Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Which do I keep? .243 or 25-06?

Most factory .243's will stabilize the Horn 105HPBT at 3050fps+...

A .243 and 7mm-08 make a great combo. Good decision!

I have both a 25-06 and a 243 and I enjoy shooting both of them. My daddy always said guns do not have a expiration date and they don't take up much space. Unless you need the funds I say keep them both. I will trade a gun for another gun but never saw the logic in getting rid of a gun just because. Again this is just my personal opinion. Trade one of them for a gun you really want. Keep them both if your just selling one to sell it. Unlike food they don't go bad.

I'm betting this thread goes several dozen more posts because so many never even read the original post, so never realize the OP already decided on the .243.

Yep.

Why screw up a perfectly good hypothetical with reality or facts? That's no fun!

I'm surprised nobody has debated for the umpteenth time whether a .243 can actually kill a deer!

25-06, cuz a 80 gr ttsx at 3800 fps is a beautiful thing. Although in a 243, 3400 fps is nice too.

According to Speer and Hornady reloading books (the ones I have in front of me) the 25-06 shoots 300 fps faster than the 243. This with similar ballistic co-efficient bullets.

So the 25-06 shoots faster, flatter with heavier bullets and there would be less wind drift and less drop.

If a person wanted to they could load down to 243 level. It's impossible for 243 rifles to be loaded to 25-06 levels.

I own a 243, two 6mm's, and two 25-06's.

If I were to keep only one of those it would probably be one of the 6mm's because it is a fantastic varmint cartridge.

If I did not want to shoot varmints the answer would be simple. 25-06

Those people that say that the 243 shoots flatter and with less drift are full of $hit. Liars figure

25-06 by all means. Shock of impact and distance. Accuracy. 30-06 case to 25 cal.

I would say the 243 mainly because i have 2 of them one setup for heavy 105 grain bullets and the other one for the lightweight varmint stuff. I looked into a 25-06 but couldnt find that it did anything much better that I already had. I wanted to shoot 115 bergers and apparently the twist rates are marginal for that bullet so i passed.

Hint- there are NO similar BC bullets in .257"...

I'm not speaking from postulation and theorizing. I've owned and used the .25-06 to kill critters from spitting distance out to beyond 940 yards. That doesn't mean it was the best tool for the job on the long shots. I've also used the .243 and .243AI to kill a wagon load from near to far. Show me a mainstream .257" bullet that can keep up to the .243" Berger 115gr VLD, 105gr Hybrid, or even the Hornady 105 HPBT at 3000-3100fps, and I'll be all ears. BTDT, ain't gonna happen. Or even compare the .257" Barnes 100gr TTSX at 3300fps, and the .243 80gr TTSX at 3400fps. It's tough to see a difference in terminal effect on game.

For close to mid-range the .25-06 works great. But to say that it is ballistically superior to the .243 shows a lack of actual experience with both. An advantage in the wind can be seen even as close as a couple hundred yards, so it's not just a LR advantage, either. The .243 simply does more with less. But it's not the .25-06's fault, the bullet manufacturers and barrel makers have been neglecting her for years...

So, I guess both Hornady and Speer companies have no idea what the ballistic coefficient values are of their bullets. Try looking at manuals instead of making things up. AS far as no experience with these, I've had over 50 years experience.

5 down 19 more to go. You may have guessed wrong MD

Varmint hunting keep the .243, deer hunting keep the .25-06.

Sounds like your version of 50 years is the equivalent to 1.5 of anybody that actually shoots...

Tell me what your manual says is the BC on Hornady's .243 105 HPBT? Find a .257" bullet in the same manual that matches that BC. Don't give up, you'll find it if you look long enough!

I love it when someone's wrong and then want to brag about how old and wrong they are....lol.

There are, like many other caliber debates, good reasons for both. In my opinion, the reasons one would use to justify the 25-06 over the 243 (which are legitimate) are already satisfied by the other calibers the OP already has, thus making the 243 the better choice in this particular situation.

As was previously mentioned, both current guns are tikkas. They both use the exact same stock even though one is a short action and the other is a long action. Another option would be to sell the blued .243, keep the stainless 25-06 and the shortened laminated stock. Use the funds from selling the blued .243 to put towards a stainless .243 and have the best of both worlds.

Seems on here every argument always brings up the B.C of a bullet as regards to usefulness of the caliber at distance.

https://longrangerifles.wordpress.com/reference/matchriflehistory/

In the right hands the match rifles are extremely accurate. One notable achievement was made by J.K.Milner of Ireland, firing at Creedmoor in the Centennial Match of 1876. Using a Rigby muzzle loading match rifle he scored an unprecedented 15 consecutive bulls-eyes at 1000 yards.

Wonder what the B.C was of the bullets he was using?