For those of you with the 243. What are your experiences with it on whitetail?

DRT.... multiple times...

Don't work, need .300 magnum minimum.

Put the bullet in the ribs and get your knife out you got work to do. Makes a pretty good varmint gun as well. Plus easy on the shoulder.

[quote=Seafire]DRT.... multiple times... ]




+1

We (myself and immediate and extended family) have killed a ton ( as in multiple hundreds)of whitetail with the .243 and its cousin the 6mm Remington in all kinds of terrain and ranges from handshaking distance to well over 500 yards.


Bullets used have been mostly 75 and 80 HP bullets and for the last several years the 95 grain Nosler BT.

The .243 has never failed to produce good results but like with anything else good shooting and bullet placement play a major role in that equation.

The .243 is a family favorite and when I put together another mainly deer hunting rig it will be a 8 twist .243 or .243AI of some description.

Works great for me

It kills them really dead. Lots of them. Even the big ones.

I had one bad experience with a .243. Bullet came apart on impact and it was a piece of bone that went in and killed the deer. It really had nothing to do with the cartridge, just a poor hunting bullet. It was about 40 years ago and there weren't as many good bullets available as today.

Got my first one a couple years ago. Killed a spike using 100gr NPs just as dead as if it had been with a .270 or '06. My son used it this year and was amazed at the damage it did. I don't see the need for anything larger for Eastern whitetails as long as good bullets are used.

No whitetail experience with it, but it works well on mule deer. Shot my first buck with an old Parker Hale .243 Win and Federal ammunition loaded with 105 grain Speer bullets. A really good bullet that I wish Speer still made.

With the right bullet not a problem. I use the 90 accubond

My son's first rifle was a 243 and after two of his DRT's I bought one. All of my kills have been DRT's. Our load uses 100gr Corelokts.

Have had great results with Sierra 85 HPBT and Hornady 100 Spire Point.

I've killed several deer with one, and at the start of this deer season had two rifles in that chambering. One did become a .308, but I still have the M700 ADL.

Most of the shots I get are close to very close, so bullet integrity can be challenged, and I've found three very good ones that seem to hold together well enough to punch through. Those are the TSX, the TTSX, and the Nosler 95 grain Ballistic tip.

I've tried the Hornady and Sierra offerings, and while very accurate, didn't punch through at close range. But the deer made it to the freezer, so who's to complain?

Generally accurate, easy on the shoulder, plenty of good factory ammo. With good bullets it goes in one side and out the other, often piling 'em up on the spot. Can break shoulder bone to get to vitals if needed.

I agree with Ingwe.

But the 270Win is more manly.

For KY WT's, a .243 loaded with 95gr NPT's, and a sharp knife are all you'll ever need. Can't imagine that PA WT's are any different.

Great round. Puts deer right down. I've carried one multiple times for Black Bear if that gives you any indication of my confidence in the round.

all my friends hate the 243. not enough gun they say. hunted with an old BLR 243 when i first started hunting. took a few deer with it before i was given a 270. with 80gr cheap powerpoints deer either DRT or went maybe 20-30 yds. lotta blood. picked up a cheap ADL 700 .243 last year and this year using 95gr BT but havent shot a deer with it yet.

Shoot 'em through the lungs with a proper bullet and they die promptly.

Hit them with an 80 grain TTSX and you will think you are using a 7mm or 30 cal. It is the only bullet I'd use for deer in that caliber (actually it's the only one I use for deer in any caliber). No excessive meat damage, large bloodtrail, and a short track job.

Too many DRT to count, damn fine round

Meat damage and lots of tracking for me...
Went to 257 Roberts and had better results...

Proper bullet selection and more range time would've more than likely solved your issues...😉 A 243 WIN with the proper bullet in the right place will QUICKLY kill any WT or MD walking this earth.

My son killed a buck this year with one, about a 50 yd shot 15 yd recovery. He used a 95 NBT with a MV of 3000 fps. Interestingly no exit wound?

No deer but worked like a charm on antelope. I would have zero hesitation using a 243 with good bullets on any deer-sized game walking.

First time to use one hunting ever was this Fall on a smallish Whitetail doe. Base of neck shot with 700 CDL, 80 grain TTSX.

That particular placement was chosen to ensure a DRT and to evaluate the damage it would cause.

Now I'd take any shot with it as with 7 Mag., 7-08, .308, 25-284, etc. and feel perfectly confident doing so.

Can't wait to try it out on some porkers this coming weekend.

.243 + 95 GR. NBT works on Axis too!

Overkill for Georgia but it'll do!

