Thread: The gentlemen’s caliber

Funny you what you say @Flyblown about bush hunting v open because I’ve always hunted bush. Longest shot being 80 meters.
I’ve yet to find a bullet they have all gone straight through. Back home I was using Norma 100gr. The BLR liked them. I could kill the lion on a Red lion beer tin four shots would have that lion looking rather ragged at 100 yards. Most shots in the Kaimais would be very close two to three meters in places but I could still smash that front shoulder our just bunch one through the next. I never took a shot unless I had a clear sight picture on what I was aiming at. Had one really good stag that gave me the slip because his head was blown in some crown fern and I could not figure out which end I was aiming at? Both the front and back looked like the front. Glad I didn’t just blaze away as he would have had a very saw ass, yep I was looking at the wrong end. When he figured out that I was there one bounce and he was gone, just enough time for me to lay eyes on his antlers I went back after him every weekend for two months got close twice but he beat me every time. Some poaching spot lighter got him
I would have loved to have tried that ammo from Wanganui Belmont I think it was called. They had some of those round nosed bullet heads you were talking about. This was back in the 90s when there packers where still blue.

Originally Posted by Flyblown

I'm gonna assume that you belong to that club that some are suggesting needs to be locked away in a dark recess of the forum...

Obviously, by my remarks on speeds, I have this magnificent chambering in the safe. Being of slight build, having no hunters or shooters in the family, having never used a centrefire and a relatively old and busted up newbie I bought the mighty 243 as my first centrefire/second rifle. Love it. It's one of those 'which part of the eye do you want me to hit?' type of rounds. Biggest I've nailed with it is only wallaby at this stage. I'm still learning.

One of my absolute favourite .243 Winchester photos, proving of course that in today's PC world we should change the title of the thread to "gentlemen and ladies"... Anyway, presenting... my wife's arse.

This is what the .243 Win is so good at... quiet, stealthy assassinations. She and I stalked in for a fair while to get a clear shot at this nice heavy spiker, really struggling with the fickle breezes up there. He was browsing as we moved in but had lain down by the time we crawled over the little hump for the shot.

Range only about 140m, pill sent into the neck by the SADF Skerp Skutter.







And, bonus attitude and fortitude... she'll carry the bloody rear end out!

Originally Posted by hotsoup

My 243AI. Smacked over a fair few good bulls with this rifle, they hated it.

Hi @hotsoup it looks as if you've made up a pre carbonlite system there with the southfort stock and, I presume, a a Z5 scope and shortened DPT suppressor.
This would be the forte of a 243 - a very light weight rifle but without much recoil.

To sidejack the thread, how have you found the swarovski ? Is that a dialling turret on it and do you need to dial much with such a flat shooting cartridge ?

To be hones @Flyblown I went and poured myself a whiskey. Interesting history..

To be honest I have only ever shot goats (including my first) with 243 and noticed that their thin bodies often failed to expand some projectiles. I must say it was a fun caliber to shoot but that experience made me question it's suitability for deer.

Originally Posted by 300CALMAN

To be honest I have only ever shot goats (including my first) with 243 and noticed that their thin bodies often failed to expand some projectiles. I must say it was a fun caliber to shoot but that experience made me question it's suitability for deer.

The way I look at what you say here, and I get what you're saying, is that its the other way round... I'd be questioning the suitability for the bullet on the goat more than the deer. The over penetration and under expansion on the goat is a function of its very light skinned frame. As you increase the "toughness" and bodyweight of the animal, you reduce the tendency to over penetrate, and increase expansion. So a much heavier deer with increased muscle mass and much larger internal organs is a totally different proposition. The bullet will open up much more readily.

To counter this problem on goats, you can decrease bullet hardness, on goats the 75gr and 87gr V-Max for example are instant death with a broadside chest shot. But on a good red hind? They are well iffy for sure, especially if you hit the scapula.

