243: uses and limitations, advantages and disadvantages.

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Sea Buck

We had a gun buy back in 1996 after the cyco wanker went on that a killing spree in Tasmania.

John Howard who was elected prime Minister decided to make all Semi Auto rifles and shot guns illeagal. Oh yeah all pump action guns were retarted to two shots.

It does not matter that the guns used were black market firearms and fully auto that were illegal. Gun owners held huge rallys and protests but it did not stop that tiprat of a prime minister from banning registered firearms.

Since then there has been more regulations on pistols, it is pretty much hopeless to have a pistol licence.

But yes we can still have bolt action, lever action, and pump action firearms.

farmers can have semi auto's with the right permit.
 
Since then there has been more regulations on pistols, it is pretty much hopeless to have a pistol licence.

But yes we can still have bolt action, lever action, and pump action firearms.

farmers can have semi auto's with the right permit.
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Aren't there caliber restrictions, as well?
 
4000+fps must be handloaded since i am not sure which factory ammo would do that. I have access to federal, norma and privi paritsan. The choice and cost ammo is a huge problem in Pakistan.
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Yep, it was my handloads. 55gr. Nosler BTs over AA4064. I don't shoot factory ammo, so don't have a clue what's available in factory loads.
 
Love my Ruger .243 It is not picky about ammo--I reload and mine likes everything from 55 up to 85 grain really well--shoots the 100 grain stuff well enough to easily take deer. Recoil is low--fun to shoot. There are a wide variety of readily available Components for reloading. My 9 year old grandson can shoot it very well. It is very accurate and consistent. No, its not a .30-06 and one shouldn't try to force it to be what it isn't. But for up to deer sized game at up to 200 yds it is great. For varmints it'll reach on out there farther.
 
The 243 is a good flat shooting caliber that makes one heck of a centerfire rifle to start youngsters out deer hunting with. They have mild recoil and allow the shooter to concentrate on the shot instead of the thump they are going to receive after the shot. A properly placed 100gr 243 bullet on deer out to say 300yds ought to get the job done. Yes, there are better choices for deer rifles, but a 243 makes a great gun to own and shoot. I used to own one. I wouldn't recommend it on game larger than whitetails or mule deer.
 
What all the 243 lovers here may not know is the availability of
110, 115 and 120 grain hunting bullets from a company called
wildcat bullets. So you basically take a .308 case and neck
it down to shoot one of those heavy bullets and you dont
give much away to .260 or 7mm-08 rifles. How much more
versatile could you want a rifle to be? I think from as small
as 55 gr up to 120 gr !
Think about it, the 308 has 120 grain bullets it can shoot
but the smaller caliber bullet of same weight in 243 will have
much better ballistics and penetration.
 
The stock on my 700 .243 must not fit me right becasue mine bites me everytime I shoot it. It feels like all the recoil is being concentrated on a quarter sized area on my pectoral muscle close to where it meets the shoulder. I cant get the butt in further into the V without it resting on my collarbone :mad: But it's otherwise quite an accurate rifle, and the rounds are relatively cheap to shoot as well.

This is really irking me. My garand is absolute torture to fire for the same reason. And I'm afraid of shooting any bolt gun in a caliber larger that .243 because i know it'll practically kill me. Maybe limbsaver is the way to go.... on every long gun I own?
 
Jobs getting short, money getting tight, hunting scenario has a waggle, time to shuffle the deck. Excess of 30-06's and they're starting to punish the older frame (me). Do lots of homework and sell a few rifles in the process. reassess my hunting program (can't do everything that I used to do, dammit!). Research some more, decide on a .243. Which one's best in my price range? My son found a Rem. 700 on consignment at a not so local gun shop but it was worth the trip, added a Nikon scope and for well under $1K can keep a 5 string inside of 2" @ 200 yds. Good enough for me!
 
You pretty much summed it up Firepower!

You will only realize the cartridge's & rifle's full potential if you are a handloader.

243 with a 90-105 gr. bullet is great for deer sized animals. It doesn't beat up the shooter too much.

With bullets in the 55-65 gr. range are great for target & varmint shooting.

They say 243 Win was slightly more accurate than 6mm Remington, though 6mm Rem was slightly more powerful. I have the 6mm Remington, and I think it is a great cartridge.

Shooting bulls seems like pushing its envelope a bit. Generally, deer sized game is considered the maximum size of game for humane kills.
 
I'd like to give props to the .243 as well. Often overlooked and yet a very good all around cartridge. I wouln't think a round based upon the a necked down or up 308 win to be anything less.
 
A serious limitation of the .243 and one which should not be trivialized is that if you have several deer rifles to choose from your kids will end up first 'borrowing' then 'claiming' then 'owning' your .243 long before they'll even seriously look at your thumpermagnum. This process usually takes a decade or two and you don't notice it at first but by the time you realize it is happening there is even a serious possibility your grandkids will get involved, worsening it so that it becomes irreversible. :(

The old 25-06 outperforms it
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The .243 Winchester was developed from the .308 and the 25-06 from the 30-06. Definite advantage of the .243 is that it is shorter and can fit into a shorter action, uses less expensive powder and less lead, not much but a little bit. In many rifle brands the short action offering is lighter than the long action rifle. Also, ARs being all the fad nowadays, a .25-06 will not fit into an AR-10 magazine but a .243 will. Reputed advantage is that the .243 won't burn out barrels as fast as the 25-06, though nowadays I don't know too many folks who could afford reloading the thousands of rounds to test the hypothesis.
 