Mike

Poison, Pure poison. Do not be surprised in the least that when you do shoot a deer with this combo, it dies VERY quickly.

Story struck me sort of funny as I had a similar experience with a 30-06. Go figure

Works as well as anything with proper bullet placement and in my own experiences faster than some of the .284 and larger cartridges. Deer are not a large animal at least not here in the Midwest, maybe 250#. Any lead bullet from 85-100 grains and usually DRT or if they make tracks at all maybe 25 yard death run max.

It works very well if you shoot them in the front end.

If you don't know what else to do, simply use Federal Fusion 95 grainers for accuracy and terminal effect. You'll find out how good it can be.

Yeppers...even the elk sized ones. Not that anyone should use a whimpy .243 on such things.

Works great if you use a bullet designed for the job at hand.

We hunt as a club and do large scale deer drives. Opening day sounds like the opening scene on Saving Private Ryan. The 243 zergs deer amazingly well. Loaded with 95s and H4350 you got a real beast.


Fox like them as well.

But the 243 is only for women and small children....

No luck with my 243 yet, but took a big doe at 355yds last year with my 240Wby. Same bullets, it just pushes them a bit faster. That doe didn't take a step. I figure my 243 would have accomplished the same thing.

Wonderful cartridge, kills deer like the hammer of Thor.

I've shot a couple with the 243 and several with the 6mm. Out of the 243, I've used factory 100 grain Corelokts, which worked very well. Complete penetration through shoulders and a good blood trail for about 40 yards. Easy recovery. The second was with the 90 grain Speer HotCor. It was a shoulder shot as well. That bullet was stopped under the hide of the offside shoulder. That deer was in a field, so recovery was easy too, but I didn't look for a back trail, so I can't advise on the blood trail from that shot.

Mrs. Tide hunted with a 243 for a couple seasons when she was getting started. She used the 95 grain Partition and later the 85 grain TSX. Both bullets worked ricky tic.

Jr. shot one deer with a 243 using an 85 grain Speer BTSP. He was a neck shooter in those days and that was a bang flop. My brother helped him clean that deer because I had to work, and I don't know much about how that particular bullet performed other than bringing about the rapid demise of a whitetail.

The 243 has been poo pooed for years as being a marginal cartridge, barely powerful enough to kill deer and more likely to cause wounded and lost animals than venison in the freezer.

It simply isn't so.

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.

Blasphemy.

Nice buck dude.

No response yet.


I am beginning to think this big deer rodeo stuff may just be a tall tale.

I have used the .243 on antelope, mulies, and whitetails.. It killed super some times and only fair at other.. My last one I took the barrel off and put a .300 Sav. barrel on the action..

From the tracking parties I've been in on, a deer mishit with a 30-06 goes about as far as one mishit with a 243.

Yep. Azz-shoot a dink and you end up with a rodeo and 'damaged meat'. Goes for about any cartridge...or animal.

I've been on bunches of tracking rodeos started with 3006,300.and 338. Ain't about the headstamp.

The 243 works just as good up close, and better at distance than most.

I had a 100 grain boat tail blow up on a shoulder blade 30-35 years ago. Got him anyway as a fragment made upward to the spine. (I butcher my own).

I switched to 100 grain Nosler partitions, and never had trouble with bullet performance afterwards.

Jack

Use a good bullet, and the 243 works great.

The real question nowadays is: what does the 243 do better than a tight-twisted 223?

From what I can see so far, there is no discernible difference in wound channels between 223 and 243, with great bullets in each.

It will do as well as your confidence in the caliber.

That bear has a cool fuukking hat

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


This......



The edge the .243 would have for me is that If I had to shoot a deer at 400 yards Id rather have the .243 in my hands. At 300 it doesn't matter, cause Ive used both at that range, but after that I would prefer a bit more horsepower. JMHO


And lets see...........Ive shot exactly.......one.....deer at 400 in my life, so the little guns do most of the work these days....

I've lost count on the number of feral hogs & Whitetails I've killed at the ranch with my little 243 Remington 700 Classic over the last 35 or so years. And I took most of them with a Remington 100 gr Coreloct. Probably at least 85 % DRT. The others usually ran only 50 yards or so and died.

All really great responses thanx!!!

I fully concur with he vast majority of responses.

In the last 10 years in Canada, our "little" .243, a savage model 11, cheap as chips package, has accounted for 2-3 WT deer every season. Big bucks or does, it doesn't matter.

We've mostly used factory ammunition through it. Blue box 100gr, Fusion 95gr, superformance 95gr SST, 85gr TSX. Does not matter.

