Is the 243 Winchester dying?

[todbartell]

What is the recommended entry rifle for the 243?
Never owned one (rifle), want to get into it, not a hunter but target shooter, simple reliable and accurate is what I would like. Will be reloading.
Not seeing many options out their, Ruger for $700, want to stay under a grand.

Thanks!

Savage Axis II Compact or Mossberg Patriot Bantam

 

[Gatehouse]

I am not sure if it's 6.5 Grendel or Creedmore the various manufactures have not unified this case dimension to the point of unirversal interchangeability from differing makers.

All I can think of is that there were 2 different AR15 bolt faces used at one point. One was basically a 7.62x39 bolt face and the other was the new improved bolt face optimized for the Grendel case. I think everyone is doing it the same these days.

 

[Suther]

Savage Axis II Compact or Mossberg Patriot Bantam

Rem 783 would be another option worth looking at, although if the budget is sub-$1000 you've got a lot of options and can look at things a step up from the cheapest models - Browning AB3, Rem 700, Weatherby Vanguard/Howa 1500 can all be had for sub-$1000 still can't they?

Is the Axis II really worth it? For about the same price you can get an Axis and drop in a Savage Basix trigger unless prices on these things have changed recently. The Axis in general has a few issues too - scope mounting sucks (can't mount it far enough back without a full rail or a really long tube on the scope), the stock sucks (particularly in the wrist area, mine was really flexible before I epoxied the trigger guard in place, also the forearm is pretty flexible), they're all long actions - and I mean the action is LOOOOONG, somehow my Axis is 4" longer than my Rem 700 SA, despite the barrel only being 2" longer and the LOP being pretty close to the same. I haven't studied the two side by side to see where exactly that extra length lies, but looking at them sitting in my safe beside me the Axis has a screw infront of the trigger guard (Rem 700's second screw is infront of the mag well) which makes the whole magazine sit farther infront of the trigger guard, so I expect the differences largely lie there and the fact that the Rem is a SA...

If you can afford to drop $1000 on a rifle, I see no reason to buy an Axis. When I bought mine I was a dirt poor university student that needed a hunting rifle that would be better suited to a new hunter than an iron-sighted Enfield, but it only cost me ~$235 and came with a scope. I couldn't imagine spending $600 for the same thing these days, when you can find deals like $850 for a Browning AB3 w/Leupold scope. Probably find something much nicer than an Axis on the EE for the same price as a new Axis too (in fact, someone posted a nice AB3 already in this thread didn't they?)

 

[New Camper]

Important fact that everyone should know: the introduction of a new rifle cartridge increases hunting firearms sales by 20%!
That's the reason why we have 300 H&H Mag, 300 Weatherby Mag, 300 Win Mag, 300 WSM , 300 RCM, 300 PRC, 300 Rem Ultramag, 300 Norma Mag, etc.
There was never anything wrong with 30-06 when these cartridges were introduced and only 300 Win Mag is really "useful".

The 300 H&H has been around since 1925, from the other side of the Atlantic and doesn't belong in that category with the other examples... the earliest of which came along in the mid 1940s: of course one of Weatherbys legacies is just having the fastest barrel burning, I mean most powerful round for caliber distinction. But you are probably right... a "new" round, no matter how much of a plagiarism of something a hundred years old, increases sales.

Nailed it here. And the only advantage that the 243 doesn't have is a 1 in 8 twist for the newest high BC bullets. Unfortunately many manufacturers are still using a 1 in 10 twist with a couple using 1 in 9 1/8 twist. It's now suffering from a similar issue that it brought to the 6mm Remington

"That it brought to the 244 Remington" is correct. Remington introduced the cartridge assuming shooters wanted a .243" varmint laser... shooters wanted that and the ability to take big game with it so sales were poor. With that knowledge, Remington increased the rifling twist rate and to avoid confusion "introduced" the 6mm Remington but the 243Win had already dominated that niche.