.243 Winchester vs. .270
My brother bought a bolt action rifle for his son's graduation present.
I tried to tell him that a .270 would be a better choice for all around work.
(varmit control, deer hunting and target shooting) He ended up getting a
Savage .243. (I talked him into getting the Savage but not the caliber)
His son is a beginning shooter and recoil may be an issue. But I am thinking
the .243 maybe a poor choice for a beginning deer hunter. (shot placement
may be an issue) I do think it would be ideal for varmit hunting and target
shooting. Are my concerns about the .243 as a beginner caliber for a deer
hunter justified? I can not speak from experience in this case; my deer
rifle calibers are 30.06 and .30-30
In my experience over the past 40 years, if the shooter is comfortable with the rifle/caliber they will shoot it well and be successful. Given the .243's lighter recoil and availability and selection of great bullets nowadays, it is as capable as any round of cleanly taking critters big and small across the country.
Teach the boy the patients to pick his shot, place it well, and he will be successful. There are way too many folks who would rather blast a hole through something from end to end rather than go home empty handed. Teach the boy to hunt, and he will have a much better appreciation of it.
I hunted with a .243 from the time I was 7, until my early 20's, when I moved up to a 25-06. In all that time I also hunted a 30-06 and a .270. I killed three to four deer a year every year through that span, and never noted any appreciable difference in which one made a deer hit the dirt quicker, but did notice a bit more recoil, mess, and do a bit more trimming with the bigger calibers.
My oldest grandson, got it in his head, just past his 3rd birthday that he wanted to shoot him a hog. Well with some reduced loads and my Ruger Compact he practiced all summer and did so just before his 4th birthday.
The 130 reduced load produced about the same recoil in the 6.5# rifle as the 100gr load we shoot from a full sized .243 but he could not handle the added lenght and weight of the .243. So it popped him pretty well for his size but he was determined and worked hard to accomplish his goal of putting his shots in the kill zone at 50yds.
He's now 9, and has taken several hogs with the .308 and those 130gr loads, and a coyote at 150+yds. He also has a whitetail doe he got using a 6.5x55, and a nice buck he got this past season just after his birthday with his mom's 25-06. After his buck and the ensuing argument between him, his mom, and myself over her rifle, I presented him with the Sako Forrester .243 I had gotten him back when this all started. The next evening he promptly used it to add this nice feral hog to their freezer ,
Between myself and my close friend we have shot every caliber from .17 through 300 RUM while working on the hogs. They are much more resilient to taking a bullet than any deer I have ever shot. In all the years of doing so we have gravitated back to the .243 and in fact that is all him and his family hunt with anymore. There are no wild shots taken, and everything that is shot has hit the dirt plain and simple. They use factory Hornady Custom ammo, and I use 100gr handloads with Nosler 100gr Solid Bases.
All this said, the caliber IMO is not what makes or breaks the hunt, it's the confidence and the ability of the hunter. If they are comfortable with their equipment they will get the job done, and not being shy of it is a huge part. Give the caliber and the boy and chance to work things out. If he handles it well he has the option of moving up and being experienced with shooting and comfortable with what to expect. Granted this boy is a bit older, but I know folks in their mid 40's who flinch when they shoot anything based off a 30-06 case simply due to it's lenght over the 308 based calibers. It's all just a big head game, but one that is sometimes hard to change once imprinted.