the best 243 win bullet

I built a coyote rifle in 243 that normally is shooting light ballistic tips. Last two years I have switched to a flavor of 95 gr soft points for deer. Not a large sample size but 5/5 have not made it further than 50 yards.

I don’t plan on shooting whitetails at long distances with this setup. Like with anything you have to be smart and know your limitations. I’m not saying there isn’t a 243 setup that can hunt long distances, I just don’t hunt places that it’s even really an option so not of concern for me.
 
StupidLightweight said:
I enjoy this thread because it shows the breadth of opinions on the often-maligned .243 Winchester. Most love it, others hate it, and a few are indifferent, likely because they've never used it. Over the years, I can't recall another cartridge that has received as much hate as the .243, which has always puzzled me. In my experience of using and/or seeing big game shot with dozens of cartridges, I'd put the .243 up against virtually anything when it comes to quick kills.
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6.5 Creedmoor says hold my beer on the hate
 
StupidLightweight said:
Good point! The .223, .243, and 6.5 Creedmoor are the three most vilified cartridges of all time, likely because they're so effective and popular
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I’d say a lot of the disbelief is these and other cartridges that hated in the community come down to 1) they aren’t the 30-06 and 2). Wrong bullet for the application it’s being used for.
 
Ringbill27 said:
I’d say a lot of the disbelief is these and other cartridges that hated in the community come down to 1) they aren’t the 30-06 and 2). Wrong bullet for the application it’s been used for.
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and giving them to kids that have shot 3-10 rds of centerfire in their life and then being shocked when the kid makes a bad shot and the deer gets away. Then blaming it on the 243.
 
CJ_BG said:
and giving them to kids that have shot 3-10 rds of centerfire in their life and then being shocked when the kid makes a bad shot and the deer gets away. Then blaming it on the 243.
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9/10 times it’s the shooter. I’ve done it with a 30-30 at 30 yards. Made a bad shot. Never blamed the cartridge or the gun.

Just because it’s a “kids” cartridge doesn’t mean they are able to use it well without time behind the gun.

Heck i hunt with guys that brag about still using the same box of ammo from 10-15 years ago. I bet you be shocked to know they never connect on the first shot. At least not well.
 
Ringbill27 said:
9/10 times it’s the shooter. I’ve done it with a 30-30 at 30 yards. Made a bad shot. Never blamed the cartridge or the gun.
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Don't gotta tell me twice. I was there much more recently than a lot of people here. Wounded or missed deer for 5 years when I didn't know what I was doing before I started to actually be consistent in making the shots under pressure. If I had chalked every one of those wounded deer to the gun not being big enough I'd be shooting yearlings with a 33 xc.

Now my 243 is my favorite rifle and has the most instant kills of anyone in the family.
 
Ajsomp said:
Nothing wrong with that. Seen plenty of deer killed this week with 06. Not as fun to shoot though. I thoroughly enjoy shooting this gun
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I’m just messing with you although I really do like my 30-06 I still grab my 7.62x39 every time. I recently chopped my wife 243 to 16.25” and with an omega 300 there almost zero recoil and it a delight to shoot. She will be using it this weekend with some 95gr partitions.
 
😂 you people sure have low comprehension skills and soft ego's. I didn't say 243 bullets couldn't exit. I, Me, with my own eyeballs haven't seen exits with bigger deer. I didn't say they can't kill. The 243 is not ideal and that's a fact. They are a poor choice for new people, kids, and guys that don't understand how shit works. I have killed a mountain of pigs with a 17 HMR yet I won't claim it to be the ideal pig cartridge.

Too add to the shittyness of the 243, a coworker just left my office telling me about his weekend. He shot the biggest buck of his life with a .243 and lost it. No blood and they looked for a couple hours and quit. He is too cheap to call a dog handler. The thing is coyote food somewhere in the piney woods right now. He took of work yesterday and brought a 270, a real deer rifle, and killed 2. Same stand, same corn pile 150 yards out. The guy is a duck hunter and gets his 2 meat deer then quits. He don't know shit from shine when it come to bullet performance. He couldn't even tell me what bullets he shoots. "They all ballistic tips so I don't have to track them". In other words if they don't drop right there he calls it a miss or doesn't bother looking hard because he knows he won't find them. His kid has lost at least 4 with a 243 the last couple years. This guy represents the majority of 243 shooters. I was in a club full of guys that did the same thing.

