Years ago I had the chance to buy a Finnish Valmet in .243
Seemed a bit extravagant and odd at the time.
Should have bought it :)
Doesn’t this blog have editors? Why is the writing so terrible?
I am a .308 kinda guy, that and .223, just because the stuff is ubiquitous.
Gee I hope I did not piss off the grammar police.
My late sister used to use a .243 for deer hunting. She would usually call it a .432 because it sounded bigger. She was an expert shot with it though.
280 or 7mm-08.
My .243 Win has shot a lot of Whitetails. Great rifle!
I will say that I have passed down my last .243 rifle to my offspring. But, I have killed some really big deer with it at LONG distances. The .243/6mm bullet bucks wind a lot better than a .223. Longest shot on a deer: 416 yds. Longest shot on an antelope: 550 yds. Longest shot on a coyote: 565 yds. Favorite bullet: 105gr BTHP.
It’s THE round that should be in the AR-15.
It would make all the difference, and resolve all complaints.
When I first started deer hunting as a kid, I got a Remington 700 in .243 for a birthday present one year. It was a sweet rifle for me at the time: low recoil, easy to shoot, accurate, etc. So I, too, grew up around it and also became a kinda “.308 cartridge guy”. Today, I still shoot the .308 cartridge. However, for years now, I’ve been necking the .308 down (or one could neck up the .243 cases, I suppose) to 6.5mm. I’ve been reloading this combo for a long time...well before the expensive Remington .260 cartridge ever became commercially available. With the right bullet/powder, I find this combo extremely accurate for some long range shooting without burning out the barrel, low recoil and somewhat economical by utilizing widely plentiful brass. For those that may be interested in that kind of stuff, one can do an internet search for: The Case for the .260 Remington
The .243 is FINE for WT mainly because WT just aren’t that hard to kill.
(Literally THOUSANDS of deer have been efficiently taken over the last century with the “old-school” .32-20WCF & .32-40WCF.)
Here in the South TX “brush country” you generally cannot SEE your target beyond 100M & often not beyond 50M, as the brush is just that thick.
Nonetheless, my favorite rifle for deer hunting is a circa 1954 Model 760 Remington in .300 Savage & using the 180 grain JSP bullet.
It wears a 2.5X Leopold.
Just my opinion, TMN78247
I took down a young bull elk with a .243. Plenty of power if you hit the vital spots.
All calibers have limitations, some more than others. As long as a person is aware of the limitations of the .243 and doesn’t try to exceed those limitations, it is fine caliber.
.243 win = 6x50 mm (based on the 7.62 NATO
odd
6mm Remington 6x57 (based on the Mauser 7x57)
Split the difference with a 6.5x55
All of these calibers are favored in the West where most shots are long distance.
But folks will buy what they think will work best for them and not so web-pundit.
I have a Model 70 featherweight in .243. Built in 1955. Wears a Zeiss 3x9 Conquest scope. It’s my go to deer rifle here in Central Alabama. Fine trigger. Slick action. Federal Fusion 95 grain drops them well. Longest shot was a bit over 200 yards. I would trust the Federal loading out to 350 or so. Not a huge fan of the .243 on deer much past that.
I think the newer bullets have made the .243 a much better deer cartridge. Older factory loads had a reputation of “blowing up” at short range and not opening up at long range. I wouldn’t know. Only been hunting with .243 for about 6 years or so and never used anything but the Fusions.
America’s Shooting Urinal hires some of the absolute worst writers in gundom. I’m not even sure that clown was a native English speaker. In fact I’m not too sure that was written in English.