243 is a fantastic whitetail cartridge used by many deer hunters around the world. Nice thing is the light recoil and inexpensive ammo. My son took 3 year before last with the PP 100gr soft tips, $14 a box. None of them took a stepI'm not a big fan of the .243 but no doubt it would be a pleasant shooter. Perhaps it is better with today's bullets than it used to be (a somewhat marginal caliber for deer IMO).