Hello Stemhead, i have owned and shot a 243 for 30 years. Nice caliber if you can find Barnes X bullets in factory loads or maybe the Nosler partation. I reload and use the Barnes X bullets and the price is cheap for the work they do. Thats to penetrate deep almost always a pass through !The other and maybe better all around calibers are 257 Roberts a Rem. 260 or a 6.5x55 they're sweet to shoot![&:]