So, you went smaller caliber, but not down to .223…

[brhillman]

I’ll be trying out a .243 win barrel to replace my .308 this year for mule deer (and hopefully elk). I was working on reviving a .30-06 from a sporterized Springfield project I was gifted many years ago, and realized I didn’t need two rifles of such similar cartridge and started reading up on the smaller stuff, wanting something I could learn to spot my own impacts with and develop better shooting habits. I was swayed by the overwhelming evidence in the .223 thread, but minimum in some of the states I hunt is .243/6mm. Would have liked to have tried maybe some of the faster twist 6mm, but found a cheap take-off unfired .243 barrel for my 700, and realized that as a hunter that *aspires* to be 600 yards capable, the .243 win will do everything I need even with minimum loads (i.e., deliver 95-105gr projectiles over 1800 fps at 600 yards). Also added a little bit of weight and ergonomics to the system by replacing the Tupperware stock with a laminate that I did a significant amount of reshaping on and pillar and glass bedded, and added a sighting system that will hopefully allow me to dial more reliably than I’ve done in the past. Been a fun winter project so far.

 

[Brucebarker024]

I’ve been shooting a 7 SAUM for the last couple years and a 300 win mag before that. I recently picked up a 6.5 creed tikka that I enjoy and may hunt with it but I’m so attached to my SAUM that it’s unlikely. When this barrel is gone in the next year or so it’ll be going to a 6.5 SAUM and the tikka will be a 6 creed.

 

[06 SB]

I used to use 338WM and a 375HH for elk. I now use a 338Fed or a 7mm-08 for both deer and elk. Occasionally, I use a 270 or a 30-06 but the 338Fed gets the most use. I have never had a deer take a step after being hit with a 200 grainer from the Fed. I prefer a bigger bullet but at moderate velocity rather than magnum velocities. Critters still die and my shoulder feels way better.

 

[wyosam]

I used to use 338WM and a 375HH for elk. I now use a 338Fed or a 7mm-08 for both deer and elk. Occasionally, I use a 270 or a 30-06 but the 338Fed gets the most use. I have never had a deer take a step after being hit with a 200 grainer from the Fed. I prefer a bigger bullet but at moderate velocity rather than magnum velocities. Critters still die and my shoulder feels way better.

Very similar to the combo I’ve settled on- 338-284 (just a touch faster than 338 federal, likely meaningless, but I like to be different), and 7-08 improved. Both 20”, in identical rifles. Both very reasonable in terms of recoil. No need for magnums for me.


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[06 SB]

Very similar to the combo I’ve settled on- 338-284 (just a touch faster than 338 federal, likely meaningless, but I like to be different), and 7-08 improved. Both 20”, in identical rifles. Both very reasonable in terms of recoil. No need for magnums for me.


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Great minds think alike. Both my 338Fed and 7mm-08 are built on Remington 600 actions, 21” barrels with McMillan Mountain rifle stocks and Swarovski scopes. The only difference is the barrel contour. I had to go with a Lilja#2 for the 338 vice a #1 for the 7mm-08.

 

[LIWolverine]

Finally settled on 6.5-284 and 6.5prc as my main guns. I love my 257 Wby too. Can take anything in NA and most places of the world. Not too tough to find ammo for the PRC now that it’s more popular. Recoil is mild, shoots flat, high bc, etc. Best all round for me.


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[Hurley88]

Late to the party, but I started at 7WSM then 308, moved up to 30-06, spent a short time with the 270 then 25-06, then settled on the 7-08 for 15yrs as a 300yd Jack O’Connor style hunter.

Two years back learned to long range shoot and read all the stuff on here about how bullets kill, but poring over legal regs made me stop at 6mm. I’ve been using a fast twist 243 the last two seasons, and it has worked wonderfully. Bought a bunch of 6.5 Creeds for long range training and will use one this upcoming season but now I’m doing a 6 ARC build. Seem to be teetering between 6 ARC, 243 (6 Creed), and 6.5 Creed.

The old army study that determined 15 ft-lbs of recoil for sustained shooting has some merit (heard it regurgitated multiple times but never went and read it myself) bc I’ve noticed that at that level I can cheat and do more with undesirable field positions. But get below 10 ft-lbs and you can do even more. There is no perceived difference in recoil between the 6 Creed and 6.5 Creed, but set an 8lb gun on a bag atop a tripod then let it free recoil into you…you’ll see the difference.

Time will tell, but that’s where I am atm. I’m still learning; I’ve shot a few thousand rounds and pay the most attention to my first five of the day, I now know why I would most likely shy away from 6-700yd shots. I’ve seen how low my personal odds are. Unless I practice to proficiency, I won’t be employing that skill on an actual hunt and I’m not there right now. Hence the desire for a 6 ARC; better field shooting ability that matches my personal distances.

