At least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it! Ammo is dirt cheap and it will also shoot 38 special rounds. figured out and dialed in. My teenage daughter is a little recoil sensitive, so when I caught a .243 Savage Axis on sale the other day I bought it. Bullet velocity is not neglected, because velocity is the most important factor in calculating kinetic energy. The main limitation being the .243 bore size restricts the maximum weight of hunting bullets to about 105 grains. A Nosler Partition might have taken him, but I decided I wanted more gun for hog hunting in case I ran across another hog that size. Two of the most common mistakes when assembling .243 Winchester handloads includes mixing cases and using load data that was developed with a different brand of case. (22 inch bbl.) Exactly, seldom brag on my hounds then I don’t have to make excuses. Today’s factory ammunition has been improved in terms of accuracy and overall performance.
thanks,John H. I started hunting deer at age 21 with a Marlin 30-30 after a stint in the Navy.The price was right at the Navy store.25 years and 16 whitetails later I acquired a 1958 Winchester Model 70 in .243.Shortly after, I gained access to an area with the potential for very long shots or up close woodland encounters.Limiting my shots to 300 yards, I have taken more than 50 whitetails up to 150 lbs.using 100 grain Remington core-lokts and handloaded 100 grain Sierra Spitzers.Just 2 days ago I harvested a 150 lb doe with a frontal shot that exploded in the chest cavity and did not penetrate the diaphram.I have had this experience several times.I could not be happier with this rifle. I have done this countless times on deer since. The .243 typically utilizes powder charges that are between 29.0 and 45.0 grains (although a few charges approach 50.0 grains). Ballistic Tip kill a stallion zebra, one shot to the neck. Let’s celebrate a hunting round that is aging well. Zero blood trail and the buck ran over 100 yds through heavy brush.
In spite of several excellent .243/6mm cartridges being developed to compete with the .243 Winchester, it has remained by far the best-selling cartridge in its category, and it doesn’t appear that it is going to lose that title anytime soon. They’ve killed whitetails fast and reliably for me. Many consider the 243 Winchester the perfect cartridge for coyote hunting. There are no absolutes in this enterprise. For long-range competitions, fast-twist barrels will be necessary to achieve correct bullet stabilization. Thankfully, it changed the name. and 243 Wins. Excellent article Ron. I like them falling where I hit em. This same gun is useful on small predators out to well over 200 yards. is just about the best available, offering a perfect fit for a short-action rifle, with enough case capacity to push even the heaviest bullets to a muzzle velocity of just about 3000 fps, and the lightest to 4000!
I didn’t have a bronze bore brush for .243; closest I had was .22 and .270. I am the type of hunter that when I pull the trigger I want the hunt to be over. Erik, I don’t know the absolute answer, but here are some thoughts: You lose about 25 to 30 fps MV for every inch of barrel shortening, so if a 22″ bl. Prior to the 243 Winchester’s arrival, America’s most versatile, light-recoil, “dual-purpose” cartridges for hunting varmints and deer were the 250-3000 Savage and 257 Roberts.
.243 Win: Doubletap 100 gr.
You guessed it one ends up DRT and the other takes off like a scalded dog and collapses 100 yards distant. The .243 Win is no slouch when it comes to accuracy or power on medium size game and is a fine choice for young hunters or recoil sensitive individuals. Ron, When I asked if a .22 magnum wouldn’t have done the same thing, he was highly miffed. In the HITS system, a score of 500 - 900 means the load is suitable for Class 2 game (50 - 300 pounds) at 100 yards. Filed Under: Ballistics, Hunting, Shooting Tagged With: #.243 Win., #240 Weatherby Magnum, #243 Page Pooper, #243 Winchester, #243 Winchester Super Short Magnum, #243 WSSM, #250-3000 Savage, #257 Roberts, #270 Winchester, #6mm Remington, #ballistics, #calibers, #cartridges, #deer calibers, #deer hunting, #H&H 240 Magnum, #Kilimanjaro Tiger Cat, #rifles, hunting, shooting. This hot load achieves an EKR of 275 yards, only 25 yards short of its 300 yard MPBR. All rights reserved.
will cycle through almost any short action rifle, whether bolt, lever, pump, or semi-auto. . Not enough horsepower for me. Ron, where would you put the .243 WSSM in the equation? I have also learned that it matters not how large a bullet is it or how fast it is traveling if it misses the intended target. (The explanation of the indices is abbreviated here, but is more fully discussed in the Appendix, below.). Subscribe now to get the latest news on guns, gear, gun rights, and personal defense delivered straight to your inbox daily! In just about 50 years of hunting, I never intentially shot shot an animal in the shoulder, it was always in the chest behind the foreleg. Were it a target rifle expected to handle thousands of rounds, I’d break it in. The handloader can easy fuel his or her .243; there’s really no big secret to dealing with the .308-based case. While the 270 Win. The mulie is a 180 inch class, 200 lb. I like the flat trajectory the.270 has. My concern was bullet selection. & enjoy shooting crows and other varmits with it. Thirty years ago in Louisiana it seemed almost everyone had migrated to a .243 for deer.
