Recoil wise you need not worry about either gun. I have personally taken my 243 praire dog hunting and shot up to 600 rounds a day thru it with no effects at all.

If you are reloading the 223 is cheaper because of availability of once fired cases and use of less powder.

223 is not even legal in most places to deer hunt with so if you want a deer gun the 243 is the way to go there.

For coyotes alot of people will argue with me here but a 223 is not a great coyote gun. It do not do much pelt damage but if pushed out to 150 yards or so it often takes more than one shot to keep them down. At least the ones here in Iowa, I switched to 22-250 and this added power helped this problem. The 243 will have no problem with anything from praire dogs to deer size animals.

Took an antelope at 400+ yards this year with my 243 and 100 nosler part. bullets. He didn't go 20 yards.

" Anyone can be a father, but it takes a real man to be a Dad"

there's at least two bullets available for the .243 that are under 60 grains and usually hit velocities over 3800 feet/sec.....and the recoil is almost nothing!!!

I own both guns but if I could have only one, the .243 is far more versatile!!

On the other hand, the .223 is very cheap to shoot. But forget recoil, it won't be a factor at all!!