Any 243 fans left?

[ThomasT]

Is it uncommon to strip the neck and shoulder? Ill admit having never hunted the mainland im not real familiar with what one takes in terms of meat.

I really try to take everything. I figure if I take the life of an animal I owe it to the game to make the most use of the game. I sometimes even go through the trouble of taking the meat off the lower legs if I have the time to separate it from the tendons and so forth.

I have never had a head mounted even though I save the horns. They can be used for knife handles or given to someone who can use them. And I have several 8 points plus 9, 10, 11 and one really nice 12 point. All the antlers are saved in my attic. Including the 5x5 elk antlers that would really make nice knife handles.

 

[ThomasT]

And, you're right, I don't need a 3000+ FPS cartridge to kill a deer at <100 yds, so I use a shorter barreled rifle in a mid-bore caliber with a lower impact velocity. I've got a ready rack of deer rifles tailored to the conditions and expected distances:

Open country/LR 300WM & .270, 24" barrels 2-12x42 ad 3x18x56
Mixed mid range 20" .260Rem & .350RM, (soon to add .308) 2.5-8x36s on both
Woods, still hunting & drives 358Win & 350RM, 19" and 20" 1.25-4X and 2.5-8x36

And the shoulder meat comment was also tongue "N" cheek, I normally double lung everything, unless I'm jumping them, the it's "anything goes"*

My overall most used deer rifle is a Remington model 7 in 7-08. It replaced the 7x57 I gave my youngest son that was a custom rifle built by my grand father on a Mauser G33/40 action with either a Douglas or PO Ackley barrel. That was the easiest to load for gun I have ever owned. It just shot everything well.

My 7-08 scratches a lot of itches for an all around gun. I let a tiny 5 foot tall girl use it in her school youth hunt. She killed 5 deer with a reduced 120gr bullet load loaded to around 2600fps. Most of the other kids used 243s and one used a 25-06. I went twice on those hunts and of course I didn't hunt but I had so much fun with those kids. Maybe I missed my calling and should have been a teacher.

If you have a 358 Winchester color me green. I would love to have a Savage 99 in that caliber. And also a 358 RM. I should have bought one of those Remington bolt guns with the 3 piece laminated stocks when they were available in that caliber. What a great elk gun that would make.

I really don't have any open country to hunt. And the way my health is going I won't have but another year or 3 in close quarter country. But it doesn't stop me from wanting to hunt and get in the woods. I miss getting out in the woods and just stomping around and exploring.

You have heard the saying "old soldiers never die, they just fade away"? Well to paraphrase "old hunters never die, they just fall in holes and are never found". You heard it here first.

 

[LoonWulf]

old hunters never die, they just fall in holes and are never found". You heard it here first.

Thats a real risk out here......

 

[dranrab]

I have killed deer with a 243 and a 6mm Rem. They both work very well. I have a 6 Creed now that I haven't used for hunting. I have all the confidence in the world that it's work well for anything I'd ever hunt in North America.

 

[Ks5shooter]

Ruger gen 1 RPR IN 243.103 gr ELD-X load is awesome thru it.Leupold 8.5-25 50 mm FFP tops her off .What a tackdriver.

 

[ThomasT]

My hunting bud is a 6mm fan and has a Ruger 77 first generation with the thumb safety. What a nice little round that is. He claims its better than the 243 because of the longer case neck that holds bullets more securely. I keep telling him that I have never opened a box of 243 and found that the bullets fell out of the cases.

When the new (at that time) short and super short rounds came out they all had case necks that were the same length of the bullet diameter. Thats all thats really needed as long as the case sizer button doesn't open the case mouth too much when the case is sized.

So far as I know he has never taken a deer with that rifle. His goal is to load the hottest load he can find thats still safe. The idea that you don't need the top load in the manual is totally foreign to him. He did the same thing with his first BP rifle. It was allowed a 120gr load and thats what he loaded. After many years I finally convinced him that 60-70grs of powder would kill a paper target just as well as 120grs of powder. And it would also kill deer too. He finally said he liked the lighter load and stated it shot better because it didn't burn the patches up as bad. Blow your patch on your BP rifle and you can kiss your accuracy good bye.

