[Riposte1]

JimHnSTL;

I beleive your statement on the Noslers. Both cases I saw with 95gr Noslers had good exits. Why they both failed to stop I do not know as both hit well. One in fact hit bone, and I have a piece of it in my desk. That is the way I identified the carcas some months later - the bone chip was missing from the shoulder joint and it matched the one I saved from my Son's first deer.

My first real encounters with the .243 were when I lived a while in Mississippi during the mid 70's. There we were allowed to take approximately 50 deer per year. I never did take that many but some friends who owned rather large land holdings and worked on them did (they did this largely due to crop damage and management of the heard but they also fed a lot of locals who could use the help.)

The .243 was quite popular in the public areas and I saw quite a few knowlegeable people use it (one of those failrures to stop quickly was one of those folks - he has shot a lot of deer with the .223 also, as well as with a .378 Weatherby).

As you indicate, some people who knew little, would just shoot anything (which actually wasn't all that bad as they were shooting the "little" deer in public lands). Others who were pretty savvy riflemen, and shot on the more managed areas, were shooting what premium bullets were available at the time. Mostly Nosler Partitians but some Barnes classics (the X bullet had not come out yet). One fellow would get bullets directly from Jack Carter (Trophy Bonded) to test before they hit the market.

As for the deer study. I cannot say for sure, being that long ago but I think most of those were shot with the 100 gr Remington Core Lokt.

Great discussion! We all learn from others experiences. But as I said somewhere above, while I dont claim to have definitive knowledge, seeing all but one of the critters run sort of taints it for me.

BTW, I knew a nice lady once who killed 27 deer with 27 shots. about half of those were shot with a .35 Whelen. She liked that because none of them ever moved out of their tracks. But then those shot with the .30-06 didn't often move either but she once shot a mouflon ram and had to use a second shot with a 30-06 and that prompted a change in armament.

I sure don't claim any definitave knowledge on the subject, just some experience; it's what we learn after we "know it all" that counts the most :-). I am still learning, that's why I like to hear from folks like those here!

Very best regards,

Riposte