• This Forum is for adults 18 years of age or over. By continuing to use this Forum you are confirming that you are 18 or older. No content shall be viewed by any person under 18 in California.

.243 Winchester Performance

62-70 grain Big Varmint bullets - 85 to 90 grain Medium Game bullets - 100 to 105 grain fat pig loads. .243 Winchester is not a practical Prairie Dog caliber. Splattering a Coyote or Bringing Down a Whitetail, Muley, or Feral Hog is what a .243 Winchester excels at doing well. 6mm bullets come in many forms because all game is not equal. The big boy bullets include: Nosler Partitions, Speer Hot Core 105s, Speer Grand Slams, Swift Scirocco IIs, and a few others I've never used yet. Hopefully, new cruise missile 6mm fare will become available as manufacturers realize how many millions of us use these great .243 caliber bullets. Nosler E-TIP lead-free bullets open a new field of experimentation for me. Cliffy
 
Works fine for small varmints. You have 55-60 grain bullets that can be launched up around 4000 fps. There might be more efficient calibers powder wise but the .243 still works. If you can only have one gun this is one of the better choices in my mind.
 
I concur regarding .243 Winchester varmint prowess, yet after seventy-five fired rounds my shoulder wishes for a little less recoil. Generally, I restrict myself to seventy rounds fired on a 300 yard target range three times a week. It's easier to go fishing for Steelhead and Salmon twice a week on Lake Michigan. I enjoy both events. Cliffy
 
To say a .243 Winchester can do ANYTHING a .22 Centerfire can do, but much more powerfully is a no-brainer. Add twenty grains of powder, and Voila! An instant winner! Yet, when is enough, enough! Driving a 55 grain bullet @ 3400 fps or pile-driving a 70 grain bullet @ 3800 fps, which one will create the most explosive effect? Is Red Mist essential for a clean kill? This, of my most stupid statements, is meant to ask when is too much, more than enough? A .243 Winchester is perhaps the most practical deer caliber ever developed, yet who actually deemed it a prime prairie dog caliber? Cliffy
 
“.243 Winchester is not a practical Prairie Dog caliber” I strongly disagree. I love my 243’s for plus 300 yard shots. Will the 243 replace my .223’s for PD’s? No, on a good day I will shoot a 1,000 rounds of .223. That not going to happen with a .243, but the 243 has replaced my 22-250AI’s. I am starting to use the 55 grain 243 bullets more and they do make an excellent one gun PD round.
My list of prime prairie dog calibers
Out to 125 yards 17 HMR
Out to 300 yards .223
300 to 500 yards 22-250AI
300 to 700 yards 243
700 plus 6.5 x 284
 
So what's the point of all this. You say one thing then say something different, just to talk. None of it means anything.
 
nobody has said anything about cost per shot..a 243 is way overkill for a small varmint..too much powder to do the same thing a .17 or .20 cal will do as effectively.i hsve both a 22-250 & 243 like both ..but use a 17 on gh
 
Take your 17's & 20's and see just how well they perform in wind gusting between 10 or 15mph out around 400 to 600yds and you'll quickly understand why 6mm chamberings are favored by most serious p-dog shooters.

Regards
RJ
 
we normally dodn't get those kind of shots...smaller fields..100 - 200 yds the norm...this is ES Maryland..not Texas
 
I hunt PD’d in the Dakotas and we call wind gusting between 10 or 15mph a calm day. Maybe 10% of the days are less than 10 mph. When the wind is kicking up the 17's and light 22's don't cut it.
 
Personally I dont care much about cost per shot, I wanna hit what I shoot at with first round success as much as I can, the wind performance of the heavier calibers and the downrange energy they deliver means more to me than cost per shot, I will say I dont get many easy targets, and none that stick around for more than one shot.
 
I have shot a .243 Win my whole shooting career, and I'm still learning more everyday. I have shot woodchucks in Ohio out to 1/4 mile, and have shot everything from 55 gr combined technology to 75gr V-Max, 78 gr Barnes Bullets, and nothing compares to the 95gr VLD by Berger loade with 45gr 7828ssc. Shot over twenty woodchucks at 1/4 mile last year and am going to do better this year. I have fought with .22-250 shooters that say that it is the best gun for chucking or praire dogs. Facts are facts and b.c. conquers all. I shoot a stock remington 700 vls with an after market stock purchased just last year. No high dollar scope, just a mueller tactical with mil-dots and 6" of sunshade. I feel i'm off topic, but if you want to shoot long range shoot at 6mm. Put the baby toys away
 
Perhaps if .22s are baby toys, then .24s become giant killers. There is no fine line betwixt the two, yet a .243 Winchester is a deer rifle FIRST and a vamint rifle SECOND. This finding is difficult to disput. I KNOW the .243 Winchester excels in both arenas, yet . . . oh well, I give up, since the .243 Winchester excels at both ends of this wide spectrum regarding performance. From 55 grain to 105 grain bullets, a .243 Winchester lacks nothing performancewise regarding whatever task is asked of it. Handloading makes this the most enjoyable and productive caliber I've ever encountered. Cliffy
 
It depends on what rifle you buy........you don't take a target rifle deer hunting. And thanks for agreeing about the performance of the all mighty .243. I only wish the pin head writers in mags like guns and ammo would take a look at this site.
 
