Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting .243 for Mule Deer

Yes on experience, yes good to 200 yards (with decent shooting of course).

Yet I take my 06 with 165's rather than my .243 when deliberately going after muleys.

I killed my biggest muley with a 95 grain Nosler Partition, a massive bodied Canadian buck. That bullet has killed black bear and large bull elk for us when it was the rifle in hand-- but I'm dinosaur enough to pick up the 06 when heading east to the dry side for muleys.

I will bring my .308 as a backup on my next, mule deer hunt, but I do like the idea of a lightweight little deer rifle, so I will start off with the .243.

Now, if I can only get drawn!


Again thanks for all the good, experienced advice.

BH63

BH63: I have killed Mule Deer (and Whitetails!) with my Rifles in calibers 243 Winchester, 6m/m Remington, 240 Weatherby and 6m/m Remington Ackley Improved.
With these Rifles/calibers I always make sure to be patient and have a steady rest and only shoot for the heart/lungs area.
I have used a variety of bullets over the decades from these Rifles but never the 95 grain Ballistic Silvertips - I see no reason why they would not be very lethal on Mule Deer with proper shot placement.
Best of luck to you.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

We killed a lot of large mulies and white tails in Nebraska and Kansas with a 243 and 6 Rem with 95g Nosler partitions.

You get great bone breaking penetration on quartering shots coming and going with this bullet with a great blood trail.

We shoot for shoulders, NOT behind the shoulders. No large buck over 200 lbs never went over 30 yards, and the last buck in Kansas was shot at 320 yards, and dressed out at 260 lbs. This large buck was rattled in and took one or two steps after he was hit....pretty typical.

When living in Az, we rode mules to deer and elk hunt. I shot many cow elk with this same 95g partition.

I have a friend I haven't seen for 15 years, but at the time we moved away, he had a dozen set of elk antlers hanging on his wall - all taken with a .243. He's only owned one rifle all his life, a Sako .243 that he shot with 87gr BTHPs, loaded "as fast as they will go".

He loved the explosive effect these bullets had on elk shoulders, saying it "sprayed bone fragments throughout the chest cavity". He once also told me that "when that bullet reaches 400 yards, it mushrooms like a regular soft-point".

He only lost an elk once, and he was sick about it. He took a shot at an elk in timber, while it was moving through the trees, a shot he told himself he would never take because too much could go wrong. It started raining right after the shot, and he never found a blood trail.

His experience with those elk - and more than 100 deer - left him thoroughly convinced that he didn't need anything bigger than the little .243.

Everyone has definitely made a believer out of me!

BH63

The furthest I've had a deer run with a boiler hit was better than 200 yards. (140 AB in .284 cal - 7SAUM). Frankly, I would have never believed if I hadn't experienced it for myself. The bullet struck the upper 1/3 of the lungs on a perfectly broadside shot - blood was sparse until the chest cavity filled and commenced leakage. Luckily it was in a hay meadow and I saw the direction the deer headed for cover - about 75 yards from the shot, the frothy stuff finally became apparent.

This is rather intuitive, but the lower the hit in the chest, the better and quicker the leak. I prefer to break them down on the spot but will shoot for the crease on longer shots - a bit more margin for operator error.

There simply isn't a deer on the planet I wouldn't confidently ventilate with a 243, and, like MD explained above, the 95GR Ballistic Silvertip is a good choice.

I'm glad that I don't have to get a steady rest, nor shoot for the heart/lungs with my 300 WBY. Makes things much easier.

I understand with a powerful enough caliber you don't even have to aim. Just the reputation of the ballistics is enough to knock over most critters.

BH63

I think a 30-378 will field dress deer too.

Don't even need to shoulder the rifle - just declare to your quarry with an empathic "BIG-TIME-RIFLE-HERE!"

I might take my .416 Rem Mag deer hunting instead of the .243.

Then I won't have to leave my camper, just use a loudspeaker to tell the deer to give themselves up before I fire a round over their heads and take out the entire herd.

I'll need to check the Colorado Hunting regs first!

BH63

Actually reminds me of a story. I was on a military base shooting range that was open for public sight-in many decades ago. A couple of young guys had a brand new .300 Wby Mag on the firing position next to me.

After a few shots, one of them exclaimed, "It don't shoot accurate, but it sure shoots hard!" Live and learn I guess.

BH63

While I have no real life personal experience with a 6mm bore anything and mule deer, I did grow up in an era when most kids received a high power centerfire rifle at 12-16 years of age.

Most kids received a .243 win. a few got 30-30's. I got a Ruger M77r in 30-06. Seems like it was about 1978.

Almost all of these kids (most were friends) shot some sort of 90-100 grain soft points. Probably Hornady Frontier loads.

As kids, we were all active in the Boy Scouts. We had a great Scoutmaster that had a rifle range and would let us practice anytime we wanted.

He ALWAYS taught us that shot placement was paramount and the most important thing when hunting. Regardless of the game.

I don't think that I can ever recall any of my buddies hitting a mule deer with a .243 or 6mm that did not drop when hit, or fall within 50 yards.

Thank you Ernie B. for being a great Scoutmaster, mentor and teacher.

Side note... for all of us that were able to achieve the rank of Eagle, Scoutmaster Ernie would build you a custom .300 win mag on a Mauser action. Hand build the stock in his shop to fit you.

Guess that he figured if your were responsible enough to earn the Eagle rank, you were responsible enough to own a BIG magnum. And in 1976, to a bunch of 14 year old kids, a 300 mag of any flavor was BIG MEDICINE.

Anyway, a well placed shot, with the proper bullet should anchor a big mule deer. At least they did in northern Utah in the 70's & 80's.

My one and only mule deer was killed with a 243 and a 100grain BTSP..many years ago in Colorado..

I have used 100gr. Remington factory Core-Lokts for years for mule deer. Last year used the factory Federal Trophy Copper 85gr. Now I handloaded a Barnes 80gr. TTSX with RL17 powder and got a 0.300" 3-shot group at 100yds. I have not chronograph load yet, but real happy with group. I wish I could post picture, but can't get picture transferred from phone to this tablet.

^
That is a nice group.

I once got a .45 inch, 3-shot, 100 yd group with a Rem 700 Police in .308. I still have that target somewhere.

BH63

My son has taken 2 mule bucks to date with his .243 (Rem 700 Youth). First one was with 100 gr Hornady SPBT, second one was with 95 gr BT. I'll not buy any more of the SPBT's, and what I have on hand will be shot into targets, or coyotes. As has been mentioned here multiple times now, the 95 gr BT is the cat's azz.

Pet load suggestions for the 95 GR BT in the 243 Win. please.

Im shooting 37.0 grains of IMR4064