Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Your Experience With The 243?

the 243 100gr corelokt is deadly on PA whitetails. they have somewhat of a "sissy gun" reputation but they are anything but. the nice thing is they are very light recoil even in light rifles. i have an old mossberg 800 that was my first deer rifle and it is so accurate it is boring. i only had one deer run about 75 yards and it was dead of its feet. the rest dropped or moved very little. the other nice thing is you can buy ammo on sale for like 15 bucks a box.

My experience with the 243 goes back to 1965, when a hunting buddy started using one. The heaviest whitetail I ever saw killed was taken with a 243 The longest shot on a deer I ever witnessed, 465 yards, was with a 243. Yet, for many years, I considered it marginal for deer because I had seen several deer wounded and lost with the 243. To be honest, it was poor shooting and bad shot placement that caused the 243 to look bad, not the cartridge itself, with the hunters being the problem. I have used it with zero problems to take a number of deer. I've used the 85 grain Sierra HP, 90 and 95 Nolsers, and am currently using 95 grain SST's. I have used 100 grain bullets, but have always gotten better accuracy using the lighter weights.

A SAAMI 243Win with good bullets is a Giant Killer and I'd have zero qualm with it on Mooseses.

Buck a 1/2" out of the case and it still crushes schit,with good bullets.

200yds+ and a single 105 A-Max.





An extry 1/2" of motor...ain't even fhuqking fair...............(grin)

My experience, and opinion, mirror that of JamesJr above. I used one for years when I was in college in Missouri and never had a problem but I was reading too many gun "experts" at the time and when a 100 gr RN Texan bullet blew up on a 200 pound buck's neck I decided the 243 lacked penetration.
Now after 40 + years of experience with all sorts of bigger rifles I realize that a soft bullet was the problem ( if you can consider a DRT animal a problem) and that the 243 with any of the newer bullets will reliably take most any game if the shooter is capable.

The 243 Winchester is my favorite whitetail round. It's never failed me yet and I've killed bunches of deer with multiple types of bullets from the cartridge. I carry and use other stuff from time to time, but I grab a 243 more often than the others.

I hunt almost exclusively with the 243AI now in mountain/alpine situations. If I could do it over again, I'd have stuck with the vanilla 243 just to keep things simple. That being said, an 8 twist makes the 243 much better, as the 105 turn it into a killing/wind fending machine.

Interesting how times change. I lived in NE PA for 4 years frm '88 to '92. In the area where I lived, at that time, the .222 and .220 Swift were about the "norm" for taking deer. The .243 was considered kinda over kill. One guy bought a 7 rem mag for deer hunting and about got laughed off the farm. The matriarch of the family I hunted with kept an old lever rifle, IIRC a .32-20, propped in the corner next to the kitchen door during deer season. If any deer happened to meander thru the side yard or barn lot while she was cooking, it was hers...

In Lebanon and Sullivan county PA in the 80's and 90's it seemed like everyone used a Remington 760 30-06. I remember seeing a .222 and a .220 Swift afield for deer-once.

I had a 26 inch M70, all I shot in it where 70 Nosler Ballistic Tips. Sudden Death!

I was just up the road in Wyoming County, Mehoopany, Forkston, Windham, Jenningsville, there abouts... Yes, there was one guy on our EMS squad that had a 760 in 30-06. Everyone thought he was over gunned as well. But not like the 7RM... Our preacher was out of Trucksville. He was one of the 220 Swift fans.

Sheep to moose. Everything died.

If I didn't mention this already,the .243 is now my "big" gun.....

What, no 7x57?

Nope. The last-and best 7x57- the famed "Ingwe Special" is now in the proud hands of Rev.Mike here on the 'fire and he is putting it to good use against the invasive horde of feral hogs in Florida.

I no longer shoot anything bigger than deer, and just plain don't need a rifle that big any more....thought Id give it a good home....


Rev. Mike and his latest kill....the legend lives on!

Never lost a deer shot with 243 or 6mm Rem. Usually instant kills. These rounds suffered bad pr from poor bullet designs of many years ago. They remain to being thought of as womens/kids round due to it low recoil. Certainly any real man would opt for a larger more effective cartridge for a surer kill. Well truth be told most hunters would be more effective with a 243 win vs a 300 win mag and probably see more one shot kills. Always remember a leg shot deer from a 300 win mag is no more dead from a poorly placed shot from a 243 win. Got to hit them in the boiler room.

Funny how long certain misconceptions carry on.

I hunted with one for about 20 years. Worked great on young deer. usually dropped them on the spot. The last buck I killed with it was a big old one and it took a whole magazine to make him lie down. Never took it hunting again.
The year before one of my bucks took 3 shots and 1/4 mile of running to go down. I switched to a bigger rifle and don't have those problems anymore. That's my experience with the 243. I figure it would make a really good coyote rifle.

What bullet, ranges and shot placement was involved in the big deer rodeo?

Wondering the same. Ive shot big deer with smaller rifles that a .243 and they've always died pretty quick....

Me too, just last week. This big fella was in a full run straight at me when I hit him in the chest with a 55gr Hornady SP from my 220 Wilson Arrow at 175yds. He dropped in mid stride and didn't make another move.