ORIGINAL: nchawkeye
gkellys...A .243 will serve her well...Forget the .257 Roberts and the .250 Savage...The .243 rendered them obsolete years ago...Just look at any manufacturer's list of centerfire rifle cartridges avaliable...most have several .243 loadings and one or two for the .257 Roberts and .250 Savage...They were good loadings..but they are now for reloaders....
.243 an experts cartridge??? Where do you plan to put the bullet?? In the guts or in the hams??? If so...get a .300 Mag...Frankly I have seen more deer wounded up and lost because of poor shooting (flinching) than from shooting them in the lungs/shoulder from a .243....The guys that think a .243 is too small for deer....How many have YOU shot with this round??? How many were recovered so you know where you hit them...Or did you just think you hit them where you were aiming....I have used a .243 since 1980...have killed over 130 whitetails with....its entirely adequate... especially for your Georgia deer....
Jack O'Conner once said that guys that used big guns are like guys that drink hard liquor....must make them think they are more of a man.....The size of the man has nothing to do with the caliber in his hand....I'm 6ft 5...250....If you can shoot...a .243 is all you need for most situations.....I have killed them out to 300 yards...all this foot pound garbage is for the gun salesmen...I have never killed a deer on paper...
I hear you hawkey, you know I shoot a .243 and have picked it over many calibers.
I've tried to explain that energy doesnt kill, 2000lbs of energy is a load of crap, almost all bullets hit with around 10lbs of force, period ! This is actuall ft lbs, not some theory.
I also get tired of hearing about marginal shots or room for error, a missed shot is a miss, .222 or 300 mag, you better have some tracking skills.
A .222 in the vitals is better than a .460 in the gut, any day of the week and on sunday too.
I also cant believe people recomending an 30-06 for a small girl, that is ridiculous. I dont know if you know but HELLO ? A 30-06 is a big game cartridge, Jeeeez, and offers no better killing power on deer than a lot smaller cartridges. People need to match cartridges to the game their after.