 

[conan32120]

90gr hot core and 43gr IMR4350 t 100 yards, yes I'm a .243 fan

 

[Triggernosis]

90gr hot core and 43gr IMR4350 t 100 yards, yes I'm a .243 fan
View attachment 1180111

But what rifle?

 

[conan32120]

But what rifle?

Remington 700 sps wearing a boyds stock and bushnell glass

 

[Necessary_Nutrient]

243 is quite a bit flatter than 6.5 out to 500 or more yards with similar heavy or light for caliber bullets. 6.5 hits a bit harder and recoils more but for deer sized game, I think the 243 is a better hunting cartridge out to about 300. For smaller game, I’d stretch that to 500.

Most of these shifts in popularity aren’t grounded in ballistic realities. If you target shoot past 500, that’s a different story. I own rifles in both calibers

 

[tactikel]

An outstanding medium game/ varmint cartridge. I’ve got a K98 action and a .243 barrel ready to be fitted.
BTW about 15 years ago a 600 lb black bear was taken in north eastern Wisconsin with a .243 Win. It’s the bullet, not the cartridge.

 

[Agsalaska]

So I know I am late to this conversation and may have skipped a page or two. Me and my wife and kids have killed a lot of deer and well over half have been killed with a .243. Three or four a year for the last 15 years however many that is. Current .243 is a Mossberg Bantom Patriot with a wood stock.

I think the .243 is a great round for deer, but it is certainly not perfect. Of all the deer shot I have seen two bullets do funny .243 type things. One was a Core Lokt years ago that pinholed a deer from about 30 yards. Dead deer, but it looked like he was shot with a 22 mag. That's a well known problem with 6mm cartridges caused by high velocity that has already been discussed. But I think, and someone please correct me if I am wrong, that is not really a problem specific to the .243 but a general problem with 6mm and 6.5mm bullets. I'm sure a 6creed with the same bullet has that issue. I know .250 Savage does. So I don't specifically blame the .243 for that. We used it because it has less recoil and less meat loss, but its a trade off for sure.

The second was recent and a Hornady SST pinholed from 166 yards directly under the spine. In one side and out the other and we saw that deer yesterday on camera chasing doe with a cool scar on his back. I have to think that a 30-06 with a Core Lokt would have DRT that deer. I typically use Core Lokts or Power Points but was jacking around with other loads and ended up with the SST.

I think 6mm loads are better for Texas white tail than the .30 cals when you consider meat loss, recoil, noise, etc. The one exception to that is the 30-30 which inside 150 yards is probably the best cartridge. Step up to 6.5 mm and the 6.5 Swede and .257 Roberts are probably better as well but they are just expensive to feed and my guns in those cartridges are the opposite of light and handy.

Last-we have a 60 yard tree and a 180 yard tree. All shots are taken between those two. And every time we have done our job the deer have died, most DRT.

 

[Old Hobo]

Whereas I'm not the owner of a .243, were I to have one, I'd sure not be wanting to part with it. Useful is useful. If something gets the job done, then it gets the job done.

In the realm of precision target shooting, I can understand the perpetual cycle of innovations. Hunting is another matter.

Fifty years ago, one hundred plus years ago, the firearms and their chamberings dropped any and all game animals on this planet. Seems back then there was a vast quantity of common sense relative to what is witnessed today ... or should I say, not witnessed today. Then, it was the hunter not the firearm. Looking for "magic chamberings" seems to me to be either "pie in the sky" or an excuse for not working on one's hunting skills.
.

 

[LoonWulf]

Looking for "magic chamberings" seems to me to be either "pie in the sky" or an excuse for not working on one's hunting skills.

Theres no such things as magic chamberings, but there are advantages and disadvantages to every thing.
Choosing a cartridge a person can be successful with, as well as confident in, is as important as being able to apply the skills necessary.

 

[DM~]

An outstanding medium game/ varmint cartridge. I’ve got a K98 action and a .243 barrel ready to be fitted.
BTW about 15 years ago a 600 lb black bear was taken in north eastern Wisconsin with a .243 Win. It’s the bullet, not the cartridge.

