Trying to decide on a caliber for my son’s first deer rifle. I was going to get him a 243 and a buddy of mine suggested a 6mm creedmoor. He said it’s just a better version of a 243. Has anybody had any experience with that caliber for deer or would 243 be a better option.

How old is he? Big boned small?

Not that much better, but much harder to find ammo for it. If you roll your own it may not matter to you.

7-08 or .308 and start with managed recoil ammo. Youth stock and then move up as they grow.
I just prefer those for bullet options and a 7-08 with managed recoil has really no felt recoil.

243 be fine , id look at a short single shot . He gonna grow out of what ever you buy him now any way .

Couple boxes of 100gr Hornaday softpoint he good to go

A .243 will be fine but he will grow out of it eventually. If it were me I'd get the 6.5 CM.

You'll hear a lot of trash talk about the CM because the caliber is so popular and for whatever reason the old school guys hate it. I bought a Creedmoor about four years ago and I've killed a bunch of big bucks with it since I started shooting it, and several of them were well over 200 lbs. Out of all the ones I've shot with it only 1 of them ran and he didn't go far, maybe 60 yards. I shoot Nosler Trophy Grade 142 grains out of my Christensen and it kills them just fine, and is suitable for a younger shooter because it has light recoil. You can suppress it and shave that recoil down even more.

Can't grow out of a caliber. I'm 6'2" 400 still shoot .243 some every year.
Now I own others as well 7mag,.270, .308 , 6.5prc, 223.
But still love .243

There’s not that many calibers, but there’s a bunch of cartridges in each caliber. Caliber and cartridge are not the same. Ie, a 6 Creedmoor and 243win are not calibers, they’re cartridges inside the .264 caliber.

You’re right about cartridge/caliber BUT neither 6Creed nor 243Win are .264

You’re right. They’re right I was thinking of the 6.5 that was mentioned earlier. Good catch.

OP, either of the 2 cartridges that you mentioned will do your little one well their whole life.

Well, that is a true statement but what I meant is that most kids start out with a .243 and when they get old enough to decide on their own or even buy their own rifle, the majority are not going to choose a .243 again. Just because to their buddies it ain't a "cool" caliber to shoot. Most kids aren't going to want to shoot a .243 forever. I started with a .243 and killed a pile of deer with it. Later on I graduated up to a 25-06 and then a .308. Shot a 7 mag for a lot of years, and then finally I bought a Creedmoor several years back to shoot pigs with but I liked it so well I started carrying it as my primary.

When my kid turned 11 I got him a .308. I was looking for a 7-08. He started off shooting 165's in the .308. Has never lost a deer he has shot.

Previously he was shooting 7-30 Waters. Which they don't make in anything but is an awesome youth round. I loaded it with a 140 BT it was a single shot. Smoked 2 nice bucks he's got on the wall.

30-30 is also good for a kid. If it kicks too much he doesn't need to be out there hunting he's too little. It doesn't kick any more than a .410. Facts. The 30-30 with a 150gr. has about 10lbs of recoil. A .243 with a 100gr. has about 9lbs.

Do not buy a stupid .243 for anyone anywhere. No grown ass man should be shooting that at a deer. It's a varmint round.

The 243 is a great round for a kid. As the OP mentioned needing a rifle for. Kid's being recoil shy will lose more deer than the round they are shooting. At least that's been my experience. If they shoot without fear of getting smacked in the face they will make a far better shot.

If they can't handle a 30-30 they aren't ready. If they are recoil shy they need to shoot more. My daughter shoots a 7-08.

It's a really stupid argument and even worse to teach someone to go into the woods under-gunned with a dam pea shooter. That's setting them up for a lifetime of misery looking for wounded animals. Some of this is ethics IMO.


There is literally ZERO reason to shoot .243.

243 is a fine round and would be my suggestion between the two. The heavier 6mm bullets will easily kill if the shooter is proficient and the shooter knows where to place the bullet (as most of you know, this is true for all rifle cartidges) but there will likely be way more bullet/cartridge options with a 243 at common sporting goods stores.

