The .25-06 is a perfect deer gun. Its a little much for varmint shooting, prairie dogs and ground hogs, all day shooting might be alittle rough.
The .243 is also a good deer gun, I shot a doe at about 140 yards with it this year. It was my cousins rifle, I was holding it as she crossed a fence and a doe ran out at the bottom of the field, one shot and the folded up and rolled about fifteen yards. If I were using a .243 I probably wouldnt want to go over 200 yards or so, and It would have to be a good angle.
The .260 I have no experience with. Ive hunted with a .264 win. mag. but I dont even know if those are close to the same thing?
-Jake

The .243 was built intentionaly on long range shooting Its just starting to stretch its legs at 200 yds. A bullet expands well between 2000 fps and 2800 fps. the 243 still has roughly 2000 fps at 500 yds. Still plenty for penetration and expansion, but probably way farther than most can shoot.

I stand corrected than. I just know my cousin shoots 100 grain bullets out of it, thought it would be a little light for deer at those distances, thanks!
-Jake

Let the flames begin...................

The 243 and 260 are basically a 308 light. Why shoot the light when you can shoot the daddy.

The 25-06 is basically a 30-06 light. Again why shoot the light when you can shoot the daddy.

The 30 caliber is the king. Most smaller cartridges are compared to the 30 caliber all the time. "This or that cartridge compares to the 30-06"?? Why buy a comparison cartridge?? Buy the daddy?? There is better bullet selection!! And cheaper ammo!! And no need for expensivebullets!!

If you are recoil sensitive then buy the light loads. But unless you have a physical problem then I say "Buck it up". Tom.

If you reload the 260 would be my choice. With 130 grain bullets having BC in the .575 range its downrange performance is hard to beat. These cartridgesfor the most part arevery similar.

The availble bullets advantage goes 6.5(264) first,then the 6MM (.243), and lastly the .257 caliber as far as streamlined bullets go (IMHO). Unfortunately the velocityratings of the cartridgesare exactly opposite and that makes it a little tougher choice as you are compromising on one or the other. As I am sure you are aware by positing this in the first place the differenceis really just splitting hairs. I guess the 243 might actually be a happy median.

Already havetwo 30.06's which makes point1, 2, and 3mute.

What I amlooking for though is a nice midsize (.24-.26) caliber to have fun with. I figure if you are going to get one midsize caliber, ask the people who have them what they think.

I note that you're from Texas, as am I... I've shot deer in the Hill Country with my .30-06, with my .243, and this year with my 7mm Rem Mag using the Managed Recoil ammo, and have shot hogs with all three as well. I've noted no terminal performance difference between the three cartridges. Given similar shot placements, and based on my limited sample size (2 Bucks, 3 Does, 1 Hog with the '06, 4 Bucks, 3 Does, 3 Hogs, and a few Jackrabbits with the .243, and 1 of each with the 7mm), the deer don't run any farther after being hit by the .243 than they do after being hit by the other two... However, there is a big comfort difference between the three from behind the rifles. The .243 is much more fun at the bench...

The .243 kills deer very dead......and there's no such thing as "deader"

With 55 grain Btips it also make a superb long range varminter. The more I use it the more I like it!

If you like putting up with more recoil than neccecary, go ahead and get kicked around all you want, but the facts of the matter clearly show nobody needs an 30-06 to cleanly kill deer. As experienced as you are,i'm suprized you're actively promoting more gun than you need for DEER.