Used many different bullets in the 243 before I realized I could pay the same amount for a rifle shooting a bigger bullet and not have to balance thin wound channels and penetration against wide shorter wound channels. That said I never lost a deer I shot with a 243. Favorite bullet was the 100 gr. Nosler solid base with runners up being the 95 gr. Ballistic Tip. I used the 80 gr. Remington PSP with pretty good results too. My biggest complaint is that often blood trails are pretty thin and don't start til pretty far from where the deer was shot. I only had a few deer travel far after being hit but others I have hunted with often consistently created complicated tracking scenarios sometimes resulting in lost deer. However I have had to do some tracking with deer hit with larger cartridges also. The splashier blood trails being greatly appreciated. When I look at my collection of rifles where a lone 243 still lingers and I have the choice of a 7x57, 7-08 or a 308 among many others for hunting the thorn tree country of north Texas the 243 is just not the one I pick. Typically if you don't find the deer that night the coyotes or feral hogs get it.

Dog I rescued in January

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