All you billy bad asses are all full of it when you all say these little guns are great. You are all either lying or are surrounded by nothing but professional snipers. ELDX bullets are garbage as well, but you people probably think it's cool to hunt with exploding bullets. They never cause trouble 😂
 
mr.coon said:
😂 you people sure have low comprehension skills and soft ego's. I didn't say 243 bullets couldn't exit. I, Me, with my own eyeballs haven't seen exits with bigger deer. I didn't say they can't kill. The 243 is not ideal and that's a fact. They are a poor choice for new people, kids, and guys that don't understand how shit works. I have killed a mountain of pigs with a 17 HMR yet I won't claim it to be the ideal pig cartridge.

Too add to the shittyness of the 243, a coworker just left my office telling me about his weekend. He shot the biggest buck of his life with a .243 and lost it. No blood and they looked for a couple hours and quit. He is too cheap to call a dog handler. The thing is coyote food somewhere in the piney woods right now. He took of work yesterday and brought a 270, a real deer rifle, and killed 2. Same stand, same corn pile 150 yards out. The guy is a duck hunter and gets his 2 meat deer then quits. He don't know shit from shine when it come to bullet performance. He couldn't even tell me what bullets he shoots. "They all ballistic tips so I don't have to track them". In other words if they don't drop right there he calls it a miss or doesn't bother looking hard because he knows he won't find them. His kid has lost at least 4 with a 243 the last couple years. This guy represents the majority of 243 shooters. I was in a club full of guys that did the same thing.

All you billy bad asses are all full of it when you all say these little guns are great. You are all either lying or are surrounded by nothing but professional snipers. ELDX bullets are garbage as well, but you people probably think it's cool to hunt with exploding bullets. They never cause trouble 😂
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No offense but maybe the people you hunt with aren’t good shots. If I had lost 4 deer as a kid my dad probably would have confiscated my guns and enrolled me in ballet. That doesn’t mean the .243 is bad for deer, and it’s just a matter of time before they start losing them with that new .270.

I’ve had bad blood trails with my .243 but they’ve always been short. Between me, my dad, and my uncle we’ve killed a pile of deer and and never lost one with .243s and 6mm Remingtons. They have a great track record on pigs in my family as well.
 
mr.coon said:
😂 you people sure have low comprehension skills and soft ego's. I didn't say 243 bullets couldn't exit. I, Me, with my own eyeballs haven't seen exits with bigger deer. I didn't say they can't kill. The 243 is not ideal and that's a fact. They are a poor choice for new people, kids, and guys that don't understand how shit works. I have killed a mountain of pigs with a 17 HMR yet I won't claim it to be the ideal pig cartridge.

Too add to the shittyness of the 243, a coworker just left my office telling me about his weekend. He shot the biggest buck of his life with a .243 and lost it. No blood and they looked for a couple hours and quit. He is too cheap to call a dog handler. The thing is coyote food somewhere in the piney woods right now. He took of work yesterday and brought a 270, a real deer rifle, and killed 2. Same stand, same corn pile 150 yards out. The guy is a duck hunter and gets his 2 meat deer then quits. He don't know shit from shine when it come to bullet performance. He couldn't even tell me what bullets he shoots. "They all ballistic tips so I don't have to track them". In other words if they don't drop right there he calls it a miss or doesn't bother looking hard because he knows he won't find them. His kid has lost at least 4 with a 243 the last couple years. This guy represents the majority of 243 shooters. I was in a club full of guys that did the same thing.

All you billy bad asses are all full of it when you all say these little guns are great. You are all either lying or are surrounded by nothing but professional snipers. ELDX bullets are garbage as well, but you people probably think it's cool to hunt with exploding bullets. They never cause trouble 😂
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30 grains extra bullet at the same velocity and somehow we've graduated to a "real deer rifle".

I stopped using my 270 as much because deer didn't die any faster and meat damage was horrendous when I used bullets that maximized it's wounds. Btw for the "exploding bullets" comment, we're now at 4 deer with 110 vmax in a 270 and all but one exited, with that one found against the hide on the offside after blowing through the humerus quartering to.

Your entire situation sounds like you dislike the group of people you know that shoot 243s, because they're bad shots and can't pick a bullet, how that's the 243s problem is beyond me.

If you could tell me what guns made these holes maybe there'd be some validity to your ballistics expertise1762314188231.png1762314206904.png1762314226666.png1762314238823.png1762309611487.png
 
mr.coon said:
😂 you people sure have low comprehension skills and soft ego's. I didn't say 243 bullets couldn't exit. I, Me, with my own eyeballs haven't seen exits with bigger deer. I didn't say they can't kill. The 243 is not ideal and that's a fact. They are a poor choice for new people, kids, and guys that don't understand how shit works. I have killed a mountain of pigs with a 17 HMR yet I won't claim it to be the ideal pig cartridge.

