Try and convince me the 243 is actually useful

[CBH Australia]

@Bob Nelson 35Whelen Was that your son asking around about a .243 at my local club on Sunday?

 

[colorado]

At the risk of sounding like a A-hole, is not the phrase "French Battle Rifle" a contradiction in terms? I am asking for a friend. Just busting your chops mate. I have not had the pleasure of handling the MAS, so I will have to plead ignorance. The pics does look nice.

I have handled the HK91, G3, M16 and HK93 as well as several versions of the AK47, AK74 family and some of them are pretty nice but none have that slick clickety clack action of the FAL. While most are not tack drivers as stated by others, my Match Grade model FAL from Springfield Armory shoots better than you would expect with certain loads of all things, Venezuelan army surplus ammo. It likes my old hand loads too. The folding stock Para model is shorter, lighter and makes a handy bush rifle. But, nobody will accuse them of being a light weight. With the all steel construction, they are a hefty peice of kit.

I agree. When Macron want's to assert Frances preeminence in Europe. I remind my European friends that France surrendered after 4 weeks in WW2. That being said, the new battle rifle could have easily been a 270 Win, a 308 or a 30-06. Inventing a new cartridge is madness. The M1 worked pretty damn well in WW2

 

[bigger is better]

I have shot a lot of deer with a .243 100gr.Power-Shok.Inclucing Sika,Fallow and Red Stag.
I have used the the following calibres to shoot these deer as well viz.22-250,5..6x57,25-06..260,.270.
7x64.7x57,.308.30-06 and .303.With the right placement and the right bullet,the.243 has killed just as quickly as any of these other!

 

[fourfive8]

I’ve had a couple 243s over the years. They seem to be pretty easy to load for and usually show excellent accuracy with 80 grain conventional bullets, slightly less so with 100 grain bullets. May have something to do with standard twist rate found in most rifles chambered in 243. With a decent tough big game bullet, IMO, the 243 is ok for small deer (<100 lbs) and pronghorns.

In my experience… It is a good, long range coyote getter. But it is limited and not at all equivalent to say the 270 Win or even the 260 Rem,

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

@Bob Nelson 35Whelen Was that your son asking around about a .243 at my local club on Sunday?

@CBH Australia
Possibly mate, he likes to make sure no one is using one. He prefers to shoot than lecture on the inadequacy of the 243.
He was using his super accurate REM 788 in 222 that day.
Bob

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

I agree. When Macron want's to assert Frances preeminence in Europe. I remind my European friends that France surrendered after 4 weeks in WW2. That being said, the new battle rifle could have easily been a 270 Win, a 308 or a 30-06. Inventing a new cartridge is madness. The M1 worked pretty damn well in WW2

@colorado
The M1 may have worked pretty well in WW2
BUT
The SMLE Lee Enfield worked even better and longer. WW 1 &2, Korea and a plethora of other wars/skirmishes and was still working up until the 80s in some countries.
The M1 was a 20 year flash in the pan whilst the SMLE was an 80 pluss year battle rifle
Bob
Yes I am biased.

 

[Wyatt Smith]

@colorado
The M1 may have worked pretty well in WW2
BUT
The SMLE Lee Enfield worked even better and longer. WW 1 &2, Korea and a plethora of other wars/skirmishes and was still working up until the 80s in some countries.
The M1 was a 20 year flash in the pan whilst the SMLE was an 80 pluss year battle rifle
Bob
Yes I am biased.

True, but they did try to replace it before World War One with the P17 but the war happened and that got put on hold.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

True, but they did try to replace it before World War One with the P17 but the war happened and that got put on hold.

@Wyatt Smith
You are almost correct young grasshopper
They tried to replace it with the P13 in 276 rimless (aka 7mm) but war broke out so they modified it to handle the 303 Brit and called it the P14. When the USA enters the war it was modified again to handle the 30-06 and became the M17.
Bob

 

[CBH Australia]

 

[buck wild]

While admittedly, I did not read this thread from the start. The .243 was my first deer rifle. What it did teach me was to be a good blood tracker. Every few deer went straight down, but most were within 150 yds with an adequate trail to follow. I am thankful for those tracking skills now that I am guiding. These new rifles and ammo rarely leave as much of a trail as those ole .243 runs.

 

[colorado]

I shot many deer, javelina and one elk with my BDL in 243. Never had an animal go more than 30 yards and never lost one. Moving to Montana with abundant grizzlies in the late 60s convinced me to upgrade to my current cannon of an elk rifle, a BDL in 270 Win.

 

[Doug Hamilton]

As everyone knows is absolutely hate the 243 because if have seen to much game wounded with it by people using the wrong projectiles for the game hunted. Also seen a lot of game just wounded by good shots with projectiles that were supposed to be ideal for the game hunted. Eg a 100gn Remington core lockt factory round put into the ribcage of a fallow deer. One deer died quickly the other with the same shot placement and same factory load run off never to be seen again.
I have reloaded this cartridge for people and have never attained the book velocities.
80gn max load 2,900-3100 fps
95gn SST max load 2,800fps
100grainer max load 2,700-2,800 fps
To me this round fails to live up to all the hype. To big for small game and not really big enough for medium big game.
I know there are people out there that love the 243 but I'm not one of them.
There's also people that say they use it for culling and it works well with head shots for that. Well a baseball bat to the he'd will do the same job.
This could be quite interesting to see some of the reasons why I should stop bagging out the prissy little 243 and see if I can refute some of the so called claims.
Let's keep it respectful but still have some fun and good humoured bantering.
Bob

It seems to be a pretty good coyote cartridge, but I don't want one for anything bigger.

