So whats wrong with the .243 on Deer?

[Greg Duerr]

Well said .........................we tend to want to blame situations on everything that ourselves. Hit a Deer with a 30-06 cant find him and we are looking at getting a 300 Mag............Trouble with a lot of guys is that they will always tell you that they hit him in the right spot but unless you find the game thats all really bull. Like you said if you hit a deer right behind the shoulder through the lungs with a good bullet that deer is not going to go far.................Cant tell you how many guys have said " aHit him twice through the lungs and he ran over the hill and we never found him....................Sure you did.

 

[7mmSendaro]

Well said .........................we tend to want to blame situations on everything that ourselves. Hit a Deer with a 30-06 cant find him and we are looking at getting a 300 Mag............Trouble with a lot of guys is that they will always tell you that they hit him in the right spot but unless you find the game thats all really bull. Like you said if you hit a deer right behind the shoulder through the lungs with a good bullet that deer is not going to go far.................Cant tell you how many guys have said " aHit him twice through the lungs and he ran over the hill and we never found him....................Sure you did.

Well said, have heard the same comments many times. Hit 'em right, they die. End of story.

 

[idaho elk hunter]

+1

If used properly I will do the job. I have killed many deer with a 22/250 but I also passed up many shots because I knew that conditions and shot placement were not good enough fos the light weight bullet.

If I were hunting under perfect conditions and had no issues with retrieving the game after the shot
I would not hesitate to use a 243. But as everyone knows most of the time conditions and shot
placement are not the best and a larger caliber is recommended.

The larger caliber bullets can improve your chances under poor conditions and possibly make the difference if you encounter that once in a lifetime trophy and don't feel like you should make the shot with a small caliber rifle.

In heavy brush,(Poor tracking/recovery) high winds or long ranges the edge goes to larger bullets with more down range energy.

There is little very chance of having to much rifle, but a high risk of having to little when the chips are down.

Just my opinion

J E CUSTOM

+1 Shot placement,,Bullet construction and load combined with the ethecis of the hunter will determine the outcome of the kill. With that in mind the caliber has little to do with it. I would not suggest that a person use a subsonic 55gr load from a 243 at 500yds on a deer.. This is a extreme case in example. Although some on here think that it would work with the right scope, and ballistic coefficient..I call these armchair bandits...

 

[alfson]

Up untill this year I carried a 30-06. This year I built a Savage 110 in 6.5x55. I have personal reasons for using those two cartridges. If the situation came up, I would not hesitate to use a 243. I don't have a 243 because I already have too much wrapped up in the rifles I do have. As far as I am concerned the 243 is capable of doing anything I need it to do in North America.

 

[CogburnR]

An exit hole made by a 130g Berger Classic hunter from a 270wsm at 230 some yards.

A 243 will not make a hole like this, the closest it will come to it is with a 85g Sierra HPBT or 87g Berger Classic Hunter.

This is why people use a larger caliber for anchoring game. A blood trail is pretty much guaranteed. Deer do not go far with this kind of trauma.

A 243 is a good deer cartridge but a well hit deer may go quite a ways without a blood trail.

 

[JP100]

Monday morning out at the Range I was doing my final work up for my Deer Hunting load in my .243 AI. I will be shooting the Sierra Pro Hunter 44.2gr of H4350, I will crono them this week. Several guys I was talking to asked me what I was going to be hunting with for Mule Deer this fall in Nevada, when I told them they both said, "Big Mistake the .243 is not a Deer Cartridge we have seen way to many deer lost to the .243". So, thats five guys so far that have said the same thing. Yet I would bet that just as many Deer are lost each year to .270's and 30-06's as to the .243 All the years I have hunted with the .243 I have yet to loose one. Several years I hunted with a guy that used a 22-250 shooting 53 gr Barnes bullets he took his shots carefully and was a great shot and he never lost a Mule Deer...........
Lots of thoughts out there ......Trouble with saying that even though the deer was well hit we never found it ...........is that you cant prove it was well hit.

