To my way of thinking, the 243 is not right for most people. I hunted with one when I first started in the mid 60s. I have hunted the hill country of Texas all my life. The deer are small. I have talked to a lot of guides and ranch owners. It is their general consensus that eventually the 243 will let you down. They used to loan 257 Roberts, now it's 7-08s.There are several reasons for this. First, there is little room for mistake in bullet placement. Early on most bullets were iffy. Second, bullet failure. I think a lot of this has to do with hunters going once or twice a year. They go somewhere, buy a box of shell, go to the range, shoot a couple Times, and if its close go hunting. Maybe they mix varmint with big game bullets. Many are young or inexperienced. A lot of this is not the rounds fault. My thought is that one can buy a 7-08, or one of the 6.5s use reduced recoil and eliminate a lot of the problems. Experienced hunters using the best bullets can do ok with the 243, but there are better options. Captdavid
