243 enough on deer at 300 yds?

For all that I tend to limit my range with my .243, the problem for 300 yards isn't the cartridge, for most folks: It's the shot placement--which is a factor with a .300 RUM...

I've tagged as many bucks from using my .243 as I have my pet '06. I'm just more likely to play Ma Bell with the '06. But that little Sierra 85-grain BTHP does horrible things to deers' necks or to the heart/lungs. I just avoid angling shots...
 
I shot a big billie goat at 200 yds, with a rear end raking shot. (Texas Heart Shot). The bullet hit right in the ring hole and exited in the lower part of the throat. The bullet travelled right through the animal making the insides like a big bowl of jelly. The goat dropped on the spot, i was using a 100gr hornady bullet with a verlocity of around 2900fps.

With a small deer you wont have a problem. Like Skulls said the minimum in Australia is .270, but that is for Sambar and Red deer. For Fallow and Hog deer the minimum is .243 with an 85gr bullet. They are small body deer.

Like any gun, caliber, bullet weight, or game taken the most important thing is shot placement.

I have shot several billies and pigs at close too and beyond 300yds with great results. I might be bias but the .243 is very under estimated. I do own bigger calibers but the .243 is a pleasure too shoot.
 
I have had a several different experiences with the .243. The first doe was shot at 135 yards and was standing broadside. When I went to pull the trigger she spooked and started to run. I hit her with 100 gr. partition square in the hips. What a mess she did not go far but required a 2nd kill shot and the whole rear end was wasted due to bullet but mostly bone fragments. This qualifies as location, location. The 2nd was a small buck at about 75 yards broadside also using 100 gr. partitions. It was a double lung shot that had an entry and exit hole the size of the bullet. A clean pass thru no bones were hit. He took off with a funny shaking run and made it about 50 to 60 yards into my back grove, absolutely no blood trail to fallow. I use a 7mm08 now as my mane rifle but my son is going to use the 243 for his first deer.
 
Down here our deer tend to be small and a 300 yd. shot w/100 grs. drops them quite handily. If I were headed farther north (larger deer) and/or greater distance could be a factor I might step up to my 30-40 or 30-06.

Knowing myself I'd work on getting closer and make it work.
 
Interesting article I read awhile back. It's NOT about the .243 (the two cartridges mentioned specifically were the .257Roberts and the .260Remington), but it is on topic.
Excerpts from “Return to Reason” from the May 2008 issue of Shooting Times.
By Greg Rodriguez
...

I take note of caliber, bullet, shot distance, shot placement, and the distance each animal runs after the shot. Over the last three seasons, hunters on one of the ranches I run took 92 deer and 27 hogs. Of those my tracking dog ran down 21 deer and 8 hogs. Two hogs and four deer were never recovered....

Further digging revealed that all but four of the animals that had to be tracked more than 50 yards were shot with magnum rifles. All but one animal that was wounded and lost were shot with a magnum of some sort.

That revelation inspired me to go back a few more years, and the result were pretty much the same: The majority of poor shots were made with magnums.

Those figures are not, in my opinion, an indictment of magnums. Rather they indicate that horsepower does not make up for poor shot placement. And given equal shot placement, bigger cartridges have little real advantage because, well, dead is dead.
...
One reason smaller cartridges have fared so well over the years is that just about any hunter can shoot them well. Conversely, the list of hunters who can deliver accurate shots consistently with hot magnum cartridges is much shorter.
...
I’ve slain a mountain of game with the light-kicking .260 Rem. It works splendidly, dropping deer in their tracks and driving those long, 140 grain pills right through every deer-sized animal I’ve ever shot. My clients have fared equally well with the .260.
Click to expand...
 
I actually own a Ramington 700 VLS (Varmint, Laminate Stock) in .243 Win. Great rifle and great round. I hit a turkey at a measured 555 yards away with mine. One shot, one kill. Of course, I'd memorized my drop tables... but its totally doable. :)

You pick your shots right and use 100gr bullets and you should be fine for deer out to 300.
 
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