The mighty 243 Win

[NIGHTHAWK]

.243 works good on Wildebeest too:

I know; they only get to 550lbs…

 

[NIGHTHAWK]

Barbary Ram - No problem for a .243

 

[NIGHTHAWK]

.243 loves a Lechwe:

 

[NIGHTHAWK]

Bush Pigs - .243 and Barnes TTSX 80 Grain are deadly :

 

[NIGHTHAWK]

.243 = Tsessebe

.243 Don’t care…

 

[Ray B]

@NIGHTHAWK - What load do you use for trucks- and is there a general season or do you need a special permit?

 

[NIGHTHAWK]

 

[NIGHTHAWK]

Blesbok at 380 yards with the .243

 

[NIGHTHAWK]

Night hunting with the .243 and Nightforce scope:

 

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2 - Reedbuck on the same trip.

Mountain Reedbuck

 

[NIGHTHAWK]

.243 dispatched this little guy at over 200 yards…

 

[NIGHTHAWK]

Not my best shot on this impala at about 380
Yards… Quartering away and then started to move as I shot. Took a second shot at a little over 200 yards. I wrote about my disappointment in taking that shot in my report because the small heard was not settled and we were pressuring them in an open valley.

He ran into the hills and in very shorter order, .243 hammered him dead on the shoulder.

.243 Barnes 80 grain TTSX Punched through on the second shot

 

[NIGHTHAWK]

.243 Redemption on this Free State warthog at over 300 yards. We shot several on that trip…

 

[NIGHTHAWK]

Jackals and Baboons don’t stand a chance against a .243!

 

[Miletic]

I am quite professionally involved in weapons and ballistics,wrote a book about reloading. I used a lot of different calibers. I wrote for a European magazine that deals with testing weapons, optics and calibers. Personally i tested various calibers and projectiles. Of course, there are many excellent calibers, but few of them are equal to 243. It can be used for a wide range of animals, from the lightest to very heavy ones. I'm not sure there are many calibers that can measure up to it. Calibers similar to it have appeared in recent years, but they have yet to be proven. This is of course my opinion based on a certain experience. The point is not to put a bullet of 220 grams and 80 grams of gunpowder in a case, and shoot a deer with it. "Wisdom rules, the power of wood carries"

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

I am quite professionally involved in weapons and ballistics,wrote a book about reloading. I used a lot of different calibers. I wrote for a European magazine that deals with testing weapons, optics and calibers. Personally i tested various calibers and projectiles. Of course, there are many excellent calibers, but few of them are equal to 243. It can be used for a wide range of animals, from the lightest to very heavy ones. I'm not sure there are many calibers that can measure up to it. Calibers similar to it have appeared in recent years, but they have yet to be proven. This is of course my opinion based on a certain experience. The point is not to put a bullet of 220 grams and 80 grams of gunpowder in a case, and shoot a deer with it. "Wisdom rules, the power of wood carries"

@Miletic
Sorry but I have to disagree with your findings.
The 25 cal cartridges were doing everything the 243 is supposed to do before it came along and are still doing the job now and doing it better.
What is the 243 doing that the 250-3000 Savage wasn't doing for 30 years before the 243 came along. Nothing.
Like all things sellable the more advertising you can give a product the better it sells whether is a good or bad product . Winchester knew that and promoted the crap out of it.
Later with the advent of chronographs available to shooters Winchester had to revise their pie in the sky velocities down to actual levels.
In the right hands with the right projectiles it may work but the problem is the majority of shooters/hunters read all these wonderful stories about the 243, rush out and buy one and end up sorely disappointed. What these people fail to do is match the projectile to the game.
@NIGHTHAWK has great success using the 89gn TTSX but the average person just reads the hype rushes out and buys a box of 87gn soft points and wonders why game doesn't fall down.

The 25 cals on the other hand according to Nathan Foster's ballistic studies kill way out of proportion to their size and are a far better general purpose hunting cartridge because of this. My personal experience bares this out after over 50 years of hunting.
Bob

 

[Ray B]

There is nothing magical about the bullet fired from a necked down .308 Winchester case that isn't also true of the same bullet fired from a necked down 7x57mm case (aka 6mm Rem) and much less magical if fired from a 240 Weatherby.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

There is nothing magical about the bullet fired from a necked down .308 Winchester case that isn't also true of the same bullet fired from a necked down 7x57mm case (aka 6mm Rem) and much less magical if fired from a 240 Weatherby.