G

Ive shot alot of red deer with my .243 some of these big stags that are over 120kg/260lbs carcass weight(ive weighed them) out to 300yards and I have never lost a red deer to my .243. I am using 87gn Interbond at the moment and would reccomend them. they have great performers. 90% of the deer ive shot hit the deck straight away the other 10% stagger about then drop within 20-30yards. I think a mule deer is more the size of a fallow deer(please correct me if im wrong) and a .243 is the perfect caliber for a fallow deer. As a guide ive seen hunters wound and nearly loose game with.300mags and .7mm rem mags. Ive had jokes about me carrying a toy gun around. BUT when they have a shot with my gun and their deer drops they change opinion.

the most important factor is being able to pull the trigger and know where the bullet is going to land. I started hunting deer with a .270 and I had wounded deer and I was a **** poor shot. With a .243 I can pull the trigger with confidence and know ile get good results. You can have too smaller gun but in my opnion you can also have too much gun. Learn to shoot and be confindent in your gun and your capabilities and you will be rewarded with meat on the table.

 

[JP100]

An exit hole made by a 130g Berger Classic hunter from a 270wsm at 230 some yards.

A 243 will not make a hole like this, the closest it will come to it is with a 85g Sierra HPBT or 87g Berger Classic Hunter.

This is why people use a larger caliber for anchoring game. A blood trail is pretty much guaranteed. Deer do not go far with this kind of trauma.

A 243 is a good deer cartridge but a well hit deer may go quite a ways without a blood trail.

It might not blow holes in ribs like that but it is effective just the same.
Top photo is a red hind taken at 150 yards.
Bottom is lungs/heart of Mature Red Stag weighing in excess of 120kg/260lbs carcass weight taken at 300 yards with one shot while he was walking.

 

[kc]

Not one thing. If my Daughter can drop a Deer at 200 yards with no problem, who can say one bad thing about the calibre.
David G Tubb used a .243 for a long time making some of his greatest shots with a .243.

 

[KYHILLJACK]

.243 is a good deer rifle. Just whack 'em and stack 'em gentlemen.

 

[Greg Duerr]

I have yet to kill a Deer with my .243AI My hunting load this fall will be the 100gr Sierra Pro Hunter 44.5gr of H4350 @3115FPS Groups avg. .306

I have killed Black-Taill Bucks when I lived in Calif using the standard .243 and When I put the bullet right behind the shoulder they never went more than 50yds. I used the Remington Core-lock bullets befor I started reloading.

I will also be hunting for Cow Elk this winter and That's what I will be using..................Shot placement

G

 

[jkupper]

I have killed the majority of the deer that I have taken with a 243 Win. Some dropped right there, some ran 60 yards or so, but I have recovered every single one of them. The 243 is plenty of gun to take a deer with.

Discussions like this are funny to me. I went to Texas to help cull some whitetail does off of a ranch once, and all I had at that time was my 30-06, so that is what I took. All I did was catch hell about bringing an overkill gun to camp. Everyone at that camp shot 22-250's, 223's, and 243's, so it just depends on where you are and who you are hunting with. You could catch grief for anything!

As long as you are confident with your gun and are confident with making a kill out to a certain distance, then the 243 is an awesome choice for deer.

Joe

 

[Greg Duerr]

So true ....................no matter the subject no matter your opinion someone is going to disagree with you, might be some that will just disagree for the sake of disagreeing.


G

 

[longrangehuntr]

Sierra 85 grain gamekings and IMR 4831. Switching to barnes since i would like to go to spine or head shots and get as much meat as possible off the deer.

 

[Dlewis82nd]

im only 26 years old but ive been lucky enough to kill more deer in my life then people 10-15 years older than me. i have used recurves, compounds, muzzle loadrers, .223, .243, .270, 30-30 30-06 7mm 12 ga slug and many more. I do know one thing if you hit a deer in the vitals it is going to die. a 243 is an awesome deer sized round. all these people claiming their deer has never taken over a couple steps with large caliber rifles i would ask how many deer they have honestly shot. deer can run and run with a perfect placed shot no matter the caliber. unless you take out his legs, back, neck, or head chances are he is going to run a little bit. i have double lunged or heart shot most of my deer and they almost always run more then a couple of steps regardless of what they are shot with.


.243 = AWESOME DEER CALIBER