If you can shoot a .243 well and know where to hit an animal to put it down humanely then why not use a .243? That doesn't mean that you take a 500 yard pot shot at an elk with it, but under 200 yards, why not? I think that part of the problem is that we all read too many magazines and they are in the business of selling us on the newest and supposedly best guns and with them being all lawyered up nowdays they can't possibly tell us that a .243 is going to get the job done.