Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Cow elk and the 243 Winchester

This conversation has taken place MANY times on this forum, and the answer is the same every time: actual experience says yes, the .243 is enough for elk with the right bullets, but you may be more comfortable using a larger diameter/heavier bullet on your hunt.

Here is the comment I posted in 2007 about the same subject:

I've talked/emailed with 2 long-time elk guides who recommend the .243. I have a friend who has downed 14 of the critters with his Sako .243, and Grits Gresham once wrote an article (I have a copy of it) about the many times he hunted with Whiskey Chamberland, an Idaho elk guide who claimed 15 one-shot kills with the .243.

They all say pretty much the same thing: stay within 300 yards, know exactly where your bullet is going (easy with the mild recoil of the .243), be patient so you can put the bullet into the lungs and you've got a dead elk.

Bullets recommended range from 70 gr spitzer at 3400 fps+ to 85 grain Barnes TSX to 85 gr Sierra hollowpoint boattail to 100 gr Core-Lokt (today, I would add the 95gr Nosler Ballistic Tip and the 100gr Nosler Partition).

If all I had was a 243, I wouldn't hesitate to go elk hunting. But I think Ty Herring from Barnes Bullets put it best when he emailed me, "A 243 will do the trick, but a larger caliber would be better for elk."