Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Minimizing - should I get rid of the .243 Win?

I ridiculed my cousin's little 243 forever as a worthless coyote only rifle.

But I picked up a cheap Savage as a loaner / kid rifle to get youngsters, women and rookies started. The darn thing shoots everything well with almost no recoil, with a rookie hunter it killed a nice buck on its first trip to the woods. I smack 16 oz. water bottles at 200 yards from field positions and my wife likes shooting it.

I still think it is a good out to 500 yard coyote rifle but it is much more useful than what I imagined. As an extra rifle a 243 is quite handy to have in the safe.

I would not get rid of a nice .243. They are so versatile, and you do not have to hot-rod them and ruin a barrel. I have had one for many years. Target and varmints, and maybe a deer hunt once in awhile....while my .270 does the majority of the hunting chores. I even load whimpy rounds for the .270 to punch paper...quite enjoyable at 2500fps with 130 or 140gr. projectiles. Enjoy with whatever choice you make!

I have a .243 Win and a .223. I bought the .243 cause I couldn't find any .223 supplies. Nice gun but Id sooner shoot paper with a .223 and go get my .270 Win for deerNbear.. Not much use for the .243 Win, but it is a nice caliber.

Thanks for the reply John. I have a .243, have no intention of loading bullets lighter than 95 gr for anything. What little coyote hunting I do (no real small varmints here) I do with the hunting loads. I feel this helps me get used to the gun, speed, lead required. I have a few other guns and so maybe put 100 rounds per year through the .243.

So in that case, it is a 20 year gun before I see much change, likely. I can certainly live with that.

I am down to .223, .260, .280, and .30-'06.

.223 because it's usually available, is easy to handload, and has so many interesting firearms chambered for it. I prefer PPU 55gr as plinking/training ammo, then use the brass for reloading. I've given up on .22LR as a training chambering.

.260 because it outperforms the .308 so much better at distances out past 500yd, or at least it has for me in 1000yd F Open. Brass is not such a big deal if you neck down 7-08. Lately I'm setting up to try out Hornady 7-08 brass.

.280 because it's a powerhouse deer chambering, and also because it extends extreme range a good bit beyond where the .260 cries 'Uncle' doesn't erode throats as badly as the 6.5-284, and gets out there with bullets that don't generate magnum-like recoil. A reconstructed sternum an make such issues a bit more crucial.

.30-'06 because I'm simply never going to give up my Garand, and also because three members of my family, plus myself, are married to it for dear season. I have a 168 SMK load that shoots like FGMM, and its cousin (substituting the 165 SGK)shoots 1 MOA at 200yd out of my M70.

Nothing bigger because if I need something bigger than what I'm already shooting, at age 69, I could never drag it out anyway.

I keep a nice little Win .94AE Trapper Carbine chambered in .44 Mag for brush hunting, etc.

Greg

PS, after posting, I went back and read about the first 1/3 of the responses to the OP. I had missed a lot.

Backtracking, I feel I need to further explain my preference for the .280 over the .270. It's mostly serendipity. I inherited a gorgeous pair of Ruger 77 MKI's from my Eldest Brother, both .280's, one a sporter and the other a rather rare varmint weight.

While factory loaded ammo appears far more easily available for the .270 than for the .280, the HDY American Whitetail load is a genuine ripsnorter and I have laid in 100rd, which should cover the rest of my expected deer hunting lifespan. Also, the rifles both demonstrate excellent accuracy with handloads and even shoot relatively well with the other's preferred load.

At the time we lost my Brother, he had been exploring the .280 for both medium-to-larger game and as an extended distance target cartridge. I felt that it was an admirable set if goals and decided to carry it further.

I no longer shoot to 1000yd, so I haven't tried bullets heavier than 150gr. But I also firmly believe that whatever the .30-'06 could do with 150r, the .280 could likely do significantly better.

I think the .223 is the most versatile of my choices as long as one keeps one's expectations reasonably conservative (i.e, while I have some nice Federal Fusion 62gr MSR 'deer loads' on hand, I'll still be doing my deer hunting with the larger chamberings).

I am also replacing the bullets on some M855 with Win 64ge Power Points as an experiment, to see if a relatively effective rounds can be salvaged from some of my M855, which is only mediocre accuracy-wise. Doing some deconstruction on (Federal) M855, the powder charges are the most consistent I have ever seen on factory loaded ammunition.

Sounds like you've caught all the way up to the 70's. Kudos.



Travis

TFF!