Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 243 vs, 25-06

After I bought my first 25-06, I really can't find a good use for my 270 other than a rebarrel project. Going to use the 25 for coyotes to large deer. Hell if a 270 can do it with a 130, the 25 should be able to do with with a 120 gr. I know my 6.5x55 did that with a 120 this past deer season.

Then again, there aren't many choices for us lefties out there either...

Amaxs right now. I switched to DNZ mounts and now they want to group out of that rifle.

I have both, but I am not really sure why. My .25-06 is a No. 1 AH that I recently acquired. I have had the caliber before, so we are not strangers. It is all one needs for deer/pronghorn and similar sized game. I have some 110 Accubonds ready to go.

I dual load my .243. I have been using 70 grain spitzers at about 3450 (book) as a predator load. I load 100 grain Partitions at about 3000 for my deer load. The beautiful part is that with the 70 grain bullets sighted to dead zero, the 100 grain bullets print exactly 3" higher on the exact vertical line. A little playing around with the duplex gives pretty good options. A turrent would make these loadings into some very useful tools. I have only recently become interested in that possibility. Not much wrong with killing a coyote with a 100 grain bullet, but I would not want to use the 70s on deer. Best wishes, jack

Get both. Now just decide which one to get first.

To all the 243 fanboys here, what happens if the very limited selection of high BC bullets don't shoot well in your gun? Then you're relegated to shooting bullets whose bc's are nearly identical to the 257's. Velocity now becomes king and we know who wins that contest. One more thing, the only high bc 243 bullet designed for hunting is the VLD. Sans the VLD, how bout comparing bullets designed for hunting puposes and not target shooting?!

You've been led to water.

I agree (with the twist), BUT... an 85grn TSX from a .243 will cleanly kill any deer in this country.

beat me to it. What is the speed diff between a 243 85 grain and a 100 grain 257? Am thinking the latests trend here is that mono-bullets give penetrations only found in high SD bullets before.

I prefer water to Kool Aid, Jim Jones!

My pet loads have a 85grn TSX at about 3100fps from my .243, and 100grn TSX's at 3580fps from my 25-06AI. Very different creatures, and both great.

What penetrates deeper...an 85 gr 243 TSX at 3300, or a 100 gr 257 TSX at 3300? Me thinks a 257!

Yep. So the real question is how much penetration do you need?

Keep posting about bullets you've never used.. It's funny.

I have used both quit a bit and would take the 25- every time.
I can shoot a 100gr TSX at 3400 out of my 25-AI and a 115 berger VLD at 3200. The 243 with a VLD might out run the 25- at 800 yards by a few inches, but Im not killing at more than a few hundred or so, so it really doesn't matter for me.

..and then there would be the 257 80gr TTSX at 3600 or 3700?

I would say either would penetrate more than required. I do know for fact that a deer will not stop a 100gr tsx with a impact velocity of 3300fps and that's going through bone going in and coming out.

Both are great varmint rounds and I prefer them to the 22 centerfires for long range work.Having shot many whitetails and a muley with the 25-06,I still think the 270 is your huckleberry for deer.
I see both the 243 and 25-06 as true dual purpose rifles in sporter weight for someone that does not have alot of guns in their rack.
Just bought a 25-06 last week after not having one for a few years.That was my go to round for the first 20 yrs. of hunting deer because it was my only rifle.Lots of memories,all good with the 25-06.

You have to understand that you are comparing 48gr of powder to 61gr.

I have several 25-06ai's in my safe. Both are customs, well set up, and extremely accurate. But, you can't deny a SA 243ai flinging a 105gr .5 BC bullet downrange at 3140, with virtually no recoil and 48gr of powder. It's perfection for deer hunting, IMO.

I guess I'll buy a box of those A-max's and try them in my 6mm Remmie and see how they shoot.

Personally, I'd prefer a 117 or 120gr bullet, designed for hunting, at about 3000fps using 49gr of IMR4350. Even though the BC is way down there around .4, the trajectory is plenty flat for my hunting. YMMV