gavinlobland

I'm not worried about recoil as I shoot a 12 gauge just fine most of the year and I think I want the .243 cuz I save the hides on yotes

Game Stalker

I would also suggest the .243 . As has been said, you can use the .22 rifles for small game. The .243 will give you extra reach, if necessary, and will provide new shooting pleasure. If you ever end up outside your region/state, there's your medium game hunting rifle.

alleyyooper

I have a 243 and I hand load for it. I use it for coyotes when it is a little windier than I am comfortable with using my 220 swift. Same goes for sniping crows, ever see one become a cloud of feathers floating in the wind? Don't tear up whistle pigs to make them in eatable either. I have harvest some big UP deer with mine and many in the lower above the shot gun zone.

Al

8mm/06

I'd vote for the .243. Perfect for coyotes at almost any range practical.

A wonderful round that is often looked down on for being marginal or too small for deer.

However, my biggest-bodied deer (about 215 dressed out) fell to a well placed 100 grain .243 handload in 1995 on Thanksgiving day in Wilderness State Park just west of Mackinaw City, lower peninsula. Though I could hardly find a trace of the bullet, it entered just behind the front extended leg and blew up right where the trachea, esophagus, and major blood vessels to the boiler room came together and separated the whole shooting match. Heart and lungs lost communication with the control room! The bullet did not exit, and as I said, I could barely find a few pieces of shredded jacket. The deer took about 16 steps and laid down quick and quiet.

Some would say the bullet failed. The deer disagrees.