243 winchester for Deer

[moreloader]

This should get the board fired up. Not really a nosler topic as I never was a nosler fan until I bought my 300 WSM and it was all it would shoot really well. I hunted whitetail for 13 years with a 243 winchester during this time I took over 20 animals. I never left a wounded animal and only used a second shot once because of a very poor shot placement. During that time I was always careful about shot placement but did take many shoulder shots early. My father took better than 30 animals with same load that him and my uncle worked up in the late 70's.

The Load

44.5grains of W760 behind an 85 grain Sierra BTHP
Please use with caution as this is right at the maximum and may not be safe in all rifles

The Performance

Sub half MOA with 3 different rifles

The terminal performance

Already stated. Neither of us nor my uncle ever lost a wounded deer which we thank God for frequently, but obviously the gun performed well

Shot distance.

Shortest was less than 10 feet
Longest was 428 yards

P.S. for those of you that will blast this as inadequate for dear, I will say that I now hunt whitetail with too much gun. 300WSM

 

[Northwoods Hunter]

I have personally shot two nice bucks with a .243 using 100gr factory loads with Sierra GameKings....both were lung shots and neither took more than a couple steps and were dead when they hit the ground.

I hunt in very heavy cover and many times have to take quartering shots...I prefer heavier bullets for this purpose, (140-165gr)....but a .243 is deadly with the right shot placement and bukket.

I generally use a .280 Rem or 7mm-08 Win.

 

[moreloader]

I agree fully I just enjoy those who believe in end to end shots telling people they are using too small of bullets.

Do you have a good factory load for your 280. My brother in law has one and does not reload.

 

[Northwoods Hunter]

The Hornady Light Magnum ammo with 139gr SSTs is a good factory load at close to 3,000 FPS.
I 've also had good perormance with the new Federal Vital Shok 140 gr Nosler Accubonds...though they are pricey.

I use 140gr Nosler ABs in front of 46.5gr of H 4350....2,680 fps and 0.550" groups at 100 yds for Whitetails. I've had Accubonds start breaking up on impact (under 100 yds) over 2,800 fps.

 

[jjmp]

morloader, congrat''s are in order for you your dad and uncle, thats no small feat with a smaller caliber, that being said there are many fine bullets for the 243,i shoot many different bullet brands, heck thats Half the Fun!!!! :grin: shooting one brand is like going fishing with only one lure.one time at the range i shot my BBR 243 at 200 yards and shot 3/8 inch 3 shot group same make as you shoot but 100 grain bt, iv''e setteled on 85 grain partitions they work 4 me, i say enjoy what you''ve proven too your-self people are gona do what they want anyways.. regards jjmp

 

[Larry in SD]

A few uears agp health issues forced me to shoot shorter recoiling cartridges. For the most part this was / is not a huge problem since I have always been a fan of the .243 / 6mm cartridges. This past fall I decided I wanted to try a different bullet. I was after a bullet that would produce more shock to the animal so that the animal would not make it to cover before expiring. I also wanted a bullet that would have the integrety to hold together and penetrate.

Yep I know what you are thinking, but a fellow from Texas on this forum convinced me that I needed to try the 95gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips. Well I did just that and ended up with a load that is quite accurate, and pushes the 95gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips out of the muzzle of my 22" Barreled Ruger at 3071 FPS.

So far this season we (my wife, oldest daughter and I) have taken 3 Whitetails with this Gun-n-Load combo with excellent results. Even when the bullet encontered bone it didn't blow up, but rather produced complete penetration.

While I have never shot Deer with them I have shot my share of varmints with the 85gr. Sierra BTHP's over the years.

Larry

 

[longwinters]

I have read that the 243 is too small of a caliber and also that it is more of an experts caliber. Bologna. I know several people who have never used anything but the 243 from being teens to now in their 40's. These guys are not "marksman" they shoot a few shots before season to make sure everything is on and then they hunt. Especially now with all the new bullets, people are finding it is more the bullet than the caliber of rifle.

