question on 223 and 243

[maineguy110]

gentlemen thank you for sharing your knowledge.Reading your replies is a real pleasure and very informing. I am leaning toward the 243 unless i can find another calber that will do the job. iam learning that not matter what the calber you may not all ways get a good blood trail. in the last 2 years i have killed 2 deer with my 30-06 one left a big blood trail went 100 yards the other barely any blood went 30 yards. if you gentlemen have any other calber to offer i would really like to read about it

[Riposte1]

If I wanted to break a youngster or a slightly built person (male or female) into hunting without intimidating them I would probably go one of two ways.

1st, I would probably use a .308, .270 or 30-06 and look into the reduced recoil loads Remington is making. That way one could always go up in power. You dont get something for nothing, reduced recoil means less "power" but the decrease in practical ability to drop game might not be as much as you think. There is an attendant reduction in Point Blank Range however if long range is a consideration.

2nd I might look at the "intermediate" cartridges like the 6.8 Remington SPC ( I shot two deer with this last year testing ammo for the military). Both had 3" exit wounds and it worked just fine. Range was 75 and 100 yards. It does not look like much on paper though. Recoil is certainly not more than a 5.56 (.223).

In that same line CZ makes a nifty carbine in 7.62X39 Russian. American ammo (rather than the cheap steel cased stuff) performs pretty good on deer in this area and the cheap stuff makes for good practice.

Those are just a couple of ideas, certainly not the only avenue to success.

Bear in mind the skill at placing the bullet is paramount... a gut shot with a .458 is probably not going to get the job done.

Happy Trails!
Riposte

[THE KING OF HUNTING]

I TOOK MY SISTER SON OUT ON OPENING YOUTH WEEKEND AND HE IS 6 YEARS OLD IT WAS HES FIRST HUNT THAT AFTERNOON HE SHOT HES FIRST BUCK WITH A 243 THE DEER ONLY RAN ABOUT 5 YARDS THE 243 .

[Montana Cowboy]

Go with the .243 MC

[buckhunter]

Glad you decided to go with a 243. If my memory serves me right the any 22 cal. is illegale in ME to hunt deer. Anyway if it were me I would probably stick with the 308 family and go with either a 260 or 7mm/08.

[johnliester]

You know, we all hear stories about deer and elk shot " in the lungs" running for miles and living for days. What a bunch of BULL!
You hit any animal through the lungs, it's going to die. Whether it's with a 223, 243, or whatever. It's going to die. It drowns in it's own blood. If this weren't the case, an arrow would never work, would it?
On that note, the 243 is a great deer round. I've had one for 15 years. And I have never lost a deer hit in the chest cavity with it. 2 bullets I use are the 95 gr ballistic tip, and the 100 gr Hornady BTSP Interlok. Had a B-T go endwise through a deer woth a Texas heart shot. Bullet lodged in the skin at the brisket. Not an ideal shot placement, but my son was young and the buck was big. Dropped at the shot.
I'd get her a wood stocked 243, then fit the stock to her. It's amazing how much less recoil is when a gun fits correctly. Trust me on this, as I shoot a 10 gauge at waterfowl. No problem.

[denton]

I have a couple of grandkids coming up, and debated and thought considerably about a 243 for them. In the end, I decided that it's probably quite satisfactory for deer, if you use the right bullet.

Standard Speer, Hornady, and Sierra bullets do very poorly when the impact speed is above 2800 fps or below 2100 fps. Anywhere in that range, barring a major bone hit, they will make a remarkably constant 14" long wound channel

With a 243, it is very easy to have impact speeds higher than 2800 fps. Above 2800, the wound channel is significantly SHORTER, and it gets WORSE as impact speed goes UP. The Partition provides a pretty constant 16" wound channel, from 1700 fps to as fast as you want to go.

My theory--yet to be tested--is that if you load 95 or 100 grain Partitions, the 243 is a probably a reliable deer gun, even for big western mulies. If you shoot standard bullets, or ballistic tips, especially in the lighter weights, it's probably not going to be nearly as reliable, though it will probably work most of the time.

One thing I will defend for sure: Anything the 223 can do, the 243 can do. The reverse is not true.

[Montana Cowboy]

Howdy Denton
I agree with what you have said about the .243 and the bullets made for them. I've lost count of how many deer and antelope I've shot with the .243. The 95 and 100 grain Partition is what I use and they performed as advertized. I would highly recomend the partition bullet. MC