.243 losing popularity?

[Petrol & Powder]

Getting back to the OP's statement, "...I'm looking at GB, and all the magazines I can to see what is out there ......" brings us to the need to ALWAYS CONSIDER THE SOURCE.

Gun Broker and most gun magazines, exist to SELL things. So they may not be the best sources of knowledge and information.

I'm not going to disparage the 6.5 Creedmoor but I will say that the bandwagon for the 6.5 CM is big & loud.
The 6.5 CM fits right in between the 243 Win and the 7mm-08. And while the 6.5CM is based on the 30 TC case and not the 308 Win case like the other two cartridges, it really isn't anything more than the middle child of that family.

So, is the 243 Win. (a 6mm short action cartridge) going away because there's this new 6.5mm short action cartridge available - Probably NOT.

The gap between 243 Win and 308 Win is currently filled by the 7mm-08. Marketers are attempting to squeeze more sales out of that arena by heavily (and I mean really heavily) pushing the 6.5 CM. I can't predict the future but I can observe current marketing; the current marketing push for the 6.5CM is strong.

Will the 6.5 CM kill off the 243 Win.? , I doubt it.
Will the 6.5 CM kill off the 6.5 x 55 ? maybe in the U.S.

[Texas by God]

Do you fellows that deer hunt with a 243 get exit wounds and decent blood trails?

No. The deer don't run off, either.

Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk

[reloader28]

Do you fellows that deer hunt with a 243 get exit wounds and decent blood trails?

I dont remember recovering a bullet and we've shot a pile of deer with 243 from 40yds to 425yds. Its the perfect deer/coyote rifle in my opinion. I do know it will go completly thru the neck at 350yds or so.
We use Hornady SST's. Some people dont like them but they sure work for us

[SSGOldfart]

Do you fellows that deer hunt with a 243 get exit wounds and decent blood trails?

Yes Sir I've only had to track a couple over many years.

[brass410]

my first centre fire rifle was a 243 788 remington , its an incredibly accurate rifle for me and it has certainly put down a lot of vermin and game from whitetails and even 1 not so wary bull moose ( I'm was an awesome marksman at an incredible 12 yards) I have like most others added to the collection but it will always be my go to for small game. I dont believe it will be going away anytime soon.

[Ural Driver]

I own two and find them pretty much perfect for these Texas sized deer as well as coyotes. And, as with all of the other calibers I use, I can find ammo anywhere I happen to be.

[RU shooter]

The 243 will not die out just too many in circulation . Yeah the the new 6.5 is popular now due to the writings and glowing reports of the gun rags but in honesty for 90 percent of use normal shooters and hunters the 260 Rem is every bit as good or better but it's popularity is fading . But there wasn't near as many 260's sold compared to the 243.

[kaiser]

The .243 has always been the "in-between" caliber where many a discussion (some heated) centers around its adequacy for deer size game. Remington added fuel to the fire when they introduced the .244 (aka 6mmRem) with its slower twist barrel that made 6mm bullets as accurate as throwing rocks (sarc). Just like most calibers, when cartridges are mated with the proper designed bullets for the task, they work. The .243 did not have the best designed bullets when introduced, but they had little recoil and most guns were very accurate. If they took deer size game at reasonable (?) ranges, they worked extremely well as they do today. However, it was when a hunter decided to demonstrate his shooting abilities over his hunting abilities and stretch the maximum range a couple of hundred yards further than normal where the older designs failed to perform. I own, and have kept, a .243 for one reason - I covet the rifle it is housed in over the cartridge it shoots. My rifle? A Sako Carbine that weighs more than it has to, but because of its "bull" barrel, is a one hole shooter. This rifle and cartridge has never failed me, although I have failed to direct it properly a few times. The cartridge is easy to load, easy to shoot, and has sufficient power for the ranges I normally hunt. While I have bigger calibers, including the "magical" 6.5, when I hunt deer around the home plot it is usually with a rifle I love to carry; that favorite is my .243Win. My .02

[M-Tecs]

Do you fellows that deer hunt with a 243 get exit wounds and decent blood trails?

Killed between 40 and 50 whitetail bucks and a few does with a 243 most with one shot. Depending on angle and size I found a couple of bullets just under the skin. Never lost one or had a hard recovery.

[M-Tecs]

While per Dave Emary Hornady's senior ballistics scientist the Creedmoor’s parent case is the .30 TC that is mostly marketing hype since both the 30 TC and the Creedmoor's can be formed from 22-250 brass. It's actually the brainchild of Denise DeMille and like a whole host of others like the 6mmXC, 240 NMC, 6mm International and the 6mm-250 it's based of of a 22-2250 case. .30 TC sound better than 22-250.

The 6.5 CM was designed for NRA HighPower so the longer 6.5 bullets could be used in a 308 length magazine. With the same bullet the 260 Rem too long to load in the mag.