Hard bullets, thin bodies? Bad combination. Lots of bullets generate over penetration these days, the current craze for controlled expansion bullets in smaller calibers for use on light game animals is a fool's errand as far as I'm concerned.

So soft is good, not full on varmint soft, but definitely not "controlled expansion". Somewhere in the middle. Traditional cup and core soft points with relatively thin jackets. Sierra had it right with the smaller ProHunters and GameKings since forever.

Originally Posted by Bagheera

Hi @hotsoup it looks as if you've made up a pre carbonlite system there with the southfort stock and, I presume, a a Z5 scope and shortened DPT suppressor.
This would be the forte of a 243 - a very light weight rifle but without much recoil.

To sidejack the thread, how have you found the swarovski ? Is that a dialling turret on it and do you need to dial much with such a flat shooting cartridge ?

Hey @Bagheera - Yep exactly right. Come's in at 3.4KG including magazine, bolt & suppressor. It's a Sako 85. Beautiful rifle to shoot, very well balanced.

I have it zero'd at 200 and wouldn't shoot game past 350 really. So yes, I don't need to dial it much. The Z5's are great scopes, I have 2. Crystal clear glass and light weight. I recommend them.

Running Sierra GameKing 100gr SBT

@Flyblown really enjoy your writeups mate really good reads all the time cheers bro

Used a .243 for over 10yrs, probably shot more with it than any other rifle, and better then I sold it . . . but I couldn't live long with out a 6mm so have swapped to 6XC, which is really just a .243 that went to University

Great thread, I love the 243 but given the title it should be about the 7x57!

Exactly, Well except the bit about loving the EBRG.

The last Gentleman of note using the .275 Rigby passed away the year the 243 was born.

It's rather hard to imagine Colonel Edward James Corbett setting forth to hunt the Champawat Tiger armed with his trusty 243.

Originally Posted by Flyblown

Would love to know the origin of that name.

It comes from the fact that the only thing a .243 can humanly kill is a rat, for someone to kill a deer with it they would need to place the barrel inside the deer's ear and pull the trigger; EBRG or Ear Burrowing Rat Gun

Originally Posted by jakewire

Probably the forum before the forum before this one
TJ will be able put you straight , I suspect he still looks about though maybe under an different pseudonym here.

Yeah, Comes from FnH pub.

@jakewire, do you have a copy of Man-Eaters of Kumaon available for a read by any chance?

I have exactly that book, have had it for years and I cannot find it now you want it. I've quickly looked in all the usual place but can't remeber where it is or even the last time i saw it.
Damn

Well a lot can be said about the good old 243, some love them some hate them. Most of my hunting life I have had a 243 in the safe. My first came along when I was in the NZ FS goat culling, although I used the Sako 222 mostly I liked it so much I got a Sako Forrester in 243. I would take it out for walks when I wanted a change even though I had to buy my own ammo. I used this 243 all the time meat hunting after the FS days and then over the last 40 plus years have had several others but nothing to match that Sako.
I used all sorts of different ammo both factory and hand loads, factory stuff was Norma 100 gr and Win 100gr as well as some 80 gr Win. While meat hunting we got some 80 gr Remington match bullets which were great on deer.
We found the 80- 85 gr bullets worked best but the 100's were not to bad either.
Later we stuck to handloads and found the 85 gr Noslar Partition to be an excellent killer on everything we used it on. Beeman has been a one rifle man( 43 odd years ), the 243,and has taken goats ,pigs , Reds, sika, Fallow, Sambar, Tahr, Chamois to name a few and has never felt the need to go bigger, until now when he got a 260 more for longer range work.
More recently I have been playing with the 90 -95 gr bullets and have found them ok but not as accurate in my current rifle as the Noslar's. The 90 gr ELD x will be next to try so hoping that will shoot better than the 95 gr SST. ( might even try some of Sierra's Gamechangers at some stage.)
For the person who doesn't like a lot of recoil but wants something capable out to about 350 odd yards the 243 won't let you down, it's a bit like the 270 it just won't go away.