RE: 243 and deer
You are a lucky guy...Its good that someone thought enough of you to give you a gun after they had departed....
How much do you want to hear about a .243??? I have used one for deer since 1980 and I can tell you, it makes an excellent deer rifle...I have already killed 4 with mine this year, in fact, I've gone to my flintlock because 4 is about all that my family will eat this year...I have killed at least 140 or so deer with this gun....Inside of 200 yards the factory Hornady 100 gr Interlock, the Federal Premium 100 gr Nosler Partition and the Remington 100 gr CoreLokt will all give good exit wounds and consistant blood trails...I have killed deer myself with all 3 of these loadings...Frankly I have killed 75 or so deer with plain old 100 grain CoreLokts...I used this bullet from 1980 until 1995, when I decided to try some other factory loadings and see the difference in wound channels...Good Luck...