25 06 VS 243 for Deer Rifle

[cliffy]

Less Opps! More POW!

The .243 Winchester did not become the WORLD's fifth most popular sporting caliber by whim. 6mm bullet offerings grow with every new listings I receive. No manufacturer dare not list a .243 Winchester offering in nearly every model. Is this a fluke? The .243 Winchester is a slenderized 7mm-08. The slender bullet does everything the fatter bullet does, but at more ferocious velocity. One hundred grain premium bullets in .243 Winchester are nothing less than AWESOME in performance. A dead deer cares little what caliber killed it so instantly. Over-kill is easy with a .300 H&H Magnum, along with blood-shot meat. A .243 Winchester has more power potential than any .30/30 ever made, especially beyond 200 yards. Handloading brings out the very best in .243 Winchester loads. .25/06 Remingtons represent a stab at a new market and they are quite great. STILL, they present no NEEDED power advantage or accuracy advantage over the .243 Winchester regarding mere 400 pound ungulates. I don't hunt ungulates, but do pursue Feral Hogs avidly. Big Wild Pigs take notice of my handloaded .243 100 grain Speer Grand Slam bullets, just before they collapse to the ground. The main difference is accuracy due to great ballistics and mild recoil. That combination is priceless and deadly. cliffy

 

[RugerOldArmy]

The .243 Winchester did not become the WORLD's fifth most popular sporting caliber by whim. 6mm bullet offerings grow with every new listings I receive. No manufacturer dare not list a .243 Winchester offering in nearly every model. Is this a fluke? The .243 Winchester is a slenderized 7mm-08. The slender bullet does everything the fatter bullet does, but at more ferocious velocity. One hundred grain premium bullets in .243 Winchester are nothing less than AWESOME in performance. A dead deer cares little what caliber killed it so instantly. Over-kill is easy with a .300 H&H Magnum, along with blood-shot meat. A .243 Winchester has more power potential than any .30/30 ever made, especially beyond 200 yards. Handloading brings out the very best in .243 Winchester loads. .25/06 Remingtons represent a stab at a new market and they are quite great. STILL, they present no NEEDED power advantage or accuracy advantage over the .243 Winchester regarding mere 400 pound ungulates. I don't hunt ungulates, but do pursue Feral Hogs avidly. Big Wild Pigs take notice of my handloaded .243 100 grain Speer Grand Slam bullets, just before they collapse to the ground. The main difference is accuracy due to great ballistics and mild recoil. That combination is priceless and deadly.

Objective, unbiased, and clearly no personal opinions are stated as fact.

What the heck, I agree. In fact, I'm sure that Jesus himself would only hunt with a .243 Win cartridge. Those .25-06 cartridges are the spawn of the devil himself, craven images, sold by false prophets, with no merit of any kind.

Math is invented by mere mortals, and ballistics data is the tool of idle hands, manipulated by infidels! Use only .243 Win, as Allah has said! (And no infdel .25-06 believers shall be permitted enter Mecca, under penalty of death! )

And so it was written...

 

[Tarvis]

Lots of good thoughts and data, when the rubber hits the road they are both excellent cartridges more than capable of taking deer. You can argue that the 25-06 is capable of taking elk, but you'd better be a good shot and pick the right bullet, or buy a rifle that is better suited for elk sized game.

You can argue numbers or which cartridge is more efficient or which one splits fewer hairs, but either would be a good choice.

 

[lefteyedom]

Gas on the fire. The truth is simple.
The 243 Win became a deer rifle because of good marketing, a friendly gun press and be chambered in light handing rifles with twist rates that stabilized 100 grain bullets. Most 243 win were never bought with varmint hunting in mind.
Though as a deer rifle rifle it is no better than many other mild cartridges, 244 Remington 250/3000 savage, 257 Roberts, 6.5X55 Swedish,6.5X57, 7X57 mauser ect.

If you want a really good Varmint, Deer and Elk rifle the cartridge than best fit this bill is the old 256 Newton. Which is now know as a 6.5-06. If you must have a short action then 6.5-284 Winchester. If you want water it down a little the use a 260 Remington. Either way the high BC of the available .264 bullets work better down range then ether the 243 or 257.

But as Jim Carmichel once said "There are lots of good all around rifles but where are all the good all around shooters?"

 

[NWCP]

Why not go with the Winchester .308? Good enough for most any game in the lower 48 and readily available anywhere. Not as glamorous, or exotic a round as some, but very effective against deer, elk, black bear and such. A bit of overkill for varmint, but then an inexpensive .223 would be more than sufficient for that duty. Two rifles and you're covered across the board and both calibers are popular and available in any sporting goods store. While the 25-06 is a really sweet round unless you reload you'll be hard pressed to find it many places.

 

[NWCP]

Why not go with the .308? Good enough for most any game in the lower 48 and readily available anywhere. Not as glamorous, or exotic a round as some, but very effective against deer, elk, black bear and such. A bit of overkill for varmint, but then an inexpensive .223 would be more than sufficient for that duty.

 

[NWCP]

Why not the good old .308? It'll take down most any game in the lower 48 with ease and is readily available.

 

[Omaha-BeenGlockin]

I'd go .243 simply because the rifles are handier and ammo is everywhere----either will get the job done if the hunter selects the proper bullets and picks his shots.

 

[Decker]

Alot more to consider

Everyone seems to concur, 300 yards and a deer is dead with both the 243 and teh 25-06. That said, i think the more important factors in a gun to kill a deer with are being over looked.

As I mentioned earlier, I have a ruger 77 ultralight in 243. 20 inch tapered bbl, dont think it hardly weighs 6 lbs, and the wife and kid are wicked with it. I on the other hand have a hard time with it off hand, as its too light, I can't keep it steady like an 8 - 9 lb gun. So that 243 is a bad choice for me as an over all deer gun, it doesn't fit the shooter, so the shooter isn't efficient. Flip side, kid is wicked with it, provides plenty of resistance for her to be steady.

The new rem 700 25-06 has 24 inch bbl, kid can't even lean back and hold it up, even though its maybe8 lbs, 8.5 at the most. Leverage is wrong, so bad fit. 5'8 wife has longer arms, handles it fine, and it fits me great as well, so better choice for the situation.

End of the day, the person that has the best fitting most accurate gun they can shoot will kill more deer humanely, and not because it was a 100 gr .243 slug or a 120 gr .257 slug.

We get so focussed on the details, we seem to loose focus of the big picture, such is life as a ganut......