With a 243 Win. I use .270 in 150grains and the performance in deer is more than good enough. Moly bullets is a personal choice. 2 contour Douglas barrel; it proved capable of 1⁄4-MOA accuracy, which was uncommon for that era using common hunting bullets. © document.write(new Date().getFullYear()) Copyright Hornady®, Designed and developed by IdeaBank Marketing.
Stick with what works for you, but keep an open mind and expect the unexpected. I wouldn’t convert it into anything but busier. My example is a Federal Premium .243 Winchester load with a 100 grain soft point spitzer bullet. Speedy as it is, however, the .243 Winchester cannot drive small diameter, light weight bullets hard enough to keep pace with the terminal performance of larger bore short action cartridges, such as the .260 Remington, 7mm-08 Remington, or the .257 Roberts +P. Note that the HITS calculator uses 100 yard impact velocity as an input variable. I popped him twice with the same “good for deer” bullets that I, and most of my friends, had been using. Expect that 50-yard run. I really enjoy reading your articles.
These observations inlcude unrecovered deer and seemingly poor bullet performance.
The .243 Winchester: Its Capabilities as a Deer Cartridge. ’nuff said. Typically shot 95 grain Nosler Partitions as fast as I could push them while at the same time retaining accuracy. Thanks Pete.
Monolithic copper alloy GMX® bullet provides uniform, controlled expansion, deep penetration and +95% weight retention. The KPS formula combines these variables in a direct, easy to calculate way. We’r not supposed to advocate these, since they can “explode” on the shoulder and not reach vitals, but I’ve had great luck with them. I use a 10″ x 10″ steel plate for testing and I was able to make it sing with boring regularity at those distances. and 250 Savage, it became the new darling. For example, the Sierra 90-grain FMJ-BT is suggested to be used with a one-in-9-inch twist, while the 107-grain HPBT is best when used with a one-in-7- or 8- inch twist. We have always had to look for the deer after the shot. ), SD .226, A = .0745 sq.
There are some seriously low drag, slippery bullets now available in .243, 6.5 (.260) and 7mm (.280 or .284). I just wish all my loads came this quickly.
2 dropped and one ran 30 yards, all chest hits in the ribs that exited. (All in 7-pound rifles.) In England, Holland and Holland had released its 240 Magnum Rimless cartridge in 1923, but it never won a following here. Whether adrenaline, heartbeat and blood pressure at time of shot, disposition — who knows?
Thanks,great show,John Howe. Get the American Hunter Insider newsletter for at-a-glance access to industry news, gear, gun reviews, videos and more—delivered directly to your Inbox. This prevents flinching in young and new shooters. I’ve witnessed similar performance and resulting animal behavior from most cartridges up to 300 Win. I almost gave my 243 away in disgust. In the data summary below, the first line specifies the brand of cartridge, bullet weight and type, muzzle velocity (f.p.s) from a 22-inch barrel, muzzle energy (ft. The bullet entered high in the shoulder, broke the joint, continued through and exited the other side. Using deer and similar size game as an example, some popular cartridges, such as the .270 Winchester and .308 Winchester, are so powerful that there is no question that they will dependably fell Class 2 game out to their MPBR range or beyond. The Barnes bullet isn’t that bullet.
I have enjoyed all of the comments on the 243, however I have shot the barrels out of ( 2 ) 243 and (1) 6mm 284. Its purpose was to offer the hunter a cartridge that could easily do double duty on both predators/varmints and deer-sized game alike. The deer took off and I waited a little bit and started to follow the deer at the last place I seen him. My guide, Ben “Brother” Lawrence, uttered a perfunctory phrase, which we both knew was fruitless. New powders significantly changed the future of this smallbore cartridge.
I think perhaps the next time I hunt elk I will adjust my aiming point a little farther forward and go for a shoulder shot. 1 .243 Winchester. -Editor) I felt that I could also use that KPS value to determine EKRs of other cartridges and loads, provided that the quarry is deer or similar sized game.
Started with shotgun on ground then moved to hand built deer stands and 30/30 then metal climbers and .308. Required fields are marked *. After firing a few test rounds and discovering the little cartridge isn’t […], […] that shine light on relative trajectory curves and power levels of both the extremely popular 243 Winchester and its younger cousin, the 7mm-08 […], […] perfect deer hunting caliber depends on who’s shooting it at what and when. I have a Ruger 77 in 30-06 (approximately late 1970s vintage), which I had a gunsmith glass-bed the barrel and add a Pachmayr recoil pad. The most powerful load I found is made by Doubletap and features a 100 grain Swift Scirocco II bullet at a MV of 3120 f.p.s. Now, there the one noteable common factor here is that all of these instances were while shooting factory ammo out of short-barreled rifles, specifically a Remington Model 7 and a Ruger M77 compact which sports a 16.5″ bbl. They just weren’t opening up. from a 24 inch barrel. was released in 1952. (22 inch bbl.) Thanks TR. Having observed the .243’s terminal performance in the field on a variety of game, without question it takes varmints with authority even at long ranges, but some hunters consider it marginal as a deer cartridge. things about these rounds, including the taking of big hogs. There was a lot of blood but the deer probably went at least a good 100 yds from where I shot him.