243 Winchester and short barrel.....

[jagermeister]

I have no experience with this caliber, at all.
Would you recommend it as a dependable and accurate round ?

An other important question : Would this caliber perform well in a 20" sporting barrel, or is it better off with a longer tube ?

Your experience is very much appreciated.
Thanks a bunch !

J

Inviato dal mio GT-P5210

 

[DrMike]

A fine, accurate cartridge. It is well-behaved, digesting a good range of bullets and powders of variable burn rates. It hits above its weight. It should work just fine in a twenty inch barrel.

 

[6mm Remington]

A fine, accurate cartridge. It is well-behaved, digesting a good range of bullets and powders of variable burn rates. It hits above its weight. It should work just fine in a twenty inch barrel.

What Mike said! I don't load for it but my father had a couple of them. I load for the 6mm Remington which is very similar to the .243. One rifle I had was a Remington Model 600 with the 18 1/2" barrel. My load with the 100 gr. Partition chronographed at 2800 fps and shot great. It killed an awful lot of deer, antelope, and coyotes.

 

[Ridgerunner665]

A fine, accurate cartridge. It is well-behaved, digesting a good range of bullets and powders of variable burn rates. It hits above its weight. It should work just fine in a twenty inch barrel.

+1...

I used a 20" youth model 243 for coyotes for years...it will lose some speed with a 20" barrel, but it is still a fine round.

In my opinion...for small game, I think I prefer the 20" barrel...dandy lil rifle to carry, fits easily in a small blind, etc.

For a deer rifle though, I believe I'd prefer at least a 22" barrel.

 

[jagermeister]

Thanks Gentlemen [THUMBS UP SIGN]
What twist rate would be recommended for such barrel length ?
Would 1:10 be adequate ?

 

[Ridgerunner665]

No slower than 1 in 9.25"...which I believe is standard for the 243....but it might be 1 in 9.125", I forget....if its a custom rifle/barrel, I'd go 1 in 8.5" or 9".

You could use the 1 in 10"...but it might not do so well with 100-105 grain bullets, if you wanted to use them.

 

[hellrazor]

243 is a nice round. Nothing wrong with a 20" sporter tube. I got one as a youth hunter and kept on using it. I have knocked a lot of whitetail down with mine without complaints.

Smith & Wesson 1500 243

Mine liked H4831SC with a Hornady 100gr interlock

 

[beerbucksducks]

The .243 win is my favorite caliber! Easy to load for, easy to shoot and is pure death on whitetails and coyotes. I have been running 85 grain Barnes TSX over H4350 in my ruger and have taken 4 deer with that load so far. The Barnes seems to expand and penetrate well. Plenty of blood on the the one that ran. I also ran 85 partitions out of an 18" barreled Remington model 7 when I first started hunting. Only shot one deer with the gun and bullet but it dropped him. I think you will dig the .243. I sure do.


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[jagermeister]

Thanks for your replies. I personally think it's a great little caliber. The thing I am most concerned about is its performance in a short barrel length..... And maybe barrel wear...

 

[Anonymous]

The .243 does pretty well in a 20" tube and is commonly found in youth rifles with 20" and even 18" tubes.

I helped a friend's son set up an American in .243 and we got good accuracy even with an inexperienced shooter...who in turn shot a nice caribou the following weekend without drama.

Modern bullets have done nothing but improve the cartridge and it probably presents the idealized "dual purpose" round for varmints and smaller deer. I had one many years ago in a M77 MkI and killed a pile of whitetails and groundhogs with it using plain old 100gr. cup and core bullets....today there is so much variety that extends the rounds practical use.

 

[Oldtrader3]

I had a featherweight Model 70 in .243 which I liked pretty well. I killed a few deer and several coyotes with it and no issues until: I shot a 4-point in Utah at 200+ yards with an 85 grain Partition. The deer was walking up hill and I hit him a little high and far back. He fell but did not DRT got up and ran.

Three local (brothers) on horseback than shot the crap out of that deer and tagged it before I could walk uphill to where they shot the deer. This was in an area of high hunting pressure and much poaching. These cowboys claimed that I had missed (hah!) and they were keeping the deer because there were three of them and one of me and they were on horses. Plus the deer had about 20 holes in it by the time the three of them were finished shooting it. Gut shot several times with .30-06's and all.