Writers gotta hype the new "big" caliber rifles so they have something to write about. And then people who read them think it must be the truth! After all, if it is in print it must be true . . . right? Bologna. I better quit, I could rant and rave on this topic for far too long.


Long

 

[Murphdog]

I have killed lots of deer and antelope with a .243 from point blank to way out there. I started with 100 grain winchester power points, then moved to reloading my own 100 grain partitions powered by 46 grains of IMR 7828. Note for the wise, the Nosler # 3 manual list the topload at 47.5 grains. The best I could safely do was 46 grains. The Nosler # 4 manual list the top load at 45.5 grains.

I haven't checked the velocity on my current Winchester 70 featherweight with a 22 inch stainless barrel but my former Interarms with a 24" barrel would do close to 3200 with said load.

How well does it do on deer? At 200 to 300 yards it will brake both shoulders and exit a mature mule deer (multiple times) death is almost instant (it severs the aorta from the top of the heart on deer sized game). I have taken many very large bucks (largest 190 lbs quartered weight) most with one shot. Over the years I have recovered a few bullets and all have been text book. The exist wounds indicate sufficent bullet expansion, but the meat loss is minimal and much less then a 270, 280, or 3006.

For coyotes it is very hard to beat on long shots. Even with the partitions I consistantly am able to kill coyotes at the quarter mile mark. Granted I get lots of practice when I am keeping them from creating veal cutlets during calving.

The best part is that it is so easy to shoot a 243 well and it is bullet placement that consistantly puts meat in the freezer or pelts to the furier.

 

[JD338]

I have to agree with you guys. Shot placement is paramont. Second would be a good quality bullet like a PT.
I sold off my 243 Win M70 XTR about 10 yrs age. She was a shooter but I never hunted deer with it. Without doubt, 100 gr PT's would do the job.

Regards,

JD338

 

[roysclockgun]

I am 63 and have heard the pros and cons of using .243Win on deer for over 40 years now. Bottom line being that whatever works for you and makes you happy, use it. A guide that I used in western Montana on an elk hunt said that he killed all of his elk with 22-250. I am just relaying what the man said. I would not use 22-250 for elk hunting. I killed around a score of deer with an M77 Ruger in .243Win. I got that rifle around 1968. I will say that with neck shots, the .243Win was an anchoring cartridge. But with heart shots, the deer would go, sometimes up to a couple hundred yards. I would not believe it if I did not field dress the deer myself. After I nearly lost a 225lb buck in an overgrown field, right at dark, I switched to the .270Win. Without a doubt, the .270Win will take deer down in most circumstances where a .243Win would allow the deer to walk or run a ways. Hunters can never pick at what angle a deer will show up. Many times a buck will appear at a very bad angle, or moving in such a way that when we next anticipate a shot, it will be from the rear of the animal. I do not want to pass on those shots because I am using too light a cartridge/bullet combination. I want a bullet that will plow through the back end of a big buck and punch right on up to the chest area and still have some steam left. For me, that translates into at least a 130gr .270Win or something in the 7mm family, or bigger. While I know that deer are not bullet proof, I want to make a very wide wound channel. Since I began hunting in the great West, I have gone to a 7mmRemMag, because I like the added flat shooting that the 7mmRemMag gives me. Were I to begin all over again, hunting as a young man, I would know that I only need one caliber to hunt everything in N. America and that would be the 7mmRemMag. Just my opinion.

 

[fredj338]

Everyone is free to hunt w/ the cart. they want, a great thing about living in the USA. I have never beleived in "too much gun" for hunting anything. I like the .243 as a varmint round but there are so many better choices even for the low recoil group. To me, big game rounds start @ .257Roberts & up. There is just not enough room for error in the .243, even for good shooters. If you have had success, continue, and the 100grNP would be my bullet of choiec.

