I personally hate .243's for deer hunting but my wife brought one into the relationship and won't let me trade it off for a 7-08or 270. Sheinsist on taking it if she goes hunting with me. She shoots 80 hp's from it and it does great on does and small bucks but the 8 or 9 deer she has shot that were 160lb-185lbbucks didn't get a passthrough and I ended up doing some indian tracking to find them. Not that they went far but blood doesn't like tocome out a hole the size of a needle. Any bullet that is put in the right spot will do the job.