105+gr VLD offerings... But that means absolutely nothing to the hunter whos shooting things like 75gr Vmax for coyotes or 90-100gr soft points for deer.

So I wouldn't expect to see a lot of 243win rifles in the tactical/target crowd, but it'll be a long time before it falls out of favour in hunting circles. I know I'll have one in my stable for the foreseeable future, mine is currently a Henry Single Shot for the kids to learn on when they get big enough for centerfire, and I'll probably add a youth size bolt action to the list when my kids are big enough to deer hunt.
 
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