Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting The @#$&* 243 Winchester

I agree. About the only thing I've seen take them down reliably with lung-only hits were soft bullets at hyper-velocity. Old school NBT lung hits from 300WM or 7mmRM pushing 3300-3400 would often drop them with just lungs, but they'd sure make a mess. Other rounds generally have them on their feet for 10-30 seconds after a hit through the middle of the lungs. If that's the hit you get, I like to see some chunks of pink goo coming out of an exit. A medium-weight bullet from a 7-08, 308, 35Rem, etc will typically do it pretty well without much recoil. Probably why they continue to be regarded as bread & butter deer cartridge's around here.

I used them in the 150 gr. weight in my .30-06 for a couple seasons. They are vey accurate in that rifle. I have one I recovered from just under the hide of a medium sized buck I shot through both shoulders a couple seasons ago. It expanded very wide which of course limited peneration. No issue in that instance of course since that buck dropped in it's tracks but I'd rather have seen more penertation and an exit.

I run the 130's in my .270, zero issues with them there as well.

I was using Speer Nitrex in both[Grand Slam bullets], but then Speer sold out and whomever discontinued the 'factory am
Ran out of the Nitrex 4-5 years back, tried the Fusion in one, it did well and added the other caliber.
Piled up 15-20bx of each and add one-two yearly.

I just try to keep it simple with my admittedly limited knowledge, if something works for me I stick with it.

I've never used TSX's and probably won't. I see no reason when the cheap cup/cores I use in my .30 cals. have been working fine for decades and dozens upon dozens of deer. I've also heard from many people who say that they produce narrower wound channels and can be slow killers with lung shots so you need to shoot bone for quick kills. In fact, I hear the "shoot bone" mantra from TSX users over and over again right here on these forums. Makes sense since a given bullet at a given velocity can ony do just so much damage. You have a choice of a longer narrower wound channel or a shallower, wider channel. I don't always have the option to "shoot bone" due to obstructions and since I don't do ass shots {ain't been that desperate} and as stated before, I get full penetration on hard quartering shots with what I use now, I see no reason for a longer, narrower wound channel and more penetration. Unlike many here apparently, I have no problem and make no apologies for shooting bullets bigger than .24 cal. at deer.

Wait for the 95BT to go on sale at SPS and pick some up. Shot lots of deer with them out of my 243 and never had to shoot one twice, never lost one either.

Not much data here on Federal 100 grain blue box. That's my deer bullet for this year. My son has got good results with it

Wife put a 95 BT through both shoulders this morning, went about 8 yards like they normally do. Typical performance.

How big of deer and what distance? I bought a pile of these bullets and thinking about trying them.

Well 2 days ago I screwed up the biggest buck I've seen in years by my piss poor bullet placement. Using my .243ai. I got excited and for some unknown reason put the + on the point of his shoulder when he stopped broadside. It knocked him down on the front end and then he ran off. There was a good blood till there was no blood after 1/2+ miles. I knew I had problems with penetration using the Hornady 103 ELD-X, but the ELD-X shoots extremely good in my rifle and I thought I could overcome the lack of penetration by bullet placement. But during the rut when the bucks are running the does back and forth, hardly stopping. I've learned that I need something else bullet wise, my mind isn't capable of making the right split second decisions. If nothing else, I'm more convinced than ever, that Bullet Construction is more important than Ballistic Coefficient for hunting. We still had a good afternoon my son killed this buck shortly after my screw up.