A man can't own too many 243s, this is a cartridge that I fell in love with more than 40 years ago and have shot out barrels on 2 of them to date. And when I say shot out I don't mean 1500-2000 rounds I'm talking tens of thousands of rounds per rifle. Currently I have 3 or 4 so the same thing doesn't happen again, I rotate them now. None will leave my vault till I'm cold. I have an old Browning /Sako with beautiful wood, a Ruger RSI and my old Rem 700 (used to be a BDL) now it's a CDL, wearing a Vari-X III 3.5-10. Oh ya the fourth was a custom fluted barreled job on a 700 action done by Corelane, but I turned it into a 6mm-284. And I briefly had a 700 SPS, but it got donored to my 22-284. So 3 it is right now, not necessarily all that will be in the future.
243 is the best kick around small game rifle IMHO, they all shoot outstanding and are capable for deer and antelope, hell on wolves and coyotes, fantastic for gophers and badgers, pigeons, skunks....................and they are capable of reaching out to 500 mtrs quite niclely, when whichever furry critter thins it is safe. I shot thousands of jackrabbits on the Alberta prairies with my 243, standing, running, offhand, rested, off snowshoes....................that first 700 BDL 243 and prairie jacks contributed greatly to the level of proficiency that I have attained in shooting rifle. I never get tired of the 243 and have shot 400 rounds in a day.
What the heck did the bore look like after 10 000 rounds of .243? I've seen a fair number of barrels in less overbore cartridges with half that number of rounds and clear erosion in the first few inches of the bore (granted it doesn't affect hunting level accuracy at that point.)





























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