And I agree with GoatKiller on 30-30s. A dirty-thrity would also be a good starter rifle for a youth.

Thanks for the suggestions it’s still a little bit early to get him started but I’m trying to get ready for it. I had my nephew out there shooting deer when he was 5 and my son is bigger than he was. He had a 243 and still has it so I guess I’ll just go with what I know. Just didn’t know anything about the 6mm creedmoor. We never really had any trouble out of the 243 with recovering deer. Only one time that he double lunged a doe and we didn’t have any blood trail in some super thick overgrown clear cut. Never found that one and I had the hit on video.

243 is a fine deer rifle if you need more caliber than that youre just a bad shot.

Now thats bs . A 243 is ok if you wanna be waiting on the right shot they fine . I don't like to wait . I'm not watching a nice buck walk off because of bad angle .

Being a good shot has nothing to do with that .


The 30-30 has been priced out as a first gun . cheaper ways to go . Singlr shot 350 legend took its place, thats the way id go or a 243 .

There's alot of truth to this, for sure, unless you want that first one to be an heirloom. If you just want an inexpensive black/syn bolt gun or single shot, there are way better (less expensive) options.

If you could find something like a CVA stalker single in 30-30 ... and handload some pointed 30 cal pills for it, now that would be an eyebrow raiser.

like most post op talking about buying a first gun for the his kid . no body buy a kid a gun that will do for now and meant to last forever .

went back and found this . short read .





https://realtree.com/4-Deer-Guns-th...e%20for%20recoil%2Dsensitive%20shooters.

i think what people do and they dont realize it is they want to put the most gun they can find in a young hunters hands .

imo , the only gun you could get a kid to hunt with and it be truly useful the rest of his life now is a AR 300bo. thats the life time gun i would buy a 9 year that was under my watch .

I ain’t letting a buck walk off either. Put a Barnes 85 grain in that 243 and shoot em any which way you want to. Bang flop

ok

For a young man, 243 all day and twice on Sunday. I started with a 30-30, moved to a 30-06 and 270’s. Then spent years with .300win and 300RUM. Then after many dead deer I realized there was no magic or artillery needed to kill deer. They’re not nearly as large in reality as they are in our minds. After burning 98gr of powder a pop for a few years I decided to do a .243 build. I’ve now been shooting it almost exclusively for the past 12 years using / loading Nosler partitions in all 3 available weights. I have shot the Barnes as well but prefer the partitions personally. In my experience, which includes some of my best bucks, it lacks absolutely nothing. Hard quartering shots have never been an issue and there’s two holes 99% of the time (I had one that didn’t exit). Broadside is dead at shot or down within sight. I absolutely trust it 100%. I’m 54 now and find that recoil, muzzle blast and lethality are all at very desirable levels. These statements aren’t rehashed from an article or forum I read. I had enough interest to have a nice .243 built and proceeded to gain hands-on experience. Should you get a 6creed, same results will be found. I also have a 35whelen and a 30-06. They watch the .243 get to go hunting now days.

dawgdr gets it. It's about bullet construction in the lighter calibers. A well placed partition in a 243 will get the job done all day long on any whitetail that walks. They aren't Cape Buffalo or Grizzly Bears. They are deer.

Bayli is 19yrs old now and she is still shooting her “little” Ruger American compact .243. No problems with the 100gr interlocks. They kill just fine.

Nice , means yall aint buying up my 7mag and 35 Whelen ammo and I won't be buying 243

.243 is a fine round for a young person. I however went the route of thinking that my boys would feel like wanting a larger caliber and then those guns would collect dust. Therefore, I bought my oldest a .7-08. Then I bought my younger son a .308. Then my daughter a .308. They started killing there first deer around 8 years old. I never used the reduced recoil loads and never did I or they feel that the recoil was too much. They loved shooting their rifles! On my oldest son’s first trip to Texas, he used my .300wbymag and killed a monster. That Christmas, he wanted a .300 mag but I sold him on the idea of it being a win mag rather than a wbymag. Once he got that gun, he never picked up that .7-08 again. Like I said before, nothing wrong with a .243 but I am of the school of thought that they will want a larger caliber and you can easily start them off with a .260, 6.5 creed, .7-08, or .308 without any issues.