Too add to the shittyness of the 243, a coworker just left my office telling me about his weekend. He shot the biggest buck of his life with a .243 and lost it. No blood and they looked for a couple hours and quit. He is too cheap to call a dog handler. The thing is coyote food somewhere in the piney woods right now. He took of work yesterday and brought a 270, a real deer rifle, and killed 2. Same stand, same corn pile 150 yards out. The guy is a duck hunter and gets his 2 meat deer then quits. He don't know shit from shine when it come to bullet performance. He couldn't even tell me what bullets he shoots. "They all ballistic tips so I don't have to track them". In other words if they don't drop right there he calls it a miss or doesn't bother looking hard because he knows he won't find them. His kid has lost at least 4 with a 243 the last couple years. This guy represents the majority of 243 shooters. I was in a club full of guys that did the same thing.

All you billy bad asses are all full of it when you all say these little guns are great. You are all either lying or are surrounded by nothing but professional snipers. ELDX bullets are garbage as well, but you people probably think it's cool to hunt with exploding bullets. They never cause trouble 😂
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Dude looked for "the biggest deer of his life" for 2 hours and gave up? He's an entitled prick and I don't believe a thing he says about even hitting the deer. Probably buck fever and he missed
 
mr.coon said:
😂 you people sure have low comprehension skills and soft ego's. I didn't say 243 bullets couldn't exit. I, Me, with my own eyeballs haven't seen exits with bigger deer. I didn't say they can't kill. The 243 is not ideal and that's a fact. They are a poor choice for new people, kids, and guys that don't understand how shit works. I have killed a mountain of pigs with a 17 HMR yet I won't claim it to be the ideal pig cartridge.

Too add to the shittyness of the 243, a coworker just left my office telling me about his weekend. He shot the biggest buck of his life with a .243 and lost it. No blood and they looked for a couple hours and quit. He is too cheap to call a dog handler. The thing is coyote food somewhere in the piney woods right now. He took of work yesterday and brought a 270, a real deer rifle, and killed 2. Same stand, same corn pile 150 yards out. The guy is a duck hunter and gets his 2 meat deer then quits. He don't know shit from shine when it come to bullet performance. He couldn't even tell me what bullets he shoots. "They all ballistic tips so I don't have to track them". In other words if they don't drop right there he calls it a miss or doesn't bother looking hard because he knows he won't find them. His kid has lost at least 4 with a 243 the last couple years. This guy represents the majority of 243 shooters. I was in a club full of guys that did the same thing.

All you billy bad asses are all full of it when you all say these little guns are great. You are all either lying or are surrounded by nothing but professional snipers. ELDX bullets are garbage as well, but you people probably think it's cool to hunt with exploding bullets. They never cause trouble 😂
Click to expand...

This right here is the problem. I have met many of these types of “hunters”… totally half assed approach. Cheap rifle, crap scope, crap rings, cheapest ammo (sometimes different types at once), “zero” the rifle on a paper plate with a couple of shots while leaning over the hood of the truck, no practice, etc etc…

This is a people problem, not a 243 problem, and honestly an embarrassment to the hunting/firearms community and totally unethical/irresponsible behavior.

Your experience is based on the worst of circumstances and behavior; garbage in- garbage out.
 
KenLee said:
Dude looked for "the biggest deer of his life" for 2 hours and gave up? He's an entitled prick and I don't believe a thing he says about even hitting the deer. Probably buck fever and he missed
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I agree with you. But I think the whole story is nonsense. On at least two levels.

Unfortunately, assuming the “coworker” exists, I doubt he missed. If he cleanly missed, that’s the best case scenario. He looked “for two hours” like the drunk driver only had “two beers.” The “biggest deer of his life” is likely the “perfect ten he dated back in high school” (in other words, “a six.”).

The “entitled prick” probably looked for 20 minutes, tops. And he probably wounded the deer, which went to ground within 200 yards and bled to death within easy finding distance for anyone willing to put in the effort. I’ve killed and recovered too many deer that never dropped any blood to assume a miss (and that’s using “proper deer cartridges” such as .25-06, .270, 7x57, .30-30, or 30-06). If you hunt long enough, you’ll see surprising results even from “a good bullet in the right spot.” I don’t claim the killing experience of someone culling hundreds of deer, but I have been involved with hunting on “a normal scale” for about forty years.

I can’t count the number of hunters with whom I’ve interacted who say, “I didn’t see any blood, so I must have missed.” Then, when someone decent at tracking goes out, they find the deer within minutes, or it turns up as a deadhead just where a good hunter would expect it.
 
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