What deer bullets in .243 ?

[jrbb00]

id have to say im not afraid to tackle anything under 400 lbs with a 100 grn 243.that lives in the USA that is.id not be afraid to take it elk hunting either but i would pik my shots.all the bullets the guys mentioned here are good but 100 grn is my limit for body shots.i reload for every caliber i have but hunt with factory rem 243 core lokt, when i hunt with the 243.it just works to well to improve on for me.

I to have been using the 85 grain BTHP's for years also I can shot anything that I want to.  I have traveled from South Texas to Northern North Dakota and have never had an issue with this round.  Even shot a few hogs that weighed over two hundred pounds and they were drt.  Not nocking the 100 grainers but I fell in love with the 85 grain sierra BTHP'S years ago

[ironglow]

  The old curse of the Handi ultralights..the barrel heats up a bit.  I can get 3-4 shots off accurately before mine starts to "walk"..just a little.  I don't consider that a problem though; of all the deer I've shot in about 63 years of hunting..only 2-3 took more than one shot, and then mostly for "insurance".
  Even if I were to use a couple or 3 shots to down it (highly unlikely), the "finishing" shot would be at close range..so no sweat..
  For trudging the woods..the .243 Ultra-light sure is a handy..Handi-rifle..

[gendoc]

a deer brain is not the same as that of a man relative to overall head volume.  in a human there is sinus and throat in the front, the rest is brain.  deer have what is like a tiny burger patty (maybe a small wallet?) at the very top of their head (backed up by a pencil thin brain-stem) and the rest of the head is sinus and nasal passages.  you can pop one dead center in the head with perfect precision and hit nothing vital.  you must be hitting the head above the eyes.  I made the mistake last year of trying to pass through the lower eyelid and blowing out the center of the head where brain/brainstem/sinus/throat all converge and I was wrong.  IT DOESN'T WORK ON DEER !!!

A head/Brain shot is a hi precentage shot. I also do not like it. Its too easy for bad results, IMHO simply no reason to do it. Its not just accuracy, I'll go up against anyone with my shooting ability, its NOT that. IMHO we simply "owe" more to the game we hunt.

Looking back at some old hunting logs. I am remembering a season a good friend started deer hunting....

I have a friend and for years and years we duck hunted together. Then one day, after years of my suggestions, he asked to go deer hunting. He showed up at camp with a brand new rifle... a Remington 7600 in 6mm. Many of the guys are old school and to them anything less than a 308/30-06 is too small. I know better, The 243/6MM are FINE. (With apropraite bullets.) BUT he also had bought 60G bullets, NOT the 100's I suggested. He claimed it would be just fine as he was going to "head shoot" them as this rifle was "scary accurate"... We hunted together for that entire season. (I was teaching how to hunt deer.) I watched deer after deer walk away, because they did not offer the shot. BUT if he was shooting vitals, as he should have he would have filled his freezer many times over. He did get to watch me shoot two. (All the tags I had, both one shot, dead deer)
The next year he was back, same rifle, same ammo and claiming to have shoot a "case" of ammo practicing. He would not have them walk away this year. FIRST day he shoots what he said was a "good buck"... We chased that deer for the entire rest of that day and most of the next... One fo the neighbors shot it later that week... It had its lower jaw shot off... Two or three weekends later, another shot and same story... no deer. Near the end of the season, we did a couple pushes. I pushed about a dozen past him. Well he got his deer that day and he did head shoot it, but it was about 10 yards away!! At the shot a HUGE buck broke cover and he emptied the gun on him. TOTALLY forgetting he needed to "head shoot" them... When I got to him, he told the story and we started tracking. We ended up staying a extra day to look. About noon the following Monday we jumped the deer, I almost had a shot but as they do, he dissapeared. We backed out and got some "help" and went back in. Well the deer was recovered... and it was a nice buck. But we did not get it. We pushed it right to a neighbors boy who shot him dead, just as my friend should have the day before... He learned his lesson and relegated the 6mm to coyotes and wood chucks. I sold him a 30-06.

