Best 243 bullet for deer?

[ultimag43]

You mix kids, a .243, 100gr bullets, and over time you will lose over 50% of the animals shot even with good trailing dogs. Guaranteed. In the heat of battle you will find it is much harder to keep the kid sighted in than the rifle.

then you need to spend more time teaching him to not lose sight & remain focused

 

[ultimag43]

We have thickets down here a dog can't get through. Pretty sure that's the difference.

minnesota has the same thing several states have the same issue as yours

 

[Twolf]

good woodsmen can follow a light blood trail to follow , 58 years in the woods archery hunting and son who learned from friends and me who also work outside understand wounded animals . son ,friends and myself grew up and live in the country it makes a differents when you hunt for food . teach your kids how to shot well is the answer too ,i have 100 yard rifle range with a heated shooting house we shoot year around in my family. another thought the size of the bullet is not that important i shoot a 100 gr 25 caliber rifle cartridge name is a 257 Weatherby mag. and i can kill big bucks real fast and easier than any of my 30 caliber mags. ever did . speed does kill

 

[Calvin45]

10 year revival! Ten years and bullet development has progressed quite a bit. Pump up a 70 grain Hammer and let er rip! I have a 25 year old .243VLS that is wholly different rifle with the 70HH.

No playing with hammers for me yet but I got a killer deal on some of the long discontinued Barnes X - not tsx - 75 grain .243 flat base bullets on auction. People griped about them building pressure too fast and fouling bad…I plated them really nicely with HEX BORON NITRIDE and plan to use a copper eraser powder, probably 4451 as I have some currently, and see how she does!

 

[CBS]

You mix kids, a .243, 100gr bullets, and over time you will lose over 50% of the animals shot even with good trailing dogs. Guaranteed. In the heat of battle you will find it is much harder to keep the kid sighted in than the rifle.

Huh? I'll take that B.S. guarantee! What a stupid thing to say. Sounds like someone doesn't take their kids to the range. I'll blame the parent/ guardian 100% of the time for ANY lost animals. If this has been your experience YOU should stop taking kids but the kids should find someone competent to hunt with because anyone that loses over 50%of anything should not be hunting.

My kids are yet to lose any animals. My son started at 6 with a 243 and killed his first animal at 365yds

 

[Orange Dust]

Huh? I'll take that B.S. guarantee! What a stupid thing to say. Sounds like someone doesn't take their kids to the range. I'll blame the parent/ guardian 100% of the time for ANY lost animals. If this has been your experience YOU should stop taking kids but the kids should find someone competent to hunt with because anyone that loses over 50%of anything should not be hunting.

My kids are yet to lose any animals. My son started at 6 with a 243 and killed his first animal at 365yds

I think 365 is too far to shoot at a deer with a .243 and 100gr bullets. Guess it is a numbers game. At the time we had anywhere from 8-10 kids in camp shooting .243's. We also were blessed with nearly unlimited opportunities, the first week of the season at least. We were allowed 6 deer and had all the doe permits we wanted from the Game and Fish. Place was very overpopulated. We gave all the Doe permits to the kids. They shot bunches, and were really limited only by what Daddy was willing to clean. Most were under 50yds. At the time I also had a Class 6 FFL and was loading ammo Commercially. Typical hunt with a kid would last under an hour. It is very thick down there too. That was the biggest issue. If the deer ran you would have to get the dogs most of the time even with a perfect hit. We would have to get the dogs for SOMEONE every morning Those kids didn't always do that. We did get a lot of experience. At the time I also had a 300yd range in my backyard and my kids shot most afternoons in the summer after I got off work. I also had a deer stand on the range just like we had in the woods. They got plenty of practice. I loaded literally thousands of .243's on a Dillon 650. I can guarantee you kids can lose their calm looking at deer in spitting distance. It is different than at distance.
I will never forget the 10pt my baby shot on her 10th birthday. It was the biggest buck of the year at our camp. She shot it with a .243 and the 55's. It was also her longest shot at the time about 200yds. I was armed with a Redfield spotting scope bolted to a choate folding stock. We both had a good rest and I saw the puff and exactly where the bullet landed. The Buck ran into a cutover with 10' baby pines and head high briars and Ironwood bushes choking the rows. Ironwood bushes have 2" thorns. We got the dogs and they got all cut up and couldn't follow the trail. We couldn't either. I knew the deer was dead we were all pretty upset about it. Went back to camp and Mama said to go get the Baby's deer. We said Yes Mam. I put on all the clothes I had, taped heavy gloves to my coat with duck tape and borrowed a helmet with a face shield. I then road the rows in the cutover until I found the Buck on a 4x4 Four Wheeler. The big ones will go like a tank. The buck only went about 100 yds and was the only one that ever ran off with the 55's. We decided it was too far and the little bullet had lost too much of its explosiveness. It did exit with a golfball exit. I was cut absolutely to pieces and needed stiches, but wife pulled out all the thorns, taped me up and everyone but me was very happy. Calling someone you don't know irresponsible may not be the brightest thing you have ever done, my friend. This experience led me to work with the Ballisticians at Accurate powders to work up low recoil loads using larger cartridges and Sierra single shot pistol bullets. They worked much better, but I went broke doing it. Remington picked up on it and as Paul Harvey would say "That is the rest of the Story."

