First deer 243 and questions
 

Just got a 243 at Christmas and shot a doe at about 180 yds slightly quartering away today. I could not tell if I hit or not by the deers reaction and the deer ran about 50-60 yards leaving an easy to follow blood trail before expiring. I was alarmed when I could not find an exit wound. The bullet hit the opposite shoulder and did not exit. 100 grain Core-lokt. Is this typical for a 243? The end result was positive but every deer I have ever shot with my 7mm-08 using 140grain fusion ammo has dropped as if struck dead by God almighty himself. Is this a problem with the bullet or the caliber or should I just stop worrying about it since the end result was meat in the freezer and a relatively clean, quick kill?

RE: First deer 243 and questions
 

Stop worrying. Every round and every caliber has not exited a deer at some point don't worry you has a great setup that has taken down many many deer. The shot was long and the 243 had lost some energy and with a quartering to shot it had a lot of mass to penetrate though.

RE: First deer 243 and questions
 

Right - Not to worry. I shot about 25 or so deer with a .243 in my younger years. All but one of them dropped where they stood. The one that didn't was the fault of the bullet. It just fragmented on impact. The second bullet however entered the right side and destroyed the lungs and broke the opposite shoulder.
That is asking a lot for a 100 gr bullet but somehow the .243 (and 6mm) have a tendency to do that. For some strange reason I do not have a .243 in my gun safe. But its a great deer cartridge. Not the best, but pretty darn good.

RE: First deer 243 and questions
 

The poor little 243 had run out of gas that far but still did the intended job.You can kill yotes and small game farther with it but light rounds leave fast and run out of energy fast,and larger game needs more energy to kill,your had enough of that and shot placement to work this time.I shot a deer quartering to me with a 308 shooting 150 grain bullet,through point of shoulder and never exited,found slug under off side skin...at 35 yards! Just can't tell how bullets going to react 100% of time!

RE: First deer 243 and questions
 

A bullet doesn't have to exit to kill an animal, just wreck the vitals.
I do like a pass through wound but only because the blood trail is usually better.
Not all animals will fall at the shot, no matter what you hit them with, unless you break the spine, or brain shoot them.

RE: First deer 243 and questions
 

I've seen them do that with other calibers as well, no problem...I've killed about 85-90 with the .243 and CoreLokts out to 300 yards...If your shots do run on the longer side, you might want to try the Federal Premium loading in the 85gr HPBT Sierra GameKing...It starts out at 3300 fps, which helps it mushroom further out...

I killed a decent buck this year at 277 yards with a CoreLokt, deer dropped on the spot...

At what point in killing the deer within 50-60 yards did the bullet or caliber let you down???:D

RE: First deer 243 and questions
 

I've recovered a 165 Nosler Partitioner fired from a .308 Winchester at about 40 yards on a quartering deer! It doesn't matter much what the caliber is, the angle, distance and what the bullet actually hits is going to determine if it will be a complete pass-through or not!
There was a time when I was into "magnumitis" but I've returned to the light recoiling 6MM/243! Hit 'em just right and they drop right there! And, if you make a good hit and they happen to run, the 6MM/243 leaves as good a blood trail as any 30 caliber does!

RE: First deer 243 and questions
 

I just started using a .243 caliber this year after years of shooting a .270. I loved the .270 as a hunting rifle, but just hated target shooting because of the recoil and noise. I have killed many deer with the .270 that didn't exit out of the opposite side. Usually the bullet actually goes out the opposite side, but the skin stretches and catches the bullet. It depends mostly on bullet placement. If the shot goes into the shoulder or hits backbone, the deer will usually drop right there. On a lung or other organ shot, the deer will usually go a short distance before running out of gas. Even a heart shot deer will many times run a short distance. The best deer rifle I have for dropping deer on the spot is my Model 700ML .45 cal. For some reason that gun really drops them.