 

[moreloader]

First of all, I no longer hunt with a .243 I now shoot a 300 WSM. However, I still don't make shots that would need that much gun. I can't see the ethics in destroying both hams with the classic end to end shot. But, there are those who are strictly after antlers and that is their perogative.

As to the 100g pt, without any disrespect to Nosler as they supply nearly every bullet I fire (at least 75%) I have seen the pt have bad results on dear. I have a relative that tried these bullets for 4 or 5 years. It resulted in several second shots. If they hit the shoulder, the front would fragment and bust up the shoulder and the base (unexpanded) would cut a 24 caliber hole through the rest of the way. That is not a nock on the Partition, I doubt they were designed for 3000fps impats. If you put it behind the shoulder it behaves much like the bullets I used.

Before anyone thinks it I love Nosler bullets. I use BT in several rifles, and see a use for the PT in larger calibers. Have loaded a few. It is just with a small caliber like a 243 you need a lot of expansion and all of the bullet's energy needs to be left in the deer.

 

[Blaine]

This should get the board fired up

Yup !!! :wink:

I have to place myself in the "25 caliber and up" class for deer. The deer in my part of the country are on the large size as a general rule, and the hunting environment rarely affords a clear, open, broadside, standing shot. The 243 certainly will kill a deer. Heck there have been a lot of deer killed by a 22LR over the years. Most were by night poachers that favored the low report of the 22 so as not to alert anyone of their activity. If you have good luck with a 243....more power to you (no pun intended :grin: ). For a 100 yard shot through a fur thicket at a quartering away "buck of a lifetime", I like to have something in the 140-165 gr weight class and a sectional density that affords enough momentum to snap off a twig or two and still stay reasonably on track. I'm not saying that there is any real "brush busting" caliber out there that will not be affected by twigs and such, but a heavier bullet will be less affected. I have hunted deer with a 270 all my adult life, and I also have never lost a deer and I'm happy to say I've never had to take more than one shot at a deer. Could I have done the same thing with a 243? Maybe......but on several of the shots that presented themselves, I was glad I had the 270 (150 gr NP). I have recently acquired a couple of new guns that I can also use for deer hunting. A 30-06 and a 7mm rem mag have found their way into my gun safe. After some load work-up this summer, I probably will use one of those new rifles for deer hunting next fall. My Encore hand gun with 7mm-08 and 308 barrels will also see some use in the right situation.

Bottom line......in my opinion I agree with what has been said (to a degree) i.e. use what you can shoot well and are comfortable (and confident) with. If it has served you well in the past, why mess with success? On the other hand, I have to add that if you have access to a larger caliber round and can shoot it well, I believe it to be a better choice.

Blaine

 

[Dan Newberry]

I'm still trying to decide what to believe about the .243's effectiveness on deer. Deer in our part of the country are generally 120 to 160 pounds.

Guys sort of fall into one of two categories. The ones who use the .243 routinely claim never to have had a failure on a deer. One entire family I know uses the following "deer load": 70 grain Nosler BT and 45 grains of IMR 4350. That's about two grains under max with the powder... but these guys all say it has never failed them. And they have killed plenty of deer.

The other category of guys have had failures--some two or more failures--of the .243 to drop a deer. The bullets which most often get the blame here are factory Win and Rem 100 grainers.

I had my first failure to drop a deer this past season. The rifle was as .243, and the bullet was a Sierra 85 grain BTHP. He had his head pokin' out from behind a tree about thirty yards away. I took the shot and he fell right there, but before I could get to him, he jumped up and ran. I saw the baseball sized ENTRY wound on the side of his head, at the base of the skull. I tracked the deer for about 45 minutes but before I could get to him another hunter dropped him with a 30-06. :?

My first thought, after looking at the entry wound, was that the bullet had grazed the tree and then hit the deer in the side of the head. But I went back to the tree and couldn't see any evidence that the bullet had hit it. Maybe it was just a tiny bit of a graze, just enough to blow it up. But I'll never know for sure.

