Don' t worry, there was no risk involved, it was brazenly " mean spirited" but y' alls not the first.

If I find myself head' n to ' bama to hunt some scawny southeastern deer I' ll be sure to heed your advice and bring my varmit rifle (6mm). Unlikely though, as I am striving to move up the hunting ladder and not down it.

This being an internet forum it covers a wide geographical area far outside Alabama, places where mulies and whitetail grow substantially larger than what you have there and sometimes shots being taken at distances that are much more wide open, this tends to have a substantial effect on rifle/caliber/cartridge selected by those hunt such animals and areas. " Blanket" recommendations and opinions do well to take this diversity into account and then lean toward the heavyweight side of the solution so as to make sense to those beyond the borders of your fair state and on up into Canada.

If y' all find yourself leaving the local deer patch one day and heading west or north in pursuit of some heavier duty big game, then it may serve you well re-examine your choice of cartridges/calibers. Like you imply, though, if ' bama remains the default, then looking beyond a 243 may not be necessary.

Never Go Undergunned,
EKM

Ouch, that ones gonna leave a mark. Ha! Yeah, our deer here don' t tip the scales at 300 plus pounds but we do have plenty of them. I have killed deer here that weighed 225 lb however and I don' t think northern or western deer are so much larger that it precludes the use of a 243.

Remember the guy who started the thread asked about deer. Not moose, elk or Brown Bear. I stated in my last post that if you plan to hunt these animals get a bigger gun.

All kidding aside ELK I genuinely meant no offense. Sorry if it came off as a pissy sounding post. I' m actually quite a civil sort of chap.

Todd,
I ought not have slammed your local game. With the few exceptions here of folks who have moved specifically to be where the " hunting of choice" is, most of us have to take what we got for our mainstay hunting.

One thing though, I' ve been through the southeast. Your horizons are short. I can see where your shots tend to be close. A lot of your northern and especially western deer are taken in the wide open spaces where stalking up on them isn' t always so easy, hence (perhaps) the original posters query regarding 250yards. My point is all cartridges/calibers weaken quickly with distance, hence the need in some cases to start out larger and a bit more powerful so one has something left at impact.

Side Note: We got some boys from Mississippi that always camp not far from us for elk and they are a hard core bunch of hunters.

EKM

Well, lets look at the differences in the 25-06 and the 243Win. On average with a 100gr bullet, you can get 2950fps with a .243Win. On average with a 25-06, you can get with a 100gr bullets, you can get 3100fps. Ok, thats 150fps delta there. And if size differences are 14/1000" . Not that much differences in the stopping power I see. Now don' t get me wrong, I would like to have a 25-06 one day to add to the collection. Just can' t see someone saying, " boy that deer would have stopped in its tracks, if only I had a 25-06 instead of that 243Win" .

Bigcountry,
But if you use 25-06 for deer, you usually use 120 grain bullets, not 100 grain.

Oh, you do? Didn' t know what I usually use. I didn' t know there was a rule saying you have to use the 120gr. Seriously, I was doing a comparison. I don' t know too many manufactures that make a 120gr for .243Win. But this is exactly what I am talking about. 20gr heavier bullet and now your in the 243Win velocity range. Again, I can' t see anybody saying, " boy that deer would have stopped in its tracks if I had an extra 20gr of bullet."

20 grains makes a good amount of difference when you' re already at the bottom end of the acceptable weight scale. Just imagine using an 80 grain bullet in the 243 for comparison. And I don' t think any 243 out there will shoot 120s.

With RL22, I am getting 3075 fps out of my 25-06 using 120g bullets. The best I can get out of my .243 with 100g bullets is about 2930 fps (then the primers start flattening).

To me 145 fps with 20g more bullet is significant especially with the smaller bores these 2 have.

Ok, clarenceman, when you shoot an animal, what does the wieght of the bullet do to help you? Pentration, and momentum. Right. Now, I haven' t shot my 243 at a deer in over a decade, in those same woods you go in there in Morgantown. Thats right, I used to live on University ave when going to college there.

But out of all the deer I have shot with a 243, I can' t think of one instance where the bullet didn' t exit. So I got penetration. Ok, I butchered all my animals, and the lungs where melted, heart blew up. So I must have enough momentum to carry that velocity. Remember, its the velocity that kills when it comes to high powered rifles. True, that extra 20gr does carry the momentum better while in the animal, but for eastern whitetail, how much do ya need?

I guess its the bowhunter in me. I harvest animals with a bow every year. Doesn' t have near the momementum, near the speed, near the energy of a bullet. Even a 30-30. But, thats where tracking skills, and patience come to play. So after spending 90% of my time bowhunting, anything that goes over 2600fps with at least 90gr of lead, is major overkill.

But GTBuzz, I am sure someone out there has the secret recipe that gets 3100fps in a 243Win, and on and on the story goes.

Motown sure has lots of good places to hunt!! Anyway, if weight doesn' t matter, why not use a .223? It is over 3100fps, should be enough right? It is not even legal here.