Thats crazy popeye, deciding on a gun by the diameter of the bore. A .243 makes a .257 look like a cap gun. It is quite a bit more effective than the .257.

Heres a comapro between the two.

................................................10 0yds...........200.................300
......................................fps
.243 100gr Fed.BT........................2760.............257 0................2380
.257.117gr remcoreloc...................2291.............1961 ................1663

................................. Energy
243...........................................1690 .............1460................1260
.257..........................................1363 ..............999..................718

The .243 has almost twice the energy than the .257 at 300 yds. The .243 at 300 yds is what the 257 is at 100.

zrexpilot,
Make that same comparison using a 25-06 or a 257 Weatherby mag instead of using 257 Bob ballistics off the Remington website. I beleive the .243 to be a fine deer cartridge and a fine varmint cartridge but let's not get silly about putting it up against a 257 caliber in energy. The 257 Bob is also a great cartridge but is certainly not the premier 257 bore.

Here is the deal. We all know you love your 243 Win, but you just put your foot in your mouth so to speak. I am not trying to take anything away from the 243 Win, but your comparison to the 257 Roberts using an anemic load to stack the odds against the 257 is quite unfair. The 257 Roberts, when handloaded, can outshine the best 243 Win load you can stack up against it. Try running the numbers yourself instead of relying on one-sided data.

Well, it seems the .257 Roberts is another one of those cartridges that gets grossly underloaded by certain companies. (Remington if you couldn't guess). The same with the 7 and 8mm Mausers. Look at these two from Federal with 100 and 120 grain Partitions.

Federal .243 Winchester 100 Grain Nosler Partition

Velocity

Muzzle 100 200 300 400 500

2960 2728 2508 2299 2099 1909

Energy in Foot Pounds

Muzzle 100 200 300 400 500

1945 1653 1397 1173 978 809


Federal 257 Roberts 120 Nosler Partition

Velocity

Muzzle 100 200 300 400 500

2780 2563 2356 2158 1970 1792

Energy in Foot Pounds

Muzzle 100 200 300 400 500

2059 1750 1478 1241 1034 856

Quite a bit better numbers there charlie brown, puts it right with the .243. So whats the difference. To claim the .243 inferior is quite rediculous, dont you think.
Now we all know about hand loading but if your gonna compare handloads you gots do it in both calibers, then the 24 will outshine it once again.
You cant dismiss the 24 to the 25. when in fact its right there or better than some.
factory loaded its better than the 250 or the bob. Handloaded it still will outshine them. put a bad load in the 25-06 and a good one in the 24 and it will outshine that one too.
Its just as good or better than a lot of deer calibers. Thats all I'm saying.

Actually handloaded, the 243 Win will not outshine the 257 Roberts, but it pretty much equals it. We can argue numbers all day depending on barrel length, pressures, etc.

I never said that the .243 isn't a good deer cartridge, but as those two loads show, loaded to reasonable velocites, the .257 Roberts and .243 are pretty close. The deer would not know the difference!!! The two you quoted earlier were just simply not fair in regards to the Roberts. You compared the Ballistic Tip to a Corelokt Round Nose, loaded to the anemic velocites that Remington typically does.

One example of this is with the 8mm Mauser. Remington factory 170 grain Corelokt comes out at about 2270 FPS in my Yugo 24/47. With my handloads, I can push a 170 grain bullet at close to 2500 FPS so far, and I still have room to go. A 150 grain bullet can be pushed to close to 2900 FPS out of the Mauser, but you won't find any factory load loaded that hot!!

Its right there with the -06
I'll just some it up at ..............300 yds


25-06 115 nosler partition....fps...2300
.243 100 fed bt..........................2380
.............................energy
2506.......................................1350
.243.......................................1260
.............................drop
25-06......................................6"
243.........................................6.8
not a whole lot of diffence that one could tell if shooting a deer.

Its the federal 100 gr.Boat tail that im using the ballistics off of.