.243 for Whitetail

[ATH]

For a healthy adult, what is the point in 243 for deer? A 150 grain 30-06 is faster, and 180 is just a little slower.

The point is that you can kill it just as dead with a fraction of the recoil and a flatter trajectory, the latter two increasing the odds of an ideal hit.

I am a fan of big holes but the 243 is plenty sufficient for antelope and deer and reasonably long ranges.

 

[Tom264]

.. a .243 leaves very little, if any , blood trail. just my opinion

We'll leave it at that.
Your opinion.
Tell that to the last two deer I shot with the even lesser cartridge the 6x45
I was shooting Barnes 80 grain ttsx bullets and while they only travelled 40 yds, the blood trail looked like I shot em with my Rage broadheads.

 

[Snyper708]

Zerk said: ↑
For a healthy adult, what is the point in 243 for deer? A 150 grain 30-06 is faster, and 180 is just a little slower.

The guns can be lighter, the cost is lower and the deer are just as dead.

grizz1874 said: ↑
.. a .243 leaves very little, if any , blood trail. just my opinion

I've found a 95 gr Ballistic Tip through the lungs leaves all the blood trail you'll need because it's usually quite short.

 

[Capt RB]

It's easy to see why you shouldn't use a .243 for deer in these 3 videos

 

[wbm]

Yep.

 

[jjmp]

just wanted to add Savage makes a Ladyhunter md 111 its been out for more then a few years, and Weatherby makes their Vangard in a Womens md named after Roy's WIFE! yes long live the 243, iv'e got two.

 

[rcparker]

I really don't understand the whole blood trail thing. My guess is it's for bad shots? I've been hunting white tail for 25 years with a 22/243 and standard 243 and have never had one go over about 50'. Some were taken at 300 yards and dropped. Maybe it's poor bullet selection

 

[Deenmetal099]

It's super fast and accurate. Just make sure you have good shot placement, it's a light bullet and might deflect off of a shoulder. The best factory loads I have found 100 gr Federal Premium Sierra BTSP 100 gr Hornady Interlocks, the Federal Premium Nolser Partitions

 

[rcparker]

There are a lot of good .243 bullets. My preference is the 85gr sgk. It's a little package of instant death wrapped in a beautiful copper jacket topped off by a nice little hollow point. Should try sending one to your favorite prey and watch them open it, you'll be glad you did.

 

[Capt RB]

There are a lot of good .243 bullets. My preference is the 85gr sgk. It's a little package of instant death wrapped in a beautiful copper jacket topped off by a nice little hollow point. Should try sending one to your favorite prey and watch them open it, you'll be glad you did.

The most messed up insides of a decent bear I have seen was with that bullet. We ran hounds for a while and ran quite a few bears. 30-30s 44mag handguns 06,270and a few belted mags in 7 and 30cal. All shot at least 1 bear over our hounds. The 243 was a friend of my ex's little brother. He was 13 or 14 and we had a decent bear in the 225# range. When he touched it off the bear was ready to come down. The lights went out before the recoil was over. Absolute jello to the heart n lungs. It was 3300ish fps . I bought my first 243 after that bear before the following wknd. They flat out kill stuff.

 

[Snyper708]

I really don't understand the whole blood trail thing. My guess is it's for bad shots? I've been hunting white tail for 25 years with a 22/243 and standard 243 and have never had one go over about 50'. Some were taken at 300 yards and dropped. Maybe it's poor bullet selection

Around here 50 feet without a blood trail might as well be 50 miles since the woods are so thick in places you almost have to crawl to get through, and you're lucky to see 10 feet.

Even if they aren't in the woods, it's tough to find one in a waist high Soybean field without a trail to follow.

If all yours are dropping you're extremely lucky.

 

[ATH]

Around here 50 feet without a blood trail might as well be 50 miles since the woods are so thick in places you almost have to crawl to get through, and you're lucky to see 10 feet.

Even if they aren't in the woods, it's tough to find one in a waist high Soybean field without a trail to follow.

If all yours are dropping you're extremely lucky.

If you can't thoroughly search for an animal in an area 100feet in diameter, well...I guess you shouldn't be hunting there. That's the best I have to say.

Fact is NOTHING short of artillery guarantees an animal is DRT, anybody claiming else is dreaming and/or inexperienced. I've shot a deer through the front with a 325gr FTX from 10 feet, literally blowing the muzzleloader discharge in its face. It completely obliterated the lungs, heart, and liver before losing velocity but still causing damage through the guts before coming to rest in the back ham. That deer covered 200 yards at full speed in just a few seconds on adrenaline alone before it ran out of O2 and fell over.

 

[Snyper708]

If you can't thoroughly search for an animal in an area 100feet in diameter, well...I guess you shouldn't be hunting there. That's the best I have to say.

If the deer is standing in an open field when shot, and runs into that sort of area, there's not much one can do.

You hunt where the deer are and having a blood trail is always preferable to not having one.

That deer covered 200 yards at full speed in just a few seconds on adrenaline alone before it ran out of O2 and fell over.

That's a little bigger than a "100 foot diameter area".

 

[rcparker]

Around here 50 feet without a blood trail might as well be 50 miles since the woods are so thick in places you almost have to crawl to get through, and you're lucky to see 10 feet.
First, I didn't say all of my deer dropped. Some do, some jump, flop, maybe run a few steps. In 25 years of hunting I've had one run. She didn't make it 50'
Even if they aren't in the woods, it's tough to find one in a waist high Soybean field without a trail to follow.

If all yours are dropping you're extremely lucky.

Around here 50 feet without a blood trail might as well be 50 miles since the woods are so thick in places you almost have to crawl to get through, and you're lucky to see 10 feet.

Even if they aren't in the woods, it's tough to find one in a waist high Soybean field without a trail to follow.

If all yours are dropping you're extremely lucky.

First, I don't believe in 25 years of luck with my results and several others I load for. Second, I never said they all drop, some do some take a few steps but only one has run and she only made it about 50'. There's more than one way of selecting a rifle, cartridge, bullet combination. Since kinetic energy is 1/2m(velocity squared) I'm a big believer velocity kills. I don't hunt with anything slower than 3200 fps. Most are faster than that. I try to transfer as much hydrostatic shock to tissue as possible. If a bullet passes through yes it blows a hole and leaves blood but hasn't transfered all it energy. High velocity dumping all it's energy as quickly as possible kill extremely well. Even with that shot placement is still key.