RE: 243 vs 30-30
 

Dean a lot of what has been put up here is good, sound advice. Its good that you know your limitations. A bullet from a .243 in the right spot is going to be MUCH MUCH better than a bullet from a "larger" caliber improperly or errantly placed.

My deer cartridge of choice, as many have recommened, is a 7mm-08. I'm not recoil shy at all, but there is no point putting up with a ton of recoil, when a spoonfull is all you need. Its a great medium game round for deer and hogs. The report is fairly mild, and having shot the 7mm-08 along with a .243, I personally could tell very little, if any difference in recoil. For hogs, I think the 7-08 will give you a bit of an advantage, although with a well constructed bullet, I think you'd be just fine with the .243. There are lots of options for you.

I'd suggest taking a look at Remington. Most of their 700s currently being made come with a very good R3 recoil pad and a fairly straight stock design, both of which are going to make felt recoil as minimal as possible without putting a muzzle brake on the gun.

Pavo made a good point in an earlier post about the benchrest being one of the harshest positions to shoot from when it comes to recoil. On the bench, nothing is exactly friendly.

Another option for you is to look at some of the semi-auto rifles being made by Browning, Remington or Benelli. They take a lot of the bite off some of the larger sporting cartridges.

Good luck.

RE: 243 vs 30-30
 

Wear earmuffs while target shooting and have someone else load the gun.This way you will soon see if you have a flinch ie: anticipating recoil.Dry firing will cure this. My 12 year old who weighed 75 lbs at the time had no problem with a H+R 158 30-30 with stiff 170 gr loads.Several deer later and one cow moose.One shot one kill.....................Confidence in a gun can only be obtained through practice and you will find when shooting game you don't even hear the gun go off cause your more interested in seeing the animal's reaction to bullet strike. Everything goes into slo-mo when I'm shooting.Disconect yourself from recoil,buck fever and the gun becomes an extention of your body...............Harold

RE: 243 vs 30-30
 

My choice would be the 7mm-08.

RE: 243 vs 30-30
 

What a joke.

dean790: Never take advice from someone with 5 posts.

The .243 is a great deer rifle. I put my .30-06 away three years ago, and have been using a .243. There has been not one iota of difference in performance on deer. Works just fine on pigs as well. Anyone who tells you otherwise doesn't know what they're talking about.

You don't say where you are. I hunt in Texas were deer tend to be a bit smaller than those grown in the corn belt of the Midwest. The deer further north get quite a bit larger. If that's the case you might want to step up to a 7mm-08. Or you might want to consider using a .30-06 or .270 with Remington's managed recoil rounds. That way, once you're back into practice, if you need toyou can upload to the regular rounds and have a perfectly suitable rifle for larger game.

RE: 243 vs 30-30
 

The more I shoot the more I love the 308 based rounds like the 7-08. Im not big on recoil either and I can tell you there is noticeably less recoil from 7-08 compared to a 270.The 7mm-08 recoil ispretty close to a 243...although if you feel comfy with the 243...then grab it and practice all you can with it. Id say the Wal Mart Federals would be your cheapest way to practice unless you find somebody that reloads.

RE: 243 vs 30-30
 

One other thing to consider...Go to a few local sporting goods stores and price ammo...In some areas of the country its very hard to find .260 and 7mm-08 ammo...

Ammo for a .243, .308, .270 and 30-06 can be found at almost any sporting goods store...While there also price ammo...Its going up...I have bought 5 boxes of Remington 100gr CoreLokts since Christmas, it's going for $15.24 at the local WalMart....

A few years back I was hunting with a buddy that bought a .260...He knocked his scope off and shot the ammo he had brought with him sighting in...We had to drive 45 miles to find one box of ammo and it wasn't what he had sighted in with, so we had to do this again...He paid about $24 for that one box and it was the last one at the store....These things do happen...If he was using one of the cartridges above, the corner gas starion would have had them...This was over Thanksgiving and we lost one afternoon and one morning of hunting, just because he wanted to shoot "something different"...He now shoots a .243...

A .243 will kill deer as well as a .270 or a 30-06...

RE: 243 vs 30-30
 

You can add 30-30 to the easily available ammo list, and a 30-30 will also kill a deer as well as 243, 270, or 30-06. In many instances, the 30-30 ammo is even cheaper than 243, 270, or 30-06.

RE: 243 vs 30-30
 

The 243win, 260rem,and 7mm-08 are great and the latter would be better for deer and hogs.
How ever the 30-30win and 35 rem would be my pick for say 150 yards and less. And at say 15-75 yards shots they excell and neither have much recoil.
Next the new Marlin are great and only getting better. My choice is a 336 in 35rem, I shot a 200lb bore at 30 yrds and it drop right there never took another step. The 35 offer better performance than the 30-30but either will work fine. Mine is a 336D 35ren with a leupold VXII 1-4x20mm from 10 to 200 yards it rocks. The HornadyLeverevolution ammo works great but plain old rem core lokts in either work fine.

I hunted with a 6mm rem and after say 5 yrs replaced it with a 270win mainly do tothe larger caliber bullets just do work better at dipatching game. That was 30 yrs ago I pick up few more guns since then but love the 35rem and 358win for most of my hunting done under 200 yrds. These 336marlins sure handle great get one you will love it. Its my go to gun for under 100 thick stuff.

RE: 243 vs 30-30
 

I have both the 243 and the 7mm08 and there is a slight difference in recoil.. For Deer, hogs and Varmit you won't ever need anything more than the 243... But should you ever decide to move up to a larger sized game the 7mm08 would be a better choice because of the option of heavier grain bullets..

RE: 243 vs 30-30
 

243 is called a band aid gun! 30-30 for hogs and brush shooting. Looking at the new leverlution (sp?) ammo you are good out to 150 maybe 200 yards accurate. I wiuld not hunt a hog w a .243. If you want a little heavier achor look at the 444, 450 Marlins, called thumb guns because of the size of the shell. Goos luck, tough decision. All else fails put a limb saver recoil pad on the 06, best all around cartridge ever!