Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Deer Lost = using a 243

He lost - this evening....

95 BT - 243, about 100 yds, he made it 40 steps or so.

I keep preaching:

Good bullet - Thru Vitals.....

Drilled shoulders, wrecked vitals...yes it exited - you are looking at the exit in the photo hanging.

6.5 - CONGRATS !

BTW - where have I seen that rifle? looks great.

Jerry

What? You mean the terrible Ballistic Tip didn't explode against the first brown hair it came in contact with? Poppycock.

Musta been photoshopped.....

Do the 95 NBT's need a 9 twist or will they work in a 1-10?

Of course, that's it. You know, all joking aside, the .243 is a great whitetail killer. Some folks go about killing them with .300 Winchester Magnums, and more power to them, but deer don't require that much killing.

Congrats. That's my favorite 6mm bullet!

I like grinding my Venison burger, not Pulverizing it

Guy - has NOT let me down yet....in 6mm, I do like Barnes, but the 95BT has IMHO, all the right goods, accuracy/expansion/penetration and carries well.

I have shot groups UNDER 1/2" - at 200 yds w/this bullet, in a 6BR - and re: TWIST - yes, that rifle Was a 10" twist.

The 95 BT is Not a VLD and works FINE in 10" ROT bbls.

Last weekend a friend's young daughter cleanly killed a buck with a 243. At the skinning shed I asked the assembly how wives, daughters and young boys do so well with a 243, but as soon as a boy's beard starts to come in he needs a bigger rifle?

I never got a good answer.

Certainly not an original question, I've read it here many times. But it was fun to ask.

I don't know why that is. I bought my son a Ruger 77mkIIRL in .257 Roberts when he was ready to hunt at age 8. He just turned 14 and has begun to murmur about wanting something "bigger" to shoot at deer. He has taken deer with a .45 caliber Muzzleloader and a .30-30, but time will tell if he recognizes that deer are just glorified goats.

If you want to see a fair whitetail buck taken with a .243, take look at our website's new photo gallery, on the home page of www.riflesandrecipes.com. Eileen took the buck about a month ago with her new .243, a semi-custom Husqvarna that I bought off the Campfire classifieds earlier this year.

The thing is, Eileen has been resisting trying the .243 because so many people think of it as "the lady's rifle." Of course it worked fine, even on a 200-pound buck. After her buck was dead, I reminded her that she'd killed several fallow deer in Ireland four years ago with a Heym in .243--all with one shot, using Remington Core-Lokt factory loads.

About the only people I've known who apparently have trouble killing deer with the .243 Winchester are some gun writers.

John, I had to giggle at one of the Realtree videos from a year or so ago. One of the "Prostaffers" was hunting at an outfitters and for some reason had to use a .243 handirifle. Of course he went into painful detail on camera prior to showing the hunt about how the .243 was such a "marginal" cartridge on whitetails, but at the crack of the rifle, lo, and behold, the deer ran a short distance and died. I'm no expert, but having shot a few deer, I realize that they just don't require all that much killing.

Not when you hit 'em in the right place!

Indeed. I am confident that if I hit him in the right place, I will humanely kill every deer I will ever shoot with the .243 and will not be scoped shooting left-handed or even really feel any recoil. My preferred cartridge is the .280 Rem but the little winny is all I really need.

its ironic, I remember when the 243 first came out and the gun writers back then were claiming it a great deer/lope and varmint gun all wrapped in one!! Which time has proven.

Already had a beard when the first deer took a .243 thru the neck at ~125 yards. 8 pointer. Then some jerk stole the gun along with some others. I got a bigger gun so they'd have more difficulty in running off with it next time.

Miss that rifle. Winchester 88.

That does it. My 6mm Remmie and 280 Remmie ARE ALL I NEED!

JB - your wife obviously is a better shot than former writer JW.

Dogger - If I never hunted away from here for anything larger than deer/hogs, a 6BR is all I'd ever need, and a 243 will do in a pinch.

I realize many shoot larger rounds for 'greater confidence' and that's fine, use whatever you shoot well, that makes one feel good - before and after the shot.

There are some larger rounds, that if the shooter fails shot placement, or uses improper bullets - will surely be LESS effective than a well aimed/loaded 243.

No doubt, deer die quickly - when hit well w/any decent bullet.

I used to always shoot lungs, but the last 2 were drilled thru shoulders, quartered this buck this morning after gutted/skinned last night.

Meat loss minimal. This 95 BT is my #1 choice for deer, throw hogs in the mix and a Barnes might edge out, not that the 95 won't kill any hog.

I do want to try the 80 TTSX I bought not long ago...we will see if I get an opportunity this year.

I want to bust one w/my 41 magnum...

65BR,

I suspect the big difference between Eileen's and JW's experience on deer with the .243 is better bullets. She is a very good--and just as important, careful--shot, but she also firmly believes in using premium bullets. In recent years she's also become quite fond of the high shoulder/spine shot on whitetails in thicket cover.

The load in this instance was a 100-grain Nosler Partition and 41.0 grains of H4350. This was NOT a carefully worked-up load, but something I threw together when she decided to use the Husky this fall. It's worked in a bunch of .243's, and when she sighted-in, three 3-shot groups averaged around 3/4".

But we never did chronograph it. I know it's impossible to shoot a deer without knowing exactly how fast the bullet is going, but there it is. My guess, based on some experience, is the muzzle velocity is around 2900 fps, which is close enough for Eileen's hunting since she almost never shoots at big game past 300 yards, and prefers getting even closer. (Not the she isn't capable of shooting farther. I've seen her whack a dozen prairie dogs in a row past 300, and kill pronghorn to 450. But she just doesn't like to shoot a long way on deer, and sees no reason to.)

Anyway, she shot this buck at 136 yards, as he quartered toward her while watching a hot doe. The bullet landed high on the near shoulder, then went through the spine and rear edge of the far shoulder blade, exiting. And that was that.

+1, agree 100% sir.

BOTH my kills this year I was going to do that, but these bucks were moving quick and in lieu of that, aimed for a larger area so as not to miss/wound as I had to shoot very fast - both were about to cross a narrow opening into thick woods.

Your load, but IMR, is what I downed a little buck in Tensas Refuge in NE La hardwood bottoms years ago - go figure, that was my 2nd deer, used a 243/M8 6x36....sometimes we make a full circle, this deer too was taken w/a 5.9x

I never clocked mine, figured I'd let the deer do that and decide if it was quick enough out the muzzle to die

That shot is perfect - as you two know - I have used it, and many others inc. neck, lungs, shoulders - all worked, MOST all piled up w/in 60 yds, usually 40, and a few inc. CNS hits that obviously were DRT. My 243/100PT buck I killed made it 30 yds w/ double lung shot - killed just as quick as a larger round no doubt.

Deer just don't worry about WHAT they get hit with - they just can't figure why they start blacking out from blood pressure loss, etc.

Tell your wife I said, she did JUST FINE! A Husky is a nice action BTW.

Merry Christmas to you both JB.