This thread has been a good read, very informative what all you guys are doing

 

[WormSportsman]

Started with the classic .30-06 then bought a nice 7rem mag a few years in. Shot quite a few with the 6.5 creedmoors and then last year down to a .25-06. I just enjoy working up different loads and dialing in new rifles and have progressed smaller every few years. That .25-06 shoots damn nice though with very mild recoil and easily watching impacts. .243 is next and I am sure results will be similar and make things just as dead!

 

[douglasfir]

30-06 to 6.5 cm for me. Could've stuck with the 06 and been happy enough, but I do enjoy less recoil. The wife's rifle/my backup rifle is a 18" barreled 243 that is a real pleasure to shoot. I do not feel undergunned with either hunting anything in Colorado.

 

[teamsprock]

Started with smaller calibers and have been going larger as of late. Started with a .270 and killed several elk and deer. Got a .243 for my son and killed several more deer. Then got a .300 win as a gift and enjoyed killing things faster.

Most of my kills have been with nosler partitions. The .243 has been extremely slow at killing deer. A couple of the 75-100 yard broadside shots have ended up in long tracking sessions.

This past year I hunted with several guys. For deer the decision was .243 or .270. For elk it was .270 or .300. In our sample set of 10 kills the larger caliber, killed much faster in every case. I was convinced of larger calibers, doing the job better… now I read all these threads and I am wondering if the nosler partitions are skewing my perspective. Do I need to start researching different bullets?

 

[Honyock]

Started with smaller calibers and have been going larger as of late. Started with a .270 and killed several elk and deer. Got a .243 for my son and killed several more deer. Then got a .300 win as a gift and enjoyed killing things faster.

Most of my kills have been with nosler partitions. The .243 has been extremely slow at killing deer. A couple of the 75-100 yard broadside shots have ended up in long tracking sessions.

This past year I hunted with several guys. For deer the decision was .243 or .270. For elk it was .270 or .300. In our sample set of 10 kills the larger caliber, killed much faster in every case. I was convinced of larger calibers, doing the job better… now I read all these threads and I am wondering if the nosler partitions are skewing my perspective. Do I need to start researching different bullets?

I'm not a gun expert, but If you want devastation on a deer, try 100 grain Rem Core-Lokt with the 243 or 130 gr with the 270. I used 130 gr partitions for deer and 150 gr partitions for elk in a 270 for about 35 years. After seeing what a 100 grain Core-Lokt did out of my son's 243 on a whitetail two years ago, I'm done with expensive ammo on deer. The Core-Lokt is not sexy, but deer aren't going very far with a well placed shot and If they do, Ray Charles could follow the blood trail. I've had good luck with partitions on elk, but they aren't necessary on deer in my opinion.

 

[Hurley88]

Started with smaller calibers and have been going larger as of late. Started with a .270 and killed several elk and deer. Got a .243 for my son and killed several more deer. Then got a .300 win as a gift and enjoyed killing things faster.

Most of my kills have been with nosler partitions. The .243 has been extremely slow at killing deer. A couple of the 75-100 yard broadside shots have ended up in long tracking sessions.

This past year I hunted with several guys. For deer the decision was .243 or .270. For elk it was .270 or .300. In our sample set of 10 kills the larger caliber, killed much faster in every case. I was convinced of larger calibers, doing the job better… now I read all these threads and I am wondering if the nosler partitions are skewing my perspective. Do I need to start researching different bullets?

I think the whole reason people are finding that they can drop down in cartridge & recoil is precisely due to bullet selection. The Hornady ELD-X/ELDM, Sierra TMK, and a few others produce wounds similar to a 300WM using a 180gr CoreLokt bullet. So to answer your question, yes if using common hunting bullets you’ll see a somewhat proportional reduction when going from the 300WM down to a 243.

But use the 108 ELDM out of that 243 and you find that many are seeing no difference in what happens to the animal. This has been my experience on two deer & a black bear so far. There are many threads discussing this with multiple field necropsies & pics to show the terminal effects.

 

[WIDrake]

12ga with 1oz slugs to 20ga with 3/4oz slugs. Then we went back up to 30-06 shooting 165-180s and then down go 300blk with 110s. Now it'll be the 223 with 73eldms. Might still use the 300 for close range with solids for less meat damage when I'm hunting at home.