@Ray B
The only magical thing about the 6mm projectiles is the same magic in a lot of projectiles.
You just have to pick the right one for the job and depending on who you talk to that can vary from person to person. Pick the wrong projectile and no matter what cal it ain't going to work.
A lot of people believe the hype and bullshit of advertising and make mistakes, inclut ME. I have meant over the years what works and doesn't for me.
An 80 gn TTSX , 95gn SST work well for the majority of game. Personally if I was hunting medium or large medium game at shorter ranges upto 150 yards the good old 100gn RNSP will do a great job and in my humble opinion be better than the other two. As range extends out past this the pointy bullets take over with a big advantage.
Projectiles are magical things, some rely on smoke, mirrors and gullibility others actually work. A bit like fishing lures. They catch more fisherman than fish.
Bob

 

[NIGHTHAWK]

One thing should be made clear, and that is, an unpracticed hunter will not make up for a poorly placed shot by simply using a larger caliber bullet and more powerful cartridge…

There are very few exceptions, but plenty of examples to the prove the point.

“Enough gun” seems to imply that poor shots are acceptable as long as you are using a .30 Cal or greater. -Not if you don’t shoot it predictably accurate. If you are recoil sensitive, flinch, cant your rifle, and generally don’t practice, you may miss or have animals run off injured and not recovered.

I’m not recoil sensitive and started out rifle hunting with a 7MM REM MAG. I have the same set up and process of shooting regardless of the caliber I use up to .375H&H. I don’t expect that to change even with my .450. Except, I’ll likely be taking shorter shots.

Bob makes a good point about the correct bullet. I use Barnes bullets and post honest reports about my experiences. Including pictures of heart and lung shots and recovered bullets.

I’ve had a couple bad hunting experiences with Accubond bullets and don’t use them anymore. I switched from Nosler Partition to Barnes TSX and TTSX because I appreciate the predictable performance of Barnes in most of my hunting rifles .22-250 to .375H&H. I’m not shitting on Nosler Partitions…

I also use Berger VLD Hunting bullets in my .300 RUM because it was built to shoot VLD’s long distance accurately. I’ve killed a couple Elk and 1 Mule Deer with Berger without issue. In the event that I do have a problem with Berger, I’ll post about it, first hand…

Each their own.

 

[Badboymelvin]

@Miletic
Sorry but I have to disagree with your findings.
The 25 cal cartridges were doing everything the 243 is supposed to do before it came along and are still doing the job now and doing it better.
What is the 243 doing that the 250-3000 Savage wasn't doing for 30 years before the 243 came along. Nothing.
Like all things sellable the more advertising you can give a product the better it sells whether is a good or bad product . Winchester knew that and promoted the crap out of it.
Later with the advent of chronographs available to shooters Winchester had to revise their pie in the sky velocities down to actual levels.
In the right hands with the right projectiles it may work but the problem is the majority of shooters/hunters read all these wonderful stories about the 243, rush out and buy one and end up sorely disappointed. What these people fail to do is match the projectile to the game.
@NIGHTHAWK has great success using the 89gn TTSX but the average person just reads the hype rushes out and buys a box of 87gn soft points and wonders why game doesn't fall down.

The 25 cals on the other hand according to Nathan Foster's ballistic studies kill way out of proportion to their size and are a far better general purpose hunting cartridge because of this. My personal experience bares this out after over 50 years of hunting.
Bob

Hi Bob

Sorry mate, but I have to disagree with you on the point that the .243 is only popular because of marketing hype...

The .243 has been around since 1955 - that's 70 years, and I don't believe a cartridge hangs around that long purely because of marketing hype.

No, I think that a cartridge hangs around that long because its effective and it works.
And it's not just clinging on either, it's still popular.

Just have a think of how many cartridges in the last 20 years or so that have failed to take off?
And just think of how much marketing hype THOSE cartridges had, yet they still failed to succeed...

It's just my personal opinion, but I think that the .243 is an outstanding cartridge and Winchester got everything right with it.
And the fact that it made several calibre's obsolete - or close to it, mean I mustn't be the only one to think this.

I love the .243 and I think that it delivers on everything that it promises - and with modern projectiles, it's better than ever!

Russ