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why does this happen? what testing/studying have you done to indicate this?

I'd have to respectfully disagree. On this planet....the 243 has a significantly shorter barrel life than the other "service cartridges" 7.62 and 5.56. It's not a matter of opinion but fact.
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I grew up using my father's Remington 760 pump action in .243 Winchester to take out varmints. Dad also used it as his primary whitetail gun (and Lord but the man was good at that).

Over time I gravitated to a few other rifles but when I went back to the .243 I discovered that you needed to use accuracy, but with that flat shooting, lighter recoil, cartridge I COULD be more accurate because I wasn't flinching away from the gun.

Then I injured my shoulder and have been pretty recoil sensitive ever since. I have only rarely gone higher than a .30-30 or a .243 since and .243 is still my preferred cartridge for anything I'm likely to encounter in North America.
 
ttman

A 243 uses approximately the same powder charge as a 308. But the 308 has a much larger combustion chamber. Therefore there is much less wear in the throat area where barrels "burn out". You can use this example with any 2 cartridges that share the same case design but one is significantly smaller than the other. The smaller the flame has to be choked down the harder it is on barrels.

I'm not saying the 243 is terrible on barrels. But 308 and 223 are known as having long barrel life compared to other cartridges. Most people probably would not shoot enough to shoot out a barrel so the point is moot. I've talked to some guys I shoot benchrest with who've told me they've worn out 243 barrels inside of 2000 rounds. I'd expect 3000 to 5000 for a 308 and more than 5000 accurate rounds for a 223. Assuming reasonable care is taken to not shoot it too hot. Google 243 barrel life and you'll find several discussions supporting what I've said. 243 does not have terrible barrel life, it's just not as good as the other service calibers mentioned by the O.P. who was proposing 243 for a service cartridge.
 
My only real deal in years came this summer when an older fella thought he was selling me a worn out Ruger No.1 in 243 WIN.

It started out as a standard 1-B; somewhere along the line someone restocked it in very nice walnut. He had a Leupold fixed 12x on it. He wanted to trade it at my local shop but the owner didn’t want to buy it and wanted to put it on consignment for the guy. The old fella just wanted money to use as funds for his next project.

Now neither the shop owner or myself had seen the rifle and the current owner said nothing of the custom stock that had been installed (he didn’t even know it was custom) so I asked the fella what he wanted for the rig, he asked me if I wanted it or if I wanted it for resale. I love No.1's and told him it was for me, not resale. I bought the darn thing (rifle and scope) for $475!

He showed me some of his last groups and while not impressive I thought it may be workable. He stated that he "thought it may be shot out" as he had had it for a number of years, that his kids and grand kids all used it and that it has just started to fall off lately. I took it home smiling the whole way. Once home I started cleaning the rifle and geesh was it just plain full of moly build up. That darn thing was so fouled with moly on top of copper I am surprised he got the groups he did.

Well needless to say I took it to the range with some Berger 88gr High BC bullets over 41gr of IMR 4064 and bingo!!!! .410" groups off the bat at just around 3310fps.

All of this simply to say that when some people think something is shot out it may simply need a good scrubbing, lol.

J.
 
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does this theory apply to all hi-velocity rifle cartridges? or only to the .243?

A 243 uses approximately the same powder charge as a 308. But the 308 has a much larger combustion chamber. Therefore there is much less wear in the throat area where barrels "burn out". You can use this example with any 2 cartridges that share the same case design but one is significantly smaller than the other. The smaller the flame has to be choked down the harder it is on barrels.
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does this theory apply to all hi-velocity rifle cartridges? or only to the .243?
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Quote:
A 243 uses approximately the same powder charge as a 308. But the 308 has a much larger combustion chamber. Therefore there is much less wear in the throat area where barrels "burn out". You can use this example with any 2 cartridges that share the same case design but one is significantly smaller than the other. The smaller the flame has to be choked down the harder it is on barrels.


To a degree yes, and it's not a theory it's fact. It may be slight enough in some cases that one would never know the difference, but it's there. Forcing the same flame through a smaller opening will wear a throat more all other things being equal.
 
OK i've read many articles/forums now from the google search (like u suggested). the opinions are MIXED. amost 50/50. some say the 243 is hard on barrels, others do NOT. but they do tend to agree that a 308 will last longer than a 243.

so would you say it is safe to say the hotter a cartridge is (hyper velocities) the lower the barrel life? forget the idea that the 243 is a necked down 308. what about other cartridges (whether original or not) that shoot 3400-4000fps? do they suffer the same "short lived burned barrel" syndrome?
 
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