zrexpilot and roskoe,
Thanks for the replies. I also find that vanilla style bullets in modest velocities are all thats needed for most deer. I did take one pretty large buck once, and even though the placement seemed perfect, and even thought the deer only went about 16 yards, I was unnerved about the bullet completely coming apart and I wasn't able pieces much bigger than a match-head. The deer was plenty dead and quickly too....it's just when the bullet came apart so much I started to second guess the round's ability on heavier size deer.
I still carry the 243 for much of my hunting, but when I get into the bear woods, or am after a particular deer with very sizeable tracks, I will carry my 6.5 X 55, 30/06 or 8mm/06.