A lot of folk will disagree, but .243Win is too light for deer, save for when range, angle and a clear, clean shot is presented. Deer can take a heart shot from a 100gr .243Win and keep going, sometimes for hundreds of yards. In woods, at dusk, having to track a wounded deer may be impossible. A larger wound channel has a much better chance of putting the deer down. Use something like a .270Win with a good 130gr bullet. Two hits on two deer, in the same spot, at the same range would show the difference. That would be difficult to set up, but I wager that many deer will be anchored by the hit in the boiler room from the .270win and if the shot is from a .243win, the deer will run. If one is careful enough to always get head and neck shots with a .243Win, deer will always drop. Likewise, with shots that sever the spine. But boiler room shots into the heart lung area of a deer with a 100gr .243Win bullet, many times simply does not get the job done. Robert Ruark was correct, when he wrote, "Use enough gun". If you do not like the .270Win, get a 7mm-08, .308Win, all in short actions, like the .243Win, which is a necked down .308Win. In long actions, you cannot go wrong with .270Win., 280Rem or the old standby 30-06. Forget .223Rem for deer, unless you are a poacher.
Let me tell you this. GET A .270 Winchester. This is the best all around huting gun imho. What cant you take with a 270? Deer : hell yes. Varmits: a bit much but with the right rounds u can do it without too much damage. Elk : No problem Bear : yes ( YES ) Alot of african plains game..etc..
I have killed 2 deer with a .243 and both ran less than 50 feet, it is a great whitetail deer cartridge. I personally like my 7mm-08 better, but the .243 is a wonderful cartridge.
Last year, I opening morning of the gun season, a decent sized yearling 3 pointer (which I actually thought was a 6-8 pointer, because it had a 13 inch spread, but anyway) stepped out 75 yards away, a made a grunting sound with my mouth, and my .243 destroyed his lungs, and took off low and hard and I found him 30 yards away...
People who say a .243 will allow the deer to run forever simply cannot shoot
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Fred Bear TRX 29"/70#, Gold Tip XT Hunter 5575, Scott Sabertooth Release, Trophy Ridge 3 pin sight, NAP Shockblocker Stabilizer, Whisker Biscuit, Rage 100-grain 2-blade Broadheads
.243 if you are saying multipurpose, but it would be cutting it pretty close for deer. I personally think it is small, but then again ppl that have used it on deer think it works fine for them.
Or you could just get a small caliber gun for varmint as so and a larger caliber for deer and up.
.223 or .243