Don't recall any DRT, as we hunt for meat, so try to stay in the boiler room. Only 1 ran more than the typical 50 yard death run, & it was hit to far back (Liver), but even it only an 150 yards.

When I grew up there was no internet or forums...around here there was the 30-30, the 30-06, and the do all 243....I got a 700 ADL 243 new for $124.95....we got whatever ammo we could source....used the iron sights for a couple years due to budget....killed more things with it than all my custom guns combined....something to be said for youth and being out there pulling the trigger on anything and everything about every day....it was supposed to be a do all and we followed that...Still have the action but it is a 6BR sporter....been thinking about getting another 243 for nostalgia....

....Said the man who calls himself 7_08fan.....

Just kidding. The 243 is a great cartridge and many would do well to hunt with one.

The 243 is ÜBER.

Always thought you needed a .30-06 to hunt deer growing up as that what was everyone had or they had a .270. As I get older, I enjoy shooting/hunting more with the lighter recoil of a .260 and a .243. I'm amazed at what the .243 has done for me at distance. They didn't leave a lot of a blood trail but then again didn't go far.

After all the talk on the 'fire about how well the .223 kills deer I don't know why anyone would question the ability of the .243. Back in the '80s I used one to kill some antelope and mulies. Had a buddy back in the early days before he could afford a bigger rifle who killed a couple of moose with his .243. (Cheapest c&c bullets too.)

Jim

No rodeo I was using 100 gn Remington Core Lokts.
I also used 100 gn winchester power points when I hunted with it. I realize many of you are using premium bullets instead of cup and core that I was using at the time.
The year before the 5 shot story I shot a mature 8 point that came by me nose to the ground after a doe. I shot him right behind the shoulder then again in the ribs as he was taking off. the third shot I swung through and fired when I pulled in front of him and hit him right at the hinge of the jaw. He had a really lousy blood trail to follow but I found him 3 to 400 yards away. His lungs were busted up and heart had a chunk out of it. Both of these deer were within 75 yards of me . It's ok if you don't believe me but you asked for experiences and I gave mine. I'll also admit that A big buck charged up with adrenaline chasing a doe might run the same distance with 30 caliber holes in him. The difference is in my experience with the bigger bullets they leave more sign to follow and the results are better. I used to deer hunt with a 243 and probably killed 30 to 40 deer with mine. I went to a bigger gun and won't be going back.

Gee Inqwe....

For your size and height, if you consider a 243 to be your "Big Gun".....

Then for Schtick, in proportion, his "BIG GUN" would be a 17 Hornet....

just thinking out loud is all....

I'm sure he'll be along showing us all pics of the number of brown bears he's taken with a 17 Hornet... with his hat on their head, and his rifle laying in the stream, beside his fishing pole and a salmon with a bullet hole in it... In HD...

not following this advice is probably the one big reason, for a 243 having a bad rep by some....

and most of those that give it a bad rap, have probably never used one to have it fail or succeed... they are just passing on someone else's 2 cents who probably heard it elsewhere also...and never shot one while hunting...

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

Though we use the 243 a lot and have gravitated toward the 223 more recently, I do agree that for big bucks hopped-up on adrenaline running scared on public ground, I trust the 30-06 to leave a path of destruction that can be followed when necessary. As such, I don't see the 22/24 calibers as do-anything-anywhere-anytime deer rifles. But by choice, I very rarely hunt that way.

It is totally unpredictable how far a deer will go after you bust it's lungs. I have a 172 lb. {dressed} 8 point on the wall that fell IMMEDIATELY to a 50 gr. soft point out of a .222 through the lungs. He had been hot on the heels of a doe right up until I let the air out of him from 125 yards. Conversely, The farthest I've ever had one go took a 12 gauge slug broadside through the lungs from 30 yards and then proceeded to run 250 yards across a field and jump the fence on the other side before it fell. That one was just a 130 lb. doe. The vast majority of the deer I've killed have gone down within 75 yards regardless of what I've shot them with and I've seen no discernible difference there in anything from .222 to .30-06 and 12 gauge slugs. I do hear you on the bigger hole, better blood trail though and generally agree.

The answer is simply, plenty. If there wasn't more lethality in a larger bullet going faster, guides in Alaska and PH in Africa wouldn't have minimum caliber restrictions...

For deer hunting, with what I've seen, I cannot tell the difference between the wound channel of the 223 and 243. Other than as Ingwe noted, how far away one round holds its velocity makes a difference.

I do not think that there is enough difference between 22 and 24 calibers to know the difference other than velocity.