 

[wyosam]

I’ve been all over the place over the years. Started with a 30/30 and 30-06 (depending on open country vs timber/brush. Had a brief foray with a 7 1/2 pound 300WM in the 90’s. That was enough magnum for this lifetime. Went back to a 30-06. Used a 243 some for deer, though was mostly a coyote gun back then. Still
Mostly hunted with 06. As copper bullet (all I’ve hunted with for a very long time) performance improved, I used the 243 a little more, especially after shoulder surgery, but wound channels with copper on elk weren’t what I like, so mostly went back to the 06. Then shot a 6.5CM for while. Worked fine but just didn’t excite me. Added a 280ai. Loved that in the west, also added a 7-08 Ackley. 243 was shot out, so it became a 257Rob improved. Didn’t shoot far enough in Alaska to justify the 280 over the 7-08, and I’ve wanted a medium bore for a long time. A medium bore for anchoring moose on dry land (larger does seem to make a difference in copper bullets, shed petals being heavier makes a big difference) seemed like a good thing to own. Didn’t want big recoil and didn’t need much effective range, so a 338-284 was born. A little less recoil energy than the 280ai (same rifle otherwise), and a much slower pulse by feel. More pleasant to shoot than I expected it to be. The 7-08ai in the middle will probably see the least use- the 257ai is lighter to carry and shoots very well in a light package.


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[mlevimadden]

Started hunting whitetails as a kid with a 243 win shooting 100 gr core-lokts. I did more deer drive style hunts as that's what my dad preferred. Deer were covering quite a bit of ground after the shot, so I moved up to a 270 win shooting 150 gr core-lokts in college and it did seem to kill the deer quicker.

Stepped up to a lightweight (7.5# scoped) 300WM shooting 180AB's when I moved out west for the ballistic superiority for longer shots and "knock-down power" on those bulletproof elk. I definitely developed a flinch and struggled to shoot more than 20 rounds in one sitting from the 300WM. I missed more easy shots with that light 300 than I ever had in the past (a nice whitetail buck offhand at only 50 yds, a pronghorn doe at 120 yds are the two that stand-out the most), but I was getting more bang-flops when I hit animals in the vitals.

My wife started hunting in 2018, and I set her up with my old 243 shooting 85 gr ttsx. I noticed that on pronghorn and deer hunts where we both held tags over the next couple years, the animals I shot with the 300 weren't dying any quicker than the animals she was shooting with the 243. I was also starting to notice I could shoot the 243 more accurately than the 300 during range sessions due to the recoil and weight of the gun.

The 300 sat in the safe for the last 3 years, and I have used a 270 win shooting factory 145 gr eld-x. I killed a handful of whitetail does and bucks, 3 pronghorn, 2 mule deer, and 2 bighorn ewes during that time without failing to recover a single animal.

I finally rebarreled the 300WM into a suppressed 6.5PRC this year and have been field-shooting way more than previous years. I went back-and-forth between 6 creed and 6.5 PRC on the barrel, and honestly wish I would've went the 6 creed route at this point. I'm sure that will be my next move rather than back in the direction of the 300WM.

 

[AkRyan]

300wsm/wm to 7mm08 for everything but brown bears up here for my family. We reserve the 375ruger for the big guys since tracking a wounded bear through brush you can't see 2ft through isn't much fun.

 

[SC HUNTER]

I shot my first deer at 14 or so years old with a 270 Win. Then I "needed" a bigger gun and got a 7mm mag, then a 243 that wasn't big enough for some reason my pea brain early 20's brain thought I needed a big gun again. So then it was 300 wsm to 300 win mag to 7 STW, 375 h&h for just a short period. Now I don't own anything over a 30-06, let me add that even while hunting with big calibers that were stupid to shoot Georgia deer with I also killed hundreds with 223's and a 220 swift.
So to make it easier 270 to 7 mag to 243 win to 30-06 to 300 wsm/win mag to 7 STW to 375 h&h. Sprinkle in another 270 wsm and a lever gun in 45/70 and 444 but the others I listed were main hunting guns.

My main rifles I carry now are 6.5 creedmoor and 308, I shoot about 1 deer a year with a 223 still since I don't shoot them on permits anymore. I turned that job over to the younger kids now days.

 

[Bowfinn]

I rebarreled from a 300 WSM to a 6.5 prc this year, but I wish I went to a 6 or 5.56. So next year I’ll probably drop in caliber again, because I’ve been forced to admit that I have increased accuracy/precision from reduced recoil.

 

[2Stamp]

My first deer was with a 243, then moved up to a 30-06 for many years. Picked up a 25-06 about 15 yrs ago and still love it. A few years ago I got into a 280ai, which I really like, and a 7mm-08. I still reach for the 25-06 or 280ai the most. I recently picked up a Tikka .223 that I'm looking forward to playing with.

 

[Natebonebusta]

I started in my 20’s with a .270. I became recoil sensitive pretty quick and opted for a 243. Had a buddy that liked the .25-06 so I ran that for a bit. That brought me into the world of reloading.

I’ve completely quit the .270 for NC whitetails. Sold the .25-06. Bought a used 6.5 Creedmoor, love how easy it is to load for accuracy. Wanted a heavy hitting coyote rig and went 6.5 Grendel. Blown away how well it works on deer. Grendel was never on my radar.

The .243 will probably get another look as the 95gr BT seems to be the perfect choice. My brother has never lost one with that round.