jerry d

I agree with you guys:SHOT PLACEMENT IS EVERYTHING!!! I wouldn't dedicated the .243 as an elk or moose rifle but from what i've read...and there's been plenty,if the right shot presented itself i'd take it.

I passed on quite a few nice bucks when i bowhunting because i wasn't confident with the sitituation. I know alot of guy say if you're on a once in a lifetime hunt and a world class bull steps out @ 500yds. you want to have enough gun to get the job done.Logical statement IMO.........but are you capable of shooting "enogh gun" and do you practice at that distance regularly so you can make a clean kill.

The anwer for me is NO! I've never shot my rifle over 200yds.because on LongIsland there isnt a place to do it. I would have to pass on a shot @ 500yds. because i don't have the convidence that i could make the shot. I don't care how much i spent on the hunt.I wont shoot if i'm not 100o% sure that it's a kill shot.But in short if i had an elk within 100yds. i wouldn't hesitate to take it with a .243.

nchawkeye

I'll bet 95% of the hunters on here couldn't hit an elk at 450 yards with any centerfire rifle...

jeepkid

I'll bet 95% of the hunters on here wouldn't know what 450 yards looks like...

Colorado Luckydog

I'm glad I'm in the other 5%. If what you say is true, I feel sorry for the other 95%. However, I think you are short changing a lot of guys on here and trying to put them in the category that you fit in. Long shots in Colorado are very common. I don't usually take them but I will with the right weapon in my hand. I turned down a 385 yard shot on a nice elk this year because I was shooting a 30.06 that I had only practiced out to 250 yards with. I wouldn't hesitate to take that shot with my 300 Ultra mag.

My buddy was just here a few minutes ago, trading me a shotgun for my old bow. He was telling me how his wife shot her elk this year with a .270. Her shot placement was perfect. No exit wound. No blood trail. (fresh snow) The elk lived for 15 minutes before it expired. She decided that she wants to get a 30.06 for next years hunt.

If you want to hunt with the minimum caliber to do the job, I hope you are patient and really do wait for the right shot. There is a reason the DOW places minimum calibers on big game animals. They know if they didn't some A-hole would be hunting eik with a 22.250 and telling all of his friends how his grandpa had killed hundreds of elk with a 22lr.

8mm/06

The .243 is a great LITTLE round. I've used it on many deer, and even my biggest. But the biggest whitetail is altogether different than a small elk, or medium elk, or avearage bear.
I believe I could kill all these larger animals with a .243 but would opt for my 30/06 or my 8mm/06 first. I don't really own a great elk rifle, but sure wouldn't select my .243 from my rack if offered a hunt.

jerry d

Given normal hunting conditions: wind blowing, cold, stiff fingers, out of breath, bulky clothes, low light, snow or rain, buck fever, 100 yards is a long way. Most of the deer and elk, especially Roosevelt Elk, that are killed every year, are shot at 100 yards or less. I know that most of mine have been. I suspect that most of the animals that are wounded and crippled are shot at from further away. Probably by someone who once hit a paper target at 300 yards, on a calm summer day, from a bench rest.

In my case this statement is true but i hunt in NY state,mostly wooded areas.

So what do you guys think, are most deer & elk shot @ 100yds. or less?

Colorado Luckydog

Jerry that's a good point. I have hunted places for whitetail and hogs where you couldn't get a 100 yard shot because it was so thick. In Colorado and other western states shots of several hundred yards are very common. 200 or 300 yard shots(or longer) on mulies, antelpoe and elk happen all season every season. I prefer not to hunt that way and I prefer to get as close as I can to the animal, it makes it much more fun. I have killed four elk with a rifle that were 10 to 25 yards. However, I practice as much as I can out to longer distances. My buddie has a range in the foothils that has a 16"x16" gong at 540 yards. When you can bang that gong all day long you feel prepared to take the shot even if that is not the shot you are really looking for.

I have witnessed morons that are not capable of those shots, blazing away and reloading. I have also witnesed guys that are perfectly capable of making 500 yard shots, that let the animal walk and try to get closer. I like to be prepared for anything but I will never go under gunned. It's just stupid.

I still think there is a place for .243's in elk hunting but it should be the exception, not the rule.

TUK101

If you can shoot a .243 well and know where to hit an animal to put it down humanely then why not use a .243? That doesn't mean that you take a 500 yard pot shot at an elk with it, but under 200 yards, why not? I think that part of the problem is that we all read too many magazines and they are in the business of selling us on the newest and supposedly best guns and with them being all lawyered up nowdays they can't possibly tell us that a .243 is going to get the job done.

Blackelk

I'm sure glad I don't set limitations on myself.

homers brother

No anecdotal discussion here, I've actually killed elk with the .243, and on more than one occasion.

Each shot was less than 150 yards, two of them head-on and one slightly oblique. None of the bullets exited. It was the only centerfire rifle I owned at the time.

Would I recommend it over a .30-06 (et al) for elk or caribou? No. If it were all I owned yet, would I still use it on elk? Yes.

The .243 has a love-hate relationship going with this board. It's not flashy, it's a "girl's gun", "there's a reason it's the state minimum." The posters who are most convinced tend to be those who can't relate any personal experience with a cartridge's effectiveness (I don't own a .270 or a 7mm RM, I don't have much business advising anyone one way or another how effective either of them are).

Yes, the .243 does make you think a little more about setting up your shots and about your point-of-aim. Maybe more hunters should shoot their bigger calibers like they'd have to shoot the .243?