Y'all are wrong. What is actually "wrong" with a .243 is that it's a varmint round. You are sitting here talking about how it's a good deer rifle when you have MAX'ed out the gun with a 100 grain?

WTH is that?

A .243 won't kill a deer any more dead than a .223. Why not use a .223 then? Better yet... Why don't you just bow hunt at the bottom of your rabbit hole. You can kill one with a stick they do it all the time. You're right.... you don't need a .300 Win Mag at all. That is 100% factual and accurate.

None of it makes any sense. Why would you not want a rifle caliber that is more capable and far more versatile down the road? I don't understand how that argument can be denied. It doesn't matter if you don't "think" you'll need it because you'll never hunt anything other than a scrawny 100lb AL whitetail and most likely a doe at that...... When you go to Illinois on a hunt.... would you honestly make the choice to take a pea shooter with you?.... knowing a trophy of a lifetime might appear at any moment?

Maybe you would. Hail with that from my chair. That's either or both a lack of common sense or an lack of fundamental understanding of rifle cartridges and ballistics.

Final Answer = A grown ass man should not be hunting deer with a .243. Why? Because there is absolutely ZERO reason to be shooting it. No legitimate argument can be made that it is a "better" choice than at least 6 other options. Because facts matter.

Even Google Knows better and there probably isn't a single a-hole up there that hunts but somehow a computer nerd knows more than some here the round was designed for Varmint hunting:



People also ask

What was the 243 designed for?

varmint

243 was introduced by Winchester in 1955 along with its Model 70 bolt-action rifle, and was created by necking down the . 308/7.62mm case to 6mm/. 243. It was essentially designed as a 'varmint' (small vermin such as prairie dogs) round, propelling light, 55gr bullets at high velocities, often in excess of 4,000fps.

You need to point to the spot on the doll where the 243 hurt you.

Little man needs a hug this morning…. And since you like Google so much

“The .243 Winchester (6×52mm) is a popular sporting rifle cartridge. Developed as a versatile short action cartridge to hunt both medium game and small game alike, it "took whitetail hunting by storm" when introduced in 1955, and remains one of the most popular whitetail deer cartridges. It is also commonly used for harvesting blacktail deer, pronghorns and mule deer with heavier rounds, and is equally suited to varmint hunting with lighter rounds. The .243 is based on a necked down .308 Winchester, introduced only three years earlier. Expanding monolithic copper bullets of approximately 80 to 85 grains or traditional lead rounds of 90 to 105 grains with controlled expansion designs are best suited for hunting medium game, while lighter rounds are intended for varmints.”

Let it go. Let it go. Let it go.

I killed a 220 pound 8 point last year with a 223 and 77 grain TMK handloads. 🤷‍♂️

I've killed several 500lb steers with a 22. Lol

Goatkiller, if thats what they wanna use let them have at it . Never be my go to though.

Yeah, cause that’s totally the same. 🤦‍♂️

The only reason NOT to shoot is 243 is b/c you have a 6mm creedmoor. One main advantage of a factory 6 creed is the faster twist barrel which stabilizes heavier bullets and factory match ammo is also readily available.

I’ve only killed around 200 deer with a rifle with everything from a 300 WSM down to a 223. My “experience” (not someone’s opinion) has shown that deer die just as quickly from a high velocity 6mm bullet than from anything else. Actually using 88gr Hammer Hunter bullets @3300 fps, deer die quicker than anything else I’ve ever shot them with. Sometimes they drop at the shot even when the central nervous isn’t directly hit. The shockwave created by high velocity bullets is absolutely devastating.

Over the past 4 yrs I’ve exclusively used a 6 creed to hunt with and have killed 41 deer from point blank range to 445 yards. None have escaped b/c I was “under gunned”.

In fact way less deer would be missed and/or crippled each season if everyone was shooting a 243 and would shoot 4 boxes of ammo prior to each season, instead of using the latest whiz bang magnum and only checking zero with 2 shots b/c it hurts to shoot it and the ammo is so expensive.

