Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Ok, .243 on moose

In North America, well into the 1970s, people were using non-magnum cartridges for just about everything.

WRT moose, most guys used 30-30s or 303s where I lived. I still use a 303 almost every year, but have carried others like the 30-30 for example, and wasn't undergunned.

There were also 243s, 308s, 30-06s, 35 Rems and milsurp 6.5x55mms in our moose camps. A friend of the family only owned one rifle - a Savage 340 chambered in 30-30 - and used it for everything. He never lost an animal to poor performance. That was back in the days when a fellow dropped by the store, bought a box of Remington Core Lokts and went hunting.

Things started changing up here in the late 1970s/early 1980s. More southern hunters appeared carrying different cartridges, and a new crop of magnums was on the horizon. Go into a store in northern Ontario anyway, and you'll find 243 & 308 Win, 30-06, 303, 30-30, and 7mm and 300 Win Mag boxes. Not much else.

The Internets mantra is that 243s are okay for women and kids, but should be abandoned as quickly as possible. "The experts" say that this cartridge just isn't up to the job. My question has always been,

"If the 243 is no good, why are you putting a so-so performer in the hands of a new, inexperienced shooter? By your own admission, aren't you dooming them to fail?"

My two cents. Load up a 100 gr. Partition and have at her.