I'm putting together a varmint rig in .243 Win right now! Got a Savage varmint action coming and a McGowen barrel in 12" twist! It will shoot up to 85 gr. bullets and possibly the 88 gr. Bergers or 87 gr. VMax with 26" of barrel to burn the powder! Looking forward to busting woodchucks with this gun!

Mike
 
This is one of the dumber of many inane threads by one particular person. I have video of prairie dogs being launched clean out of the camera's field of view by a 68gr bullet from a 243AI, we're talking 9-10' in the air. There's a 243AI in my truck on every pd trip......it may/may not get used, but it always comes along. I've never cared whether it's "too much" for those creatures (it's not) and I especially never worry about what some fool on a forum thinks is "practical."
 
Ackman's pet name for me is "fool," yet his or her comments and general entries don't enhance anyone's knowledge of hunting or target shooting or handloading prowess. Give us learners some solid load information. What bullet/powder combo in .243 Winchester works best for you regarding Prairie Dog shooting? Cliffy, and yes I'm a guy.
 
cliffy said:
Ackman's pet name for me is "fool," yet his or her comments and general entries don't enhance anyone's knowledge of hunting or target shooting or handloading prowess. Give us learners some solid load information. What bullet/powder combo in .243 Winchester works best for you regarding Prairie Dog shooting? Cliffy, and yes I'm a guy.

Really do not think any of your comments in any of your post "enhance anyone's knowledge of hunting or target shooting or handloading prowess". Seriously, what technical data have you provided?

The .243 Win is probably the most practical cartridge for varmints up to medium sized game based on the availibilty of factory ammo choices and OTS rilfes. Handloading takes it to a whole new level.
 
I started this topic to hopefully enhance the knowledge of .243 Winchester usage, since the .243 Winchester is the most widely used 6mm cartridge worldwide. I never expected to be "shot-down," since this fantastic cartridge is in the top ten, worldwide, in popularity. Somehow there seems a universal reason for this acceptance, and I concurred through exhaustive testing. How can I seriously be "SHOT-DOWN" for entering this topic of discussion? I have many fantastically accurate and powerful examples to discuss. The .243 Winchester is forever, and even Ackman can never disuade this reality. True, .22 Centerfires have their place in the field, and often they are ALL THAT IS NEEDED, yet .24 calibers are a HUGE step above in awesome power afield. Cliffy
 
“.243 Winchester is not a practical Prairie Dog caliber”. Cliffy it seems like a lot of serious prairie dog shooters disagree with you. I am truly at a loss to understand how that statement enhances anyone’s knowledge of .243 Winchester usage. Hopefully, I never have to use only one caliber for my Prairie Dog hunting, but if I did the 17HMR, 223, 22-250AI and the 6.5x284 would go first. With 55grain bullets it doesn’t kick much more than the 22-250 with 55 grainers. With 87 to 107 you can really reach out and touch them. Please enlighten us as to why the “.243 Winchester is not a practical Prairie Dog caliber”. Yes, we understand that it kicks and costs more than a .223 but the .223 doesn’t work very well past 300 yard in the wind.

I have to travel 500 mile to shoot PD’s. When I go I want to shoot! Last year I shot over 6,000 rounds at PD’s in the Dakota’s. Only one day had winds less than 10 mph. Some days it was just too windy to use the .223 past 200 yard. Alot of the shots where in the 300 to 500 yard range with winds up to 30 mph. I shot over 1,400 rounds of .243 at PD’s last year. It is a “MOST” practical Prairie Dog caliber in my experience. Oh, by the way, I have averaged 3000 rounds a year at PD’s over the last 15 years so I do have a little experience.

On a side note when I run into other PD shooter we always talk equipment. I am always surprised by the high percentage of very serious PD shooters that use the 250 Savage.
:o
 

Upgrades & Donations

This Forum's expenses are primarily paid by member contributions. You can upgrade your Forum membership in seconds. Gold and Silver members get unlimited FREE classifieds for one year. Gold members can upload custom avatars.


Click Upgrade Membership Button ABOVE to get Gold or Silver Status.

You can also donate any amount, large or small, with the button below. Include your Forum Name in the PayPal Notes field.


To DONATE by CHECK, or make a recurring donation, CLICK HERE to learn how.

Forum statistics

Threads
165,839
Messages
2,204,539
Members
79,157
Latest member
Bud1029
Back
Top