It is also possible that the extreme velocity--about 3250 fps or so--was too much for the bullet to remain intact on impact with the skull, and it just disintegrated, resulting in the really bad "flesh wound."

Bottom line, though, is a larger, heavier bullet--even if it had hit the tree first, would have still penetrated the side of the deer's head.

I'll probably still hunt with that .243, as I really love the rifle. But I think I'll be more mindful of the shots I take in the future...

Dan

 

[JD338]

The smaller calibers lighter weight, faster moving bullets lack penetration. Best to use a PT.

I like to plan for the worst and hope for the best. I hunt with rifles that have more than enough horsepower using mid to heavy bullets. You never know when you might have a south end shot on a north bound critter.

Regards,

JD338

 

[roysclockgun]

Dan wrote: "I'm still trying to decide what to believe about the .243's effectiveness on deer. Deer in our part of the country are generally 120 to 160 pounds."

Dan's story backs up what I have said before. In the hands of a rifleman who knows his rifle and his cartridge, the .243Win can be a deadly killer of deer. However the .243Win does not leave much, in the way of margin for error. Like in Dan's case, when the cartridge is loaded too hot for a close shot and the bullet fragments upon impact, with little or no penetration, Dan lost his deer. Robert Ruark wrote: "Use enough gun!" To me, that means that with all the difficulties involved in even getting a trophy in your sights, make certain that you are carrying "enough gun" for any situation that may arise, any angle that you are presented, any range for which you feel capable of making a killing shot and do not be let down by not having "enough gun"! Obviously, given Dan's 30 yard shot, he should've never lost that deer. A head shot, as Dan described, delivered by most larger caliber bullets, would've anchored that deer. The same hit made at another 100 yards would've likely anchored that deer. The shot was simply too much for the limits of what Dan was shooting. And Dan's story is a clear example of where the .243Win fallls down as an all around great deer cartridge. I have family in Wis. who regularly kill deer with a 22Hornet, making all neck shots. They like that cartridge and put plenty meat on the table, but IMO the 22Hornet is a terrible choice for a deer hunter. A farmer on the Eastern Shore of Md. kills deer off his tractor, using 22Mags. The 22Mag is a lousy choice for a deer hunter. So, no matter how many successes one lines up, of people killing deer using a .243Win, that does not mean that for everyone the .243Win is a great choice.

 

[Blaine]

Roysclockgun.......Well said......I agree totally. I've never heard a deer cry "foul" because I carried "too much gun". :lol: :lol:

Blaine

 

[moreloader]

First, The bullet i always used was the 85g BTHP from Sierra pushed at about the speed mentioned though I have no chrono. Load 44.5g w760

I have seen deer shot in the head with this load at less than 10ft (no kidding). Deer never even batted an eye. The bullet did explode at that velocity and range. not however before the entire brain was blown out and the fragments went completely through the head.

Again I have never had a failure with this load.

Second, since someone mentioned factory remingtons. The worst bullet performance I have ever seen out of a 243 was when one of my cousins shot a button buck at 35 yards. He hit the deer right in the shoulder causing the bullet to literally explode like a v-max. Pieces did however destroy the nearside lung and heart. The deer dropped like a rock, but it is the reason that to this day I will not buy a box of core-lokts.

Third,

I have only shot 2 deer in my life that went under 120 dressed weight. Many of our dear bump closer to 180+. Yes that is dressed weight.

Again, if you can't make the shot or you are not comfortable in it carry a larger gun. As for me I would not hesitate to use my pet load on any north-american game if I needed to. Thing is I don't. I now own a 300WSM. It doesn't kill anything deader, but it is more fun to work with in the loading department

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

The 95g BT or the Sierra 100g SBT would drop deer at 500 yards. I have seen a couple drop at this distance with shoulder shots with these bullets. That is about the max distance I would shoot a deer with a 243.