Stuck on new gun caliber.

a 223 will last you forever, 243's more expensive ammo, shorter barrel life but a great hunting rifle. 308 plentiful ammo ,barrel last forever, recoil is manageable, excellent hunting round and the best all round cartridge of the 3


If your prime motivation is to play sniper go with a .204 Ruger. Tikka and Howa make some very nice ones. The accuracy of that round has to be seen to be believed. I have a Kreiger barrel on my match AR and it can't come close to the groups I get with my .204 sniper rifle. Cheap to shoot at about 20 bucks for 20 Hornady Vmax, just not as wide a variety of it as you have in a 223. Low muzzle blast and almost zero recoil also
 
Automatically toss out any post talking about the cost savings virtues of a .223. They are from folk who think Silver Bear and Wolf are good ammo. Yes, you can find dirt cheap .223 ammo but none of it is suitable for target work, most of it unsuitable for hunting work. You're talkin mid to high end ammo and the price difference in those categories between .223 , .243 and .308 is minimal.

Barrel burnout is a non issue with the .243 IMO. Will it burn out a barrel faster than a .223 or a .308? Maybe. But we're talking only fractionally faster. "If" the .243 burns out a barrel in 2000 rounds (I think it's much beyond that for anything but full blown competition shooters) than the others might be in the 2300-2500 range. It's not like you're gonna get double the barrel life or anything.

If you are really concerned about barrel life you need to get a Savage. Tools for a swap will be $100, you can get new barrels for $200 and do the changout sitting in your living room. Plus, since the bolt face is the same for .22-250, .243, .260, 7mm-08 and .308 you can bounce back and forth between cartridges with nothing more than barrels, a 15min swap and some range time to sight in the other barrel.

And yes, with the right bullet I'd have no issues using a .243 on bear.

LK
 
LK, you bring a valid point to the table.

Most .223 hunting ammo cost as much as any .30 caliber ammo.
While numerous .223 options abound, Off the shelf ammo in many areas have limited choices. So its mail order for a lot of special bullet types.

For casual plinking, American Eagle is the best value.
 
Most .223 hunting ammo cost as much as any .30 caliber ammo.
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If you intend on hunting with it, make sure it is legal in the state you intend on hunting in, for the game you have in mind.

Many states have a ft/lb or caliber minimum. You need to carefully load to keep a .223 legal for deer in Nebraska.......
 
Yea in both states I would hunt it is illegal to shoot deer with a .223.

On ammunition prices, that what I was noticing. Except for some surplus or low end ammunition for what I know, it seemed they all were in the same ballpark. Granted I did see some $15 per 20 .223, and some $42 per 20 .308, but other than that it stands as stated.

For barrel burnout, or until loss of 1moa, which again for me I would probably pull out another before considering it burned, but I was seeing people say .308 last until 6500-8000, .243 last until 1500-2000, and I have not seen any estimates on .223.
 
There shouldn't be any question here. It would be 308 all the way. 243 might be ballistically more efficient but your sacrificing alot of barrel life. At the distances your talking about, the advantage of 243 is negligible. The 308 can last 8000+ rounds(don't know where one of the posters got 'it lasts only a little more than 243') while the 243 is <2000. I understand right now you might think you will be ok with minute of deer accuracy, but if your gonna be shooting alot you will quickly come to like the accuracy of whatever rifle you get. When you can't hit something you were able to yesterday, because of the rifle is shot out, you will not like it.

223 is a nice round, but if its your only rifle and you have the possibility to shoot farther out then 308 would be better. As others have said it is not that much cheaper if you are buying good rounds.

As far as recoil or being able to last many rounds, forget about it. This shouldn't ever be a concern. If it is hurting you in any way, you can buy a pad to put on the butt of the rifle and that will take care of it. Most rifles now days come with this. I would be able to shoot my 308 all day without any uncomfortableness. This isn't just me being tough either. My 100lb GF shoots it as well, and she has absolutely no problems either. This isn't the 1900's when cutting edge technology was bare wood to color bone.

Lastly 308 is very common, so if you dont have ammo near by at your school or home there would not be a problem getting some. Also Match ammo can be bought foro $20 a box but blasting/plinking ammo can be bought for around $11 a box
 
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Jbat

243 is my favorite caliber as you can see from my ID. It is a fun round to load and shoot. But, you seem concerned about it burning out your barrel.

You have to understand what is ment by burning out your barrel. The 243 is a wildcat cartrage which means that it is a necked down .308 case with a 6mm bullet. High speeds can be obtained from this combination up to around 4,000 feet per second with light bullets. This is a good combination for compitition shooting because it bucks the wind and wind drift very well.

The down side is that with 4,000 fps you will erode the inside of your chamber(throat) and barrel with all that powder and high friction from the fast moving bullet. You will get about 750 shots at this speed before you start to lose your .50 MOA accuracy from this use. It is normal for a compitition shooter to replace the barrel once a year or more. It is part of the cost of their sport much like buying new golf balls each season.

Hunters that use this caliber, normally only use loads that clock around 2,900 to 3,200 fps and fire maybe 50 shots per year, as you can see this type of shooting will make the rifle last well over 2,000 rounds and many, many years.

A barrel replacement is not as expensive as you may think (I have not checked that out this year), but if you use a Savage rifle it should be around $175.00 and you can do the replacement yourself in 10 min..

The least expensive centerfire caliber to shoot will be the 223 and this is more than enough caliber for Yote and other medium size game. And is also a fun caliber to shoot.

Good Luck
Jim

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