Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles 243 ars???

How come I don't see many AR,s in the 243 cal??? Seems like the 223 is a little on the small side and the 308 is more than needed.. ?? The 243 seems just right..

In an AR, it just doesn't offer much, if anything, over other calibers such as the 6.5 Creedmoor or .260 Remington which are more popular in the .308 sized AR receivers. The .308 has never come across to me as more than needed unless you are hunting small game. The .223 seems just right to me for small game.

Custom builder put together WSSM calibers and wildcats off that cartridge for AR 15 sized rifles. I had a 243 WSSM from Dtech. It rocked, but was heavy and I decided a bolt action was a better answer to everything I could do with the AR as long as I connected the first shot. I was a fun gun to shoot for a few years.

With the right bullet I think you would find the 223 can do everything the 243 can unless you are considering game larger than whitetails and yardage exceeding 300 or so. Then the 243 is stretched too.

DMPS has been the company producing the Wal-Mart larger calibers in .243, 7-08, 260 Rem, and .338 Fed.

But, since the buy-out last year, the production hasn't put many back on the shelves. JMO, the hunting crowd has just started really turning to the AR/MSR as a hunting rifle in the last 2-4 years, to where the AR brands could afford to put a rifle caliber on the shelf for the hunter.

Hopefully, the supply will catch up this year.

At one time RRA offered a 243win upper and 7-08 upper for their LAR-8 gun.

My brother has one and it is EXTREMELY accurate with little to no load development.

Hopefully they come back out with them and other calibers since the mad rush is slowing down.

FWIW, remember depending on chosen use, the 243 has a very short barrel life. 1000 rounds give or take for really good accuracy. Vs smaller or larger rounds, its capacity vs bore size as a ratio.

Just FYI.

The 243 WSSM is a better option in the AR15 than the 243 in the AR10 , but just my opinion .

Back several years ago when Armalite still had the patent on the AR-10 platform they would build 243's. I was stupid enough to buy one in the target model from them, it never shot a group under 2" at 100 yards. I sent it back to Armalite twice and had a few smiths try to figure out what was wrong. gave up on the POS and sold it and have been happy with the AR-15 platform ever since.

Weird. VERY VERY VERY few AR platforms, will not, not shoot under MOA EASILY.

If a AR won't shoot it is usually the barrel .

been looking for a 243 in an AR platform for the longest. thought I found one the other day but it didn't work out. I wanted one for nuisance tags down south.

Anyone shooting a 243 WSSM,, How do they feed ,any problems??

personally I wouldn't buy ANYTHING with WSSM by the numbers.

The cartridges are dying off and chasing expensive brass are the ground is crazy.

wssm, fine if you buy one, but buy enough brass for the life of the gun... thats simple enough, if you can find it.

Chasing brass isn't an issue once you learn to deal with the AR. I rarely loose more than one here or there. If you buy 1000 pieces you'll be fine.

give me a 6.5 x 47 Lapua! considering saving my pennies for this

http://www.tacticalmachining.com/80-products/80-kits/80-tm-10-lower-receiver-kit.html


ML

6.5 x 47 Lapua would be a really cool toy!

Interesting that last I looked, WSM still had the 1 mile accuracy record out of a 7 wsm....

I don't think that you'll ever not have wsm brass. Not at all up on wssm, but even then, it'll be around, maybe only in batches but I'd be surprised if it all went away.

I had one for a few years. It was a Dtech and very accurate. The first groups out of it were factory shot in a sideways snowstorm and averaged about 1". Handloads shot better. It fed just fine. He put's together good stuff.