CW

  The old curse of the Handi ultralights..the barrel heats up a bit.  I can get 3-4 shots off accurately before mine starts to "walk"..just a little.  I don't consider that a problem though; of all the deer I've shot in about 63 years of hunting..only 2-3 took more than one shot, and then mostly for "insurance".
  Even if I were to use a couple or 3 shots to down it (highly unlikely), the "finishing" shot would be at close range..so no sweat..
  For trudging the woods..the .243 Ultra-light sure is a handy..Handi-rifle..

if by chance i hadta take a 2nd shot, it would most likely be froma handgun.
i have whitetail in abundance in my swamp... if i know i can't make a clean shot. much less a head shot with tha .243....i won't, or nun of my people will pull it either.  thats the way they were raised and i'm hardcore about it.
 
i'm glad yall hava opinion
 

[ironglow]

a deer brain is not the same as that of a man relative to overall head volume.  in a human there is sinus and throat in the front, the rest is brain.  deer have what is like a tiny burger patty (maybe a small wallet?) at the very top of their head (backed up by a pencil thin brain-stem) and the rest of the head is sinus and nasal passages.  you can pop one dead center in the head with perfect precision and hit nothing vital.  you must be hitting the head above the eyes.  I made the mistake last year of trying to pass through the lower eyelid and blowing out the center of the head where brain/brainstem/sinus/throat all converge and I was wrong.  IT DOESN'T WORK ON DEER !!!

A head/Brain shot is a hi precentage shot. I also do not like it. Its too easy for bad results, IMHO simply no reason to do it. Its not just accuracy, I'll go up against anyone with my shooting ability, its NOT that. IMHO we simply "owe" more to the game we hunt.

Looking back at some old hunting logs. I am remembering a season a good friend started deer hunting....

I have a friend and for years and years we duck hunted together. Then one day, after years of my suggestions, he asked to go deer hunting. He showed up at camp with a brand new rifle... a Remington 7600 in 6mm. Many of the guys are old school and to them anything less than a 308/30-06 is too small. I know better, The 243/6MM are FINE. (With apropraite bullets.) BUT he also had bought 60G bullets, NOT the 100's I suggested. He claimed it would be just fine as he was going to "head shoot" them as this rifle was "scary accurate"... We hunted together for that entire season. (I was teaching how to hunt deer.) I watched deer after deer walk away, because they did not offer the shot. BUT if he was shooting vitals, as he should have he would have filled his freezer many times over. He did get to watch me shoot two. (All the tags I had, both one shot, dead deer)
The next year he was back, same rifle, same ammo and claiming to have shoot a "case" of ammo practicing. He would not have them walk away this year. FIRST day he shoots what he said was a "good buck"... We chased that deer for the entire rest of that day and most of the next... One fo the neighbors shot it later that week... It had its lower jaw shot off... Two or three weekends later, another shot and same story... no deer. Near the end of the season, we did a couple pushes. I pushed about a dozen past him. Well he got his deer that day and he did head shoot it, but it was about 10 yards away!! At the shot a HUGE buck broke cover and he emptied the gun on him. TOTALLY forgetting he needed to "head shoot" them... When I got to him, he told the story and we started tracking. We ended up staying a extra day to look. About noon the following Monday we jumped the deer, I almost had a shot but as they do, he dissapeared. We backed out and got some "help" and went back in. Well the deer was recovered... and it was a nice buck. But we did not get it. We pushed it right to a neighbors boy who shot him dead, just as my friend should have the day before... He learned his lesson and relegated the 6mm to coyotes and wood chucks. I sold him a 30-06.

CW

  The old curse of the Handi ultralights..the barrel heats up a bit.  I can get 3-4 shots off accurately before mine starts to "walk"..just a little.  I don't consider that a problem though; of all the deer I've shot in about 63 years of hunting..only 2-3 took more than one shot, and then mostly for "insurance".
  Even if I were to use a couple or 3 shots to down it (highly unlikely), the "finishing" shot would be at close range..so no sweat..
  For trudging the woods..the .243 Ultra-light sure is a handy..Handi-rifle..

if by chance i hadta take a 2nd shot, it would most likely be froma handgun.
i have whitetail in abundance in my swamp... if i know i can't make a clean shot. much less a head shot with tha .243....i won't, or nun of my people will pull it.  thats the way they were raised/ and i'm hardcore about it.
 
i'm glad yall hava opinion

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  I agree with you gendoc, I pick my shots..and no running deer.  That's the main reason my deer have almost all been "one shot and DRT"..

[gendoc]

 thank you IG,  great to know you an i are on tha same page................