Yesssssir.

Buddy lost a good one last year with a 243. Shot was a little forwarded and hit the scapula. No blood and never found it

Have a friend who's killed more bucks then any other person I can think of.. shot every one with a 243. they'll get the job done that's a fact!

If 243 is the only round I can find when I go to the sto this week, I may be buying a 243 rifle. Are there any 270 cartridges available right now? It for that matter, I may buy what ever rifle/cartridge is available.

Hopefully post up some kills pics from a 6.5 PRC, 257 Weatherby, or 6.5 C-------R This evening 😃

I know a guy that’s killed a pile of big bucks, all with a 243. I know some were over 200lb deer.

I’ve got a predator 243 that shoots nickel size groups but I just can’t get the nerve up to shoot a deer with it when I’ve got bigger guns to take.

Y’all are crazy. I killed my first dozen deer with a .30 M1 carbine. Move up from there to a .243. Shot that until it was stolen from my truck when I was about 26. .243 is more than enough gun for white tails. I don’t ever remember not recovering a deer I shot either.
There’s a YouTube vid somewhere of a lady dropping a cow elk in its tracks from something like 650-700 yds. Yes, it was with a .243!!

I tracked one for a guy about 4 years ago just off the interstate along the river between Montgomery and Prattville……The guy was sitting with his girlfriend and her .243 one morning when just after daybreak “a big one”, as he described it, walked out of the woodline crossing the field broadside at about 75 yards headed to the river……He told his girlfriend to shoot it but she said she couldn’t find it in her scope…..Meanwhile, the deer is steadily walking across the field toward the river……He said he told her to shoot about three more times before finally taking the gun from her and then tries to Texas heart shoot the buck before it walks into the woods…..We tracked it up the river nearly to golf course before having to call it off. All I’m saying is……I bet if that guy could go back and do it over again he would have something else in his hands besides a .243… …. Just sayin.

I’ll have to remember that next time I wanna shoot one in the arsehole 🤣🤣🤣

There’s no telling what you see as a tracker. Nearly every 243 horror story I’ve heard reads a lot like that one. It’s usually either a woman or a youth hunter with very little trigger time that truth be known has no business trying to kill a deer BUT uncle daddy boyfriend buys them a low recoil gun and takes them hunting anyway. Deer walks out and either the Tasco scope fogs up or the shakes kick in or maybe they take too long putting the iPad down and by the time they’re ready to shoot the angle is less than optimum, the shot is rushed, results sucketh. Speed dial *47 call the tracker….stupid 243 ain’t worth chit.

Yessa sounds about right. My boy will be using a 308 or 7mm08 carbine for his first. Vortex scope MINIMUM.

My son shot his first deer with the ole .243 this year. He hit her in the shoulder and it was still a pass through without much of an exit hole. But she went down and was DRT. The power was more than adequate I just wasn't impressed with the exit wound. I'm glad she went down quick. His shot placement could have been a little better but I think with any round you make a bad shot your gonna get bad results.That was my first experience with the round but hopefully he will get another one this year and we will have to follow back up on the thread with the results.

I’ve killed a bunch with a 243 several well over 200 yards. Never saw a deer take a step until after I had “outgrown” the 243. It was bad medicine. I can guarantee you this if you don’t kill the deer it ain’t the caliber. I also have a creedmoor it has claimed 3 of the biggest bucks I’ve ever killed. All were 200 pounds + between 70 and 330 yards. If my bald head could grow a manbun and fit my muffin top in skinny jeans I’d gladly sport it all if that’s the requirement for 6.5.

This thread will never be complete without the following:


Tracking Dog List


If you are into .243s..... Go ahead and jot a few of these numbers down and keep them in your purse.

The best natural born killer I know killed 99 % of his deer with a .243 win in a 700 CDL that was given to him as a kid . Only one that got away was straight on brisket shot. My dad killed the deer a few days later. The bullet went in between the shoulder and rib cage, glanced off the rib cage and split the hide .

November 14th, zone D. My daughter shot an 8 point at 125 yds with her Mossberg .243 BA youth model. Using Winchester 95 grain Deer Season XP. Buck went 10 yards, stopped and dropped. Heart shot.
She's taken 4 bucks, 3 does with her .243. There's been 2 we couldn't recover.

I have never shot one myself with a .243, but my brother and his son have killed a pile with theirs. When I hear that hi pitched piicow I am both happy and cringe at the same time, because I know it is time for me to dig my flashlight out for a fun night of tracking. The deer will be dead if well hit. But the tend to run 100+ yards with little blood.

Just something to think about, I have never been on a tracking job and heard the words “ I sure wish I had of shot it with something smaller”

We all can’t be stone-cold killers with a 6mm.Just jealousy I guess…

I was watching a hunting show earlier with Tom Miranda I believe it was…….He was bowhunting and talking about his setup and said that he wanted the arrow and broadhead that preformed the best on the worst shot……That same logic applies to guns….. For a grown man capable of shooting a bigger caliber gun to carry a .243 to the woods instead of something like a 30-06 is just asking for something to go wrong.

That line of thought can be carried to far very easily (e.g. bow hunting during firearms season, need a 338 mag to shoot a little AL deer, etc.). I bow hunt or shoot a pistol all year. Should I just stop hunting? Maybe I should hunt with my shotgun for squirrels in case I don’t head shoot them with the .22. Slippery slope.

If it’s legal hunt with it.

.243 will kill one just as dead as an -06. Neither will kill if the shot is bad. I’ve killed a pile of deer with both and would rather shoot the .243 if I’m in the timber.