.243

[Essex County]

When I bought my Wheatherby Mk 5 a few years back I gave caliber selection a lot of thought. I had everything covered from ,223 to .300 Magnum covered. I chose the .243 because of it's versitility....Essex

 

[K3]

My mother-in-law has killed a buck every year for 9 years with her .243. Some of them very nice ones. Nothing wrong with a .243 at all.

 

[Powder_Burn]

Pictures are worth 1,000 words...

I thought these pics from the Federal website might illustrate things a bit.

For small game, the .243 w/a 55 gr bullet shoots nearly as flat as a 220 Swift w/a 40 grain bullet and has less wind drift and more energy. Shoot high velocity ammo like Hornaday Light Magnum and the trajectory gets even closer. 22-250 is outperformed by .243 in all categories when comparing the same weight bullet.

For mid to large game, I threw in the ballistics for the 95 grain 243 bullet for comparison. I switched from 30-06 to .243 for mid-size Texas whitetails and the 95 gr bullet has performed flawlessly on the 2 deer I shot this month. Even using the 95 grain bullet instead of a 55 grain, the trajectory is still within +/- 3" of the line of sight out to 300 yards when zeroed at 254. Definately a flat shooter.

Hopefully this will demonstrate the reasons why the .243 is so versatile. Enjoy!


[Red] P243J 243 Win. 95 Nosler Ballistic Tip
[Blue] P220B 220 Swift 40 Nosler Ballistic Tip
[Green] P22250F 22-250 Rem. 55 Nosler Ballistic Tip
[Purple] P243H 243 Win. 55 Nosler Ballistic Tip