 

[shark_za]

The .243 and Springbok are synonymous.
And this is our national animal afterall.

You guy will wish you had a .243 on the 16th August when the boks demolish you at Ellis Park.
I'll be in the stands watching the massacre.

I hunt a lot on dual use farms in the Karoo , not dedicated hunting operations but rather typical sheep farms that have a few Springbuck and Blesbuck on them and allow hunters.

For this the .243 is the king, everything else is too powerful, the farm owner himself will have a .243 or even a .22-250 so it cant be that bad.
Then again these are also the type that might have a .270, cant trust them much.

The 6mm Musgrave was made to try emulate this caliber and it was a reasonable success.

The problem with the .243 is when people take them out of the Karoo and try use them in the bushveld.
Bullet break up and meat wasting give it a really bad rap.

I dont get the 6mm Rem though , in this case you are better off with a .257 Rob or 6.5x57.

Karoo , Springbuck = Big Yes
Bushveld, anything else = Big No

 

[mauser98]

I too once thought the 243 win was a pea shooter but setting one up for my nieces as a youth gun proved me wrong. Seen a few mule deer and bear go down to 100gr corelokts with no issue. This is coming from someone who usually uses 7x57, 7x64, 308 win, 30-06, 8x57, and 9.3x62. I see it's merits and laugh at those who think of it no more than a coyote rifle.

Here's a large black bear that squared 7', dropped to a single 100gr at 150 yards.

 

[CBH Australia]

I too once thought the 243 win was a pea shooter but setting one up for my nieces as a youth gun proved me wrong. Seen a few mule deer and bear go down to 100gr corelokts with no issue. This is coming from someone who usually uses 7x57, 7x64, 308 win, 30-06, 8x57, and 9.3x62. I see it's merits and laugh at those who think of it no more than a coyote rifle.

Here's a large black bear that squared 7', dropped to a single 100gr at 150 yards.

Well Bob Nelson, are you convinced now?

 

[CoElkHunter]

I shot many deer, javelina and one elk with my BDL in 243. Never had an animal go more than 30 yards and never lost one. Moving to Montana with abundant grizzlies in the late 60s convinced me to upgrade to my current cannon of an elk rifle, a BDL in 270 Win.

You should've upgraded your elk rifle to a .338 WINCHESTER MAGNUM. No need to chase wounded elk around the mountains unless you just want the exercise? LOL

 

[Doug Hamilton]

I too once thought the 243 win was a pea shooter but setting one up for my nieces as a youth gun proved me wrong. Seen a few mule deer and bear go down to 100gr corelokts with no issue. This is coming from someone who usually uses 7x57, 7x64, 308 win, 30-06, 8x57, and 9.3x62. I see it's merits and laugh at those who think of it no more than a coyote rifle.

Here's a large black bear that squared 7', dropped to a single 100gr at 150 yards.

I know that I've helped track two blacktail bucks, which are small deer, that a friend of mine shot with his .243. We didn't get them. After he switched to a .30-96 and 7mm RM it never happened again.

A lot of cape buffalo have died after being shot with the .303 Brit or 7x57. That doesn't make it a good idea.

 

[colorado]

You should've upgraded your elk rifle to a .338 WINCHESTER MAGNUM. No need to chase wounded elk around the mountains unless you just want the exercise? LOL

Never lost one. Never had one go more than 20 or 30 yards even with a 500 yard shot. 150g Partitions at 3000 fps seem to just work (my pet handload).

 

[Flbt]

I too once thought the 243 win was a pea shooter but setting one up for my nieces as a youth gun proved me wrong. Seen a few mule deer and bear go down to 100gr corelokts with no issue. This is coming from someone who usually uses 7x57, 7x64, 308 win, 30-06, 8x57, and 9.3x62. I see it's merits and laugh at those who think of it no more than a coyote rifle.

Here's a large black bear that squared 7', dropped to a single 100gr at 150 yards.

Even though I like the 6mm rem

I still look at the 243 like a 32 acp for defense
If you put the right bullet in the right place it can and does work.
But if something goes just a little wrong there can be big problems.

 

[John the Electrician]

In the 90’s when big magnums were all the rage, I was looking for a rifle that I could shoot comfortably. The .243 fit the bill for the type of medium distances I would expect to shoot.

After considering my options, it dawned on me, if you shoot a deer in the ass, it doesn’t matter what cartridge you’re using, you just shot a deer in the ass.

So, I shoot them in the heart/lung region at appropriate angles (meaning not in the ass to get there) and have seen every deer shot fall within sight. I use 95 and 100 grain bullets, works great.