BUY THE 6 CREED

For the OP-

http://www.aldeer.com/forum/ubbthre...in=212267&Number=3002653#Post3002653

http://www.aldeer.com/forum/ubbthre...in=209142&Number=2948154#Post2948154

http://www.aldeer.com/forum/ubbthre...in=247874&Number=3535657#Post3535657

Lol yeah , ain't a story or tell to be told that'll change my mind that a 243 is a good deer round . Oh yeah it'll kill a deer .
But over the years there's been many times I was glad I wasn't hunting with a 243 .


Any thing under 150 yards ill take a 30-30 any thing past that id want a 270 (i perfer the 7mag). Nothing fancy about them two calibers. Ammo cheap and easy to find and they do the job . Almost any body can shoot them .


Fast bullet do this fast bullet do that. Yeah if you can put it the right spot they'll drop them like a rock. I don't like waiting on the right spot !!!!!



I agree with Goatkiller if you can shoot a better round you should. Hell my sister shoots a Browning 7mag. Two old women I used to dog hunt with used slugs in 16ga . Just no good reason to stay with a 243. IMO

6 mm remington owners are giggling.

I’ve converted Bayli’s .243 to a 6mm-08. Really made a big difference in the performance!! It’s almost to much for small S. Alabama size deer.

Lol

old post but just dropping my 2 cents. I'd definitely go 6 creed. I've taken 22 deer and countless varmints over the past 2 years with mine. I compete with a 6gt out to 1200 yards so shot placement is my forte. I'm 6'2" and 235 but like to spot my shots. Also, wouldn't even shoot at a coyote without being able to place a lethal shot on it. respect the animal, dead is dead

"You'll hear a lot of trash talk about the CM because the caliber is so popular and for whatever reason the old school guys hate it."

BC, I was one of the "old school guys" in the beginning with the 6.5 CM but ever since I started shooting mine, I have warmed up to it considerably. It hits with plenty authority for woods goats and the bullet construction is, as always, the deal maker/breaker. As someone with a prosthetic shoulder joint, I have been advised by my surgeon to leave the bazookas alone, but the 6.5 CM and PRC are plenty powerful without detaching your retina!
Remember this above all else: it aint what you shoot, it's how you shoot it!

Biggest buck I’ve ever seen was killed with an old 243 an 100gr Corelokts. It was killed in the Mississippi River bottoms in Clarksville Missouri. The only main frame 12pt I’ve ever seen. I wish we would’ve weighed that thing. It was the whole length of the truck bed and was better then half the width of it. Good grief that was a big animal. Old man Huckstep just couldn’t figure out what all the fuss was about. He said it was just the first deer that walked out in front of him. You gotta love them old people.

I glad you guys are buying them . You ain't using up the ammo I need . Lol

“I’m pretty sure I hit him” famous words of the bazooka boys as they were casually looking at the wood line 250 yards to the right of the animal after getting spun in their heated seat of their sportsman condo. True story 😂😂 all in fun, I want anyone to shoot what they want.

I prefer all calibers. A 300blk or 350 legend would be a good gun for a kid. Just buy him another one in a year or two. Personally, i want one of each.

nothing wrong with a 357mag rifle either for a kid . cheap to shoot a lot too.

Theres one on psa right now for $499, lever action too

Not one thing wrong with a 6mm creed or a .243, but I will always favor the 7mm-08. Just hammers deer. Only thing I like better for whitetail is .25-06 or .257 Roberts.

If you put good bullets (made for the game you’re hunting), in the right spot (for the game you’re hunting), then calibers and case head stamps are mostly semantics. If burning more powder and slinging fatter and heavier bullets makes you more comfortable, then do that. If you like more efficient stuff, then do that. Bad bullets and bad shooting end badly, regardless. I have zero qualms about 6mms, but i think the 6.5s do more at whitetail ranges….if that matters to you.

I'm all for anybody to shoot whatever they want to shoot. The 2 longest trailing jobs I was ever involved in was deer shot with a 300 Win and a 308 Norma mag. These 2 deer went for ever.

There you go making sense again.

6mm. Dash.