IF more people understood THAT, there would be much less arguing about calibers! The bullet makes or breaks every cartridge/caliber!

I used to be the biggest .243 Win. fan, infract the biggest blk. bear I ever shot weighed just over 500 lbs., a 100 grain NP did the trick and dropped that bear no problem at all. On deer, I saw a huge improvement once I started loading 100NP's.

I then moved to the 240 Weatherby loaded with NP's, and I shot a lot of deer with it, but I am more comfortable with something a bit bigger for deer sized animals.

DM

 

[marksman13]

If 243 Win had been an option in the rifle I wanted, that’s 100% the route I would have gone. As it is, I settled for 6mm Creedmoor. I’ve always loved the 243 for some reason.

 

[midnightmayhem87]

I like the .243. I haven’t killed anything yet with mine, a Ruger M77 RSI, but it fills the same niche as my Remington 722 .257 Roberts.

The Roberts has killed an awful lot of hill country white tails and predatory critters over the decades it was used on the family ranch, a .243 would have performed the same duty had my Grandfather ever owned a rifle in that caliber.

View attachment 1178002

Stay safe.

My lord is that a beautiful rifle!

 

[midnightmayhem87]

View attachment 1178060

Idk about a 243 personally in this bullet. But in a 280 they open up an unbelievable wound path.

 

[LoonWulf]

Idk about a 243 personally in this bullet. But in a 280 they open up an unbelievable wound path.

Ive shot those in a bunch of cals including the 95 6mms. My experience is much the same.
Currently i run 115s in my .257 Bob and 150s in my 7-08.

 

[horsey300]

Idk about a 243 personally in this bullet. But in a 280 they open up an unbelievable wound path.

In .243, at 500 yds they'll leave a 50 cent piece hole through the lungs, closer in? Much more violent, in .270 wsm at 350 yds? Equally brutal, just more of it to get brutal, for tougher game? My .243s run sierra prohunters, bonded bullets, monolithic bullets, or aframe/partitions, the partitions and prohunters seem to perform terminally similar in this cartridge. I lament no 170ish ph in 7mm tbh.

 

[LoonWulf]

In .243, at 500 yds they'll leave a 50 cent piece hole through the lungs, closer in? Much more violent, in .270 wsm at 350 yds? Equally brutal, just more of it to get brutal, for tougher game? My .243s run sierra prohunters, bonded bullets, monolithic bullets, or aframe/partitions, the partitions and prohunters seem to perform terminally similar in this cartridge. I lament no 170ish ph in 7mm tbh.

I....might have some 160-175 Partitions, Magtips, and Grandslams if you want them, those all performed similarly for me......I had a box of seirra 175 SBTs, and they worked well on feral cattle launching at 2800ish.

 

[horsey300]

I....might have some 160-175 Partitions, Magtips, and Grandslams if you want them, those all performed similarly for me......I had a box of seirra 175 SBTs, and they worked well on feral cattle launching at 2800ish.

I really appreciate the offer, I'm toying with some 150-160 monos first, I'm thinking they might just do the trick, the hardest part is the testing lol finding the right "dense" media is ruff, I wish we had less cowboys and more feral cows around here

 

[valnar]

It's a very capable cartridge for its size because it's hot by default. Since it's overbore, it'll burn barrels faster than "lesser" cartridges. I'm not a big fan since you can accomplish the same ballistics with something slightly bigger and slightly slower.

 

[Buzznrose]

I have a PSA PA10 in 308 and I am still considering rebarreling it to something with lighter recoil. I have narrowed my choices to .243 or 6 CM. If I was to buy a new left handed bolt action for hunting, it would be a left handed Savage in .243.

Easy button is buying their 6.5CM upper, isn’t it?

ETA: sorry, just saw your post not wanting a 6.5

 

[12Bravo20]

Easy button is buying their 6.5CM upper, isn’t it?

ETA: sorry, just saw your post not wanting a 6.5

I figured I would stay with something that uses the same bullets. I can use the same bullets for 6 ARC an 6 CM. I would have to get a 243 barrel with a faster twist rate to shoot the 105 -110 grain bullets.