Thread: Firearms for women

Originally Posted by AlwaysLearning

.243 is always on my mind. And old mate uses only that... im just concerned if I need to drop a deer with that my shot placement i would assume needs to be spot on... as a beginner, what if I'm not that good. K don't want to injure and not kill anything. That's why I thought a .308 would do the job even if I'm slightly off... I know my big stag I shot was a bit off, but he dropped within 20 to 30meters. If I had a .243 would that have happened? He was so good 70m away. Im just concerned I won't have the skills.

First a bit of background context, it’s a bit dry but it’s helpful to understand. In modern hunting firearms there are four main families of cartridges in the following order with examples.

Belted magnums - .300win Mag, 7mm Rem Mag etc

Long action - .270, 30-06 6.5x55 etc

Short action - .308, 7mm08, .243, 6.5 Creedmore

Micro action - .223, 7.62x39, 6.5 Grendel, .300 Blackout

Belted magnums and Long action share the same action length. Some long action firearms (eg Tikka) chamber all cartridges in the same action length. Short action rifles are slightly shorter (all other things being equal) and micro length actions (such as Howa mini and CZ527) are shorter again.
Some cartridges work better with shorter barrels than others.

The smallest factory rifles with the largest chamberings would be the Remington Model Seven (.308) and the Howa Superlight (.308).

A small rifle in a large caliber will have more kick than a larger rifle in the same caliber. Flinch inducing recoil is one of the greatest enemies of accuracy for new shooters.
An accurately placed .243 projectile will drop a deer better than a poorly placed .308, but flinch is not the only thing that compromises accuracy.

If you were comfortable shooting the .308 you used, by all means, stick with it, I use one myself and it’s great, but in smaller lighter rifles they can kick so just consider whether that is a factor for you.

The fact is though, most of the time, increased power won’t make up for the difference in lack of skill, the proper way to fix that issue is practice at the range using field positions and when you are lined up on an animal, use restraint if your skills aren’t up to the shot.