Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles .243 - Shoulder shots or lung shots?

Deer fall into huge ravines too.

so if your intent is to shoot them in the shoulders to stop them from falling into ravines, then wouldn't use a stouter gun than question if the 243 would bust both shoulders?

I've come to the conclusion that the only bullet I need for hunting with a 243 is the 80 TTSX. I'll bust shoulders all day long with that bullet.

Because it likely won't make any difference. Shoot a good bullet, the 243 will get the job done.

The 95 GR BT mentioned earlier worked fine stopping my sons deer.

So maybe having a different opinion than you ain't necessarily "stupid and hunting show mentality", huh, Slick?

Why? A 95gr NBT, 100gr Partition, 85gr TSX or an 80gr TTSX will go through any shoulder from any deer/elk/moose/bear in NA. In over 80 deer shot with a 243win and 95gr NBT's, you can count the ones that did not collapse at the shot on one hand. Most of those being straight lung shots. Closet measured in feet, farthest at 427 yards.

The 243win with the right bullet is a MONSTER.

Let me fix that...

243 + right bullet + VITALS Placement = Death

Wrong bullet, placement, or both, like any round can = slower death or not, tracking or lost....

But no doubt, the 243 is a killer when used properly, even the pipsqueak 6BR using 28-30 grains of powder will do 90% of a 243 speed, and is deadly, esp. when twisted to use the better bullets.

550yd wayward Buck,caught sniffin' [bleep] this afternoon. 105Hornie HPBT...exit side of the equation,ala LFB.

Shoulders B Gone Spray.




Couldn'ta taken a step,if he wanted too...all of which was by design.

Hint.

Not totally Dick. Deer hunting is different all around the country. Reading about "cull hunting" and "paying by antler class" and "shooting in front of feeders" and calling deer "dinks" is a style of hunting that I don't care for. If shooting the deer through both shoulders is the only way to prevent losing a deer in the brush and rattle snakes, I can accept that. Shooting a deer through both shoulders or blowing out the hindquarters so you can get those horns just to save a little tracking is meat wasteful. I was hunting WI with a guy who said if he saw nice antlers on a deer, he would shoot it in the hindquarters just to get it. We were on busy public land so it may be a conditioned mindset to allow that. There is a sickening trend of people dumping headless deer here in MN because all they wanted is a shoulder mount. So when does blowing out all the meat blur over to cutting the head off? My father always told me if we shot the hindquarters out that he would take my hunting away because we are wasting the meat. That's how I was raised. I assume Texas allows you to take several deer so throwing the shoulders in the scrap bucket isn't a big deal. Up here in MN, we are quite limited to one deer typically and only a few days to hunt so maybe you should expand your mind to my perspective, huh, Dick?

Must be my mind set as well. Northern Minnesota was where I grew up. I hate wasting meat, but then again I am a meat hunter. Not much meat in the head and antlers.. In the tight woods at the normal range a neck shot works well for me.

"I assume Texas allows you to take several deer so throwing the shoulders in the scrap bucket isn't a big deal. Up here in MN, we are quite limited to one deer typically and only a few days to hunt so maybe you should expand your mind to my perspective, huh, Dick?"

You make a lot of assumptions. Many of which are wrong or irrelevant. I never questioned your hunting methods or ethics. Only your narrow minded prejudices.

Narrow minded? You won't open your mind to a more conservative less meat wasteful mindset. I could "bust shoulders" if I was paranoid about tracking deer into the popple trees, tad alders, down the ravines, and into the beaver sloughs. I don't.

You take offence that I'm calling out a hunting method that makes you question yourself. You never see the hunting shows come to Minnesota where you can't use bait piles, high fences, raise their deer like cattle, and feed the big horn culture.

Enlighten me on how you hunt and your game laws instead of criticizing my values, traditions, and laws of my land.

To make this an engaged discussion, answer a few questions:

1. Do you and your hunting crew harvest does and why / why not?
2. Do you own / lease / guest of where you hunt?
3. Do you do anything to promote ehtical hunting or a positive hunting outside of hunting season?
4. Give me a quick rundown of your game laws & seasons since I've made assumptions?
5. How do you personally manage your buck harvest and any selection rules?
6. Do you recruit hunters?

Chill. The only thing I took issue with was your comment that shoulder shots were "stupid". And I don't want to debate Obamacare or the nations debt on this thread, either.

edited to add: and I am completely ok with you hunting according to the way you were taught, and consistent with the local ethics and customs, as long as it is legal.

IMO, we are all hunters and should support each other, not bicker among ourselves, or criticize each other, as to the right or wrong way to hunt.

"harvest"?...

If you desire an exit, Shoulder with TSX or other suitable bullet.

Unless you just like walking after schit.

Well I like a good debate once in while to get people thinking or just to engage a discussion. I'm really indifferent on this, but I have my reasons for disliking some of the things that make hunters look questionable.

I teach MN firearms safety and were taught to use the phrase "harvest" or "taking" over the term "killing". It also applies to saying "firearm" or "gun" instead of "weapon". 80% of the people are neutral on hunting so we teach to cover your bloody game during transit to not offend non-hunters. MN suffered the "lead in meat" ban for food shelf donated venision and thats another tool for anti-hunters could leverage(and part of my personal bias for lung shots). The lead in meat panic has stopped somewhat. The one thing hunters do that hurts us is "I eat everything I kill" and I don't want to start eating skunks or coyotes personally. One thing I hate about hunting shows is they seem to glorify the antlers only and sound so disappointed when they harvest a smaller than expected buck, but few promote the nourisment. The goofy "cutting out the back straps" thing always makes me wonder if they throw the rest of the deer away.

So you may say I am giving in to the "political correct" people when I say "harvest" or worrying about lead and bone fragments in meat for the deer I gift away occasionally. You could say I am giving into the MN DNR propaganda machine in teaching this stuff, but I have to believe I fall in the middle trying to recruit new hunters who are bombarded with "killing is bad and lets hug" while they play first person shooter games in their basement becoming desensitized.

Thats all. chilling now.

I prefer Lung Shots myself with the 243

I have a hunting buddy that uses a .243 and shoots Hornady SST's. He kills the heck outta deer with lung shots.

That would change the expansion characteristics in a direction Sierra bullets don't need to go.