See all of the talk of large magnum needs and as we come to an end of another year of hunting, I thought I'd shares my experience this year with the .243. I have always hunted with a .30-06 up to about 8 years ago when I switched to a .260 due to the '06 recoil. I love my .260 but decided to try something new this year....
Wal-mart was running a special on Remington 700 ADLs for $297 (plus $35 rebate) with a cheap scope back in October. I bought one for my kids to use but decided to try it. I replaced the scope with a Nikon ProStaff 5 3.5-14x40 with the BDC. I then decided to try some loads I had previously loaded which were Sierra GameKing 85 gr HPBTs with 37.0 gr of IMR4064. This load, while not a tested load for this rifle, shot 3-shots into a little larger than 1/2 MOA @ 100 yards (.646 I believe). Knowing my load's muzzle velocity (verified with chronograph), I took the time to learn the BDC using Nikon's Spot-On website.
With that said, I've never shot a deer with a rifle over 100 yards until this year. This year, I harvested 3 deer with this little setup. I took deer at 280, 350 and 410 yards. This setup has made a believer out of me in that you do not need a magnum to make a clean harvest. If you take the time to practice, learn your rifle and put 'em where it counts, any centerfire caliber will work. I don't know that I'll ever replace my .260 but I now have confidence that the .243 works where I was skeptical in the past.
Wal-mart was running a special on Remington 700 ADLs for $297 (plus $35 rebate) with a cheap scope back in October. I bought one for my kids to use but decided to try it. I replaced the scope with a Nikon ProStaff 5 3.5-14x40 with the BDC. I then decided to try some loads I had previously loaded which were Sierra GameKing 85 gr HPBTs with 37.0 gr of IMR4064. This load, while not a tested load for this rifle, shot 3-shots into a little larger than 1/2 MOA @ 100 yards (.646 I believe). Knowing my load's muzzle velocity (verified with chronograph), I took the time to learn the BDC using Nikon's Spot-On website.
With that said, I've never shot a deer with a rifle over 100 yards until this year. This year, I harvested 3 deer with this little setup. I took deer at 280, 350 and 410 yards. This setup has made a believer out of me in that you do not need a magnum to make a clean harvest. If you take the time to practice, learn your rifle and put 'em where it counts, any centerfire caliber will work. I don't know that I'll ever replace my .260 but I now have confidence that the .243 works where I was skeptical in the past.