I was two miles up and over from my car and despite being super pissed, I figured no dumb deer is worth a gunfight even with a redneck Mormon misfits who have no scruples and have semi auto .30-06's. Another time maybe but not today and not over a shot up, gut shot deer!

Ever since then, I have not hunted deer with a .243! Especially not in southern Utah! I also have carry a .45 Peacemaker every time I hunt a new area.

 

[SJB358]

I bought my son a M700 Youth with the 20" barrel. It has been nothing but excellent. I run 105 AMaxs at 2975, 90 AB's at 3075, 100 PT's/95 BT's just over 3000. It does just fine with the shorter tube and is very accurate with just about everything I have tried through the rifle. I think it is a 1-9.25" twist which works fine with the bullets I use. I think some manufacturers use a 1-10 which would probably be fine for typical cup and core bullets, but may fall off with longer VLD/AMax's..

Yeah, its a sweet little cartridge. We are actually looking at restocking it with a full length stock soon as both my son and I have outgrown the youth stock.

As the others have said, very useful cartridge and it seems to work very well on deer. Never had a problem killing them. The 95 BT and 100 PT have been excellent.

Here is a picture with my cousins son's first buck. Another 243 Winchester / 95 grain BT kill. Shot was a 150 yards and he crumpled. Seems to be par for the course with that bullet.



Not a small deer either..

 

[filmjunkie4ever]

What kind of scope do you have on that M700 Youth Model .243?

I have toyed with the idea of getting one of these for the truck with the shorter 20" barrel.

Worst case scenario you have a handy rifle of .250-3000 ballistics.

Those short case smallbores are sure sweet to shoot.

 

[SJB358]

It has no scope right now. Since we're not shooting it with the short stock. Had a 2-10 Minox, 4x Leupold, 2x7 Leupold on it in the past though. A good 6X would probably be about right for general purpose stuff.

 

[Elkman]

What kind of scope do you have on that M700 Youth Model .243?

On my granddaughters, we put an older 4 power, Redfield.

 

[NWBlacktail]

I've been thinking about my son (only 8 now), and what to get him when he's old enough to hunt.

the thing I'm concerned with on the shorter barrels is the muzzle blast. Of course we should all be wearing hearing protection every time we light one off (hunting or at the range), but of course that doesn't always happen in the field.

I wonder if anyone has measured the dB difference between a 22" and 20" barrel with a 243?

 

[Guy Miner]

Haven't ever measured that, but if you give the youngster a pair of those electronic ear muffs, they're really quite inexpensive anymore, the blast will be irrelevant.

My son and I both appreciate that good old 6mm Remington we both shot as teenagers. Modest recoil, flat trajectory, excellent killing power... It's about the same ballistics as a .243 Win. I'd highly recommend the 95 grain Ballistic Tip. Or the 100 gr Nosler Partition. Both are great deer bullets.

Regards, Guy

 

[SJB358]

I've been thinking about my son (only 8 now), and what to get him when he's old enough to hunt.

the thing I'm concerned with on the shorter barrels is the muzzle blast. Of course we should all be wearing hearing protection every time we light one off (hunting or at the range), but of course that doesn't always happen in the field.

I wonder if anyone has measured the dB difference between a 22" and 20" barrel with a 243?

The 20" barrel on the 243 isn't really all that bad that I can tell. My son has been shooting his since he was about 5 or so. It has always been an easy rifle to shoot. I always made sure he had ear pro on/in and he was good.

 

[tpepper70]

My wife's gun is a Ruger M77 stainless youth model with either 16.5" or 18" barrel. Factory ammo is barely 2" group. 100 grain Partitions and a medium load of H4831sc made this one bad to the bone, deer slaying tack driver with very little recoil. Very fun gun to shoot. I grew up shooting a Remington 6mm that put down many, many deer. Good luck to you and Merry Christmas.

 

[cloverleaf]

What kind of scope do you have on that M700 Youth Model .243?

I have toyed with the idea of getting one of these for the truck with the shorter 20" barrel.

Worst case scenario you have a handy rifle of .250-3000 ballistics.

Those short case smallbores are sure sweet to shoot.

And a100 gr BT at 3000 fps (yes that's doable in a 250) ain't no slouch either. CL