 

[Orange Dust]

BTW, That data Accurate developed with me using 5744 was still available the last time I looked. It is good stuff and better than a .243 if you use the right bullets.

 

[CBS]

Nope.....I stand by what I said. If you lose 50% + you're a failure! And personal opinion; low recoil loads are a worthless gimmick.

And your opinion on the distance my son shot his deer, as someone who loses 50%+ of the animals they let kids shoot, is also... ignorant and again.... stupid.

I never used the word irresponsible I used the word "competant" but irresponsible definitely applies. Ego doesn't always translated to competency. Keep tooting that horn of yours big guy.

 

[Orange Dust]

Nope.....I stand by what I said. If you lose 50% + you're a failure! And personal opinion; low recoil loads are a worthless gimmick.

And your opinion on the distance my son shot his deer, as someone who loses 50%+ of the animals they let kids shoot, is also... ignorant and again.... stupid.

I never used the word irresponsible I used the word "competant" but irresponsible definitely applies. Ego doesn't always translated to competency. Keep tooting that horn of yours big guy.

So glad you know so much about things you have never tried. Thank God for the Ignore button. Have a good life.

 

[CBS]

Your right I haven't tried or put much effort at all into losing over 50% of the animals we've shot. You're a disgrace to hunting!

 

[Orange Dust]

Your right I haven't tried or put much effort at all into losing over 50% of the animals we'v e shot. You're a disgrace to hunting!

I never said I or my kids lost 50% of the deer shot with 100gr bullets. But, the camp did. My kids never shot one with a 100gr bullet. I got enough experience chasing the ones shot by my Dad with a 6MM Rem and a friend shooting a .243 in more open country to know better than to try them in the pine thickets. They will almost always go 50-100yds even shot well. Sometimes they will fall in their tracks but not usually. You will lose them if shooting in knee deep flooded green timber duck woods or in the pine thickets in South Arkansas. We hunted both. They leave pitiful blood trails usually too. We never lost one with the 55's, and they killed a sack full when they were little. We also never lost one with the bigger guns and the low recoil loads. We had really good luck with the .308 and 130gr Sierras. Guess shooting single shot pistol bullets at the top of their usable velocity isn't a good idea either according to you. Several folks on here that hunt exclusively with single shot pistols would disagree. By the time my girls were 12 they were shooting a .308 with 165gr Gamekings and a brake. On their 16th birthday they both got a new rifle. One chose a .270 WSM and the other confiscated my 7MM WSM. They hunt Beanfields now and both have killed killed deer a long ways away. I really don't know even know why I'm telling you all this. Your mind is closed to things you have never tried.

 

[Calvin45]

I never said I or my kids lost 50% of the deer shot with 100gr bullets. But, the camp did. My kids never shot one with a 100gr bullet. I got enough experience chasing the ones shot by my Dad with a 6MM Rem and a friend shooting a .243 in more open country to know better than to try them in the pine thickets. They will almost always go 50-100yds even shot well. Sometimes they will fall in their tracks but not usually. You will lose them if shooting in knee deep flooded green timber duck woods or in the pine thickets in South Arkansas. We hunted both. They leave pitiful blood trails usually too. We never lost one with the 55's, and they killed a sack full when they were little. We also never lost one with the bigger guns and the low recoil loads. We had really good luck with the .308 and 130gr Sierras. Guess shooting single shot pistol bullets at the top of their usable velocity isn't a good idea either according to you. Several folks on here that hunt exclusively with single shot pistols would disagree. By the time my girls were 12 they were shooting a .308 with 165gr Gamekings and a brake. On their 16th birthday they both got a new rifle. One chose a .270 WSM and the other confiscated my 7MM WSM. They hunt Beanfields now and both have killed killed deer a long ways away. I really don't know even know why I'm telling you all this. Your mind is closed to things you have never tried.

Agreed about the exit wound thing for sure. .243 exit wounds, if you even get them, suck. The .243 is more than enough power to humanely kill deer and even larger game with appropriate projectiles and good marksmanship but, as I said earlier in the post, I think the 270 and that class of
Cartridge (7mm-08, yes even the much hated here 6.5 creed, 280, etc) is a way better hunting round, even for deer sized game. The .243 is awesome when everything goes exactly right. When things can't be guaranteed to go exactly right (the real world) i much prefer my .270 or .300 win mag.

 

[Calvin45]

Your right I haven't tried or put much effort at all into losing over 50% of the animals we've shot. You're a disgrace to hunting!

Nope.....I stand by what I said. If you lose 50% + you're a failure! And personal opinion; low recoil loads are a worthless gimmick.

And your opinion on the distance my son shot his deer, as someone who loses 50%+ of the animals they let kids shoot, is also... ignorant and again.... stupid.

I never used the word irresponsible I used the word "competant" but irresponsible definitely applies. Ego doesn't always translated to competency. Keep tooting that horn of yours big guy.

As my mother used to say… "who peed in your cornflakes this morning?" . I mean we can disagree with each other on here (I don't agree with everything I've seen here either) but why the hostility man?

 

[thomasbangs]

I use to use the Hornaday 100 grain roundnose on deer in front of 40 grains of IMR 4350, works very well on the range you mentioned and the recoil would be quite tolerable for a 12 year old, I did not seat the bullet to the cannelure so did not crimp, very accurate.