For the average hunter the 243 is a better choice than the 6CM and the 260 Rem is a better choice than the 6.5CM.

None of the Creedmoor's would have gotten any traction if not for the marketing genius of the PRC TV shows. To play the game you need very long for caliber target bullets if you want to used 308 length magazine rifles.

[Screwbolts]

Yes, What M-tecs says.

[mike britton]

Thanks for all the responses!
Back in the 70's I had a 6mm Rem leftie 788 and my uncle had a Ruger 1B in .243. We used the same load for both cartridges, and he was always annoyed that my lowly 788 would shoot with his 1B all day.
This is all leading up to me having another leftie in a 6mm cartridge.
If I end up with say, a Savage 110L the choice will be 6mm Rem as the 110 is a long action. If the action turns out to be a 700 Rem short action, the choice will be .243. Personally, I consider the .243 and 6mm Rem to be nearly identical in performance.
I found a 110L at last week's gun show but it was a 7 Mag and for what the seller wanted for a rifle in that condition, I didn't want to spend the extra for a new barrel. Not to mention the issue with the bolt face.
I'll find a leftie, even though they seem to be more scarce than they were. I can start with a bare action, but that will cost me much more than converting an already built leftie to the barrel I want.

[444ttd]

It got me wondering, is the .243 losing popularity? I cannot imagine in what is left of my life time that the venerable .243 would go away, and if it did ammo and brass will be available into the next century. Won't it!?

in my opinion, no, tho it should have a long time ago, in my opinion.

i've had the 243 many times(rem adl, bdl, cdl & m7). i've reloaded for it(hornady, speer, sierra, barnes x bullet). and i have shot (shoulder/behind the shoulder) and tracked deer(50-250yards) with little or no blood on the ground. i gave up on the 243 about 20+ years ago.

my friend tho, has a 243 in rem m788 and he swears by it. in close to 40 years, he has only one buck that was wounded. it survived about 3 or 4 days till his cousin, while hunting, walked up on it and he shot it(about 4 or 5 inches) into its head.

in my opinion, the 25 cal should be used. whenever i'm asked about "what caliber", i say the 7-08 with factory loads and 7x57 with handloads. with younger gents and ladies, i say 7-08(factory loads) and the 6.5 creedmoor(handloads). the choice of rifle should be young gents and ladies choice.

i have used all three(7-08, 7 mauser, 6.5cm) on deer hunting and found them incredible on deer. most of the deer are drt, but there's always a couple of deer that run, but thats only about 20-40 yards after the shot.

i deliberately left out the 260 rem. its a great cartridge that was forgotten by remington. in 30 or 40 years from now, the 260 will be gone and forgotten. the 6.5cm will probably be there.

[redriverhunter]

While I have no first hand experience taking game with the 243 win. I know a guy who has hunted the past two seasons with an ar in the 6.5 creedmore. He told the other day he is going back the 243. His shots are some where between 175 to 230 yards. He was telling that the 6.5 does not drop the game like his 243. I can only guess why the 6.5 is not performing better seems like a heavier bullet and bigger bullet maybe the barrel on his ar is shorter thus lose in speed. I got a Thompson center in 243 win. and have shot it a bit with 100 an 95 gn bullets propelled by H4831. I now know why people like it is a real easy shooting cartridge. I am going to try and take a few hogs with at about 175 yards gotta see for myself.

[David2011]

Getting back to the OP's statement, "...I'm looking at GB, and all the magazines I can to see what is out there ......" brings us to the need to ALWAYS CONSIDER THE SOURCE.

Gun Broker and most gun magazines, exist to SELL things. So they may not be the best sources of knowledge and information.

I'm not going to disparage the 6.5 Creedmoor but I will say that the bandwagon for the 6.5 CM is big & loud.
The 6.5 CM fits right in between the 243 Win and the 7mm-08. And while the 6.5CM is based on the 30 TC case and not the 308 Win case like the other two cartridges, it really isn't anything more than the middle child of that family.

So, is the 243 Win. (a 6mm short action cartridge) going away because there's this new 6.5mm short action cartridge available - Probably NOT.

The gap between 243 Win and 308 Win is currently filled by the 7mm-08. Marketers are attempting to squeeze more sales out of that arena by heavily (and I mean really heavily) pushing the 6.5 CM. I can't predict the future but I can observe current marketing; the current marketing push for the 6.5CM is strong.

Will the 6.5 CM kill off the 243 Win.? , I doubt it.
Will the 6.5 CM kill off the 6.5 x 55 ? maybe in the U.S.

For energy levels, yes. For ballistic coefficient, no. To equal the BC of the 6.5mm bullet in any other caliber requires heavy-for-caliber bullets and sometimes faster than normal twist rates.

The high BC gives the 6.5 disproportionately higher energy downrange.

[Duckiller]

To correct a misstatement. The 22-250 is not the base cartridge. The base cartridge is the 250-3000 now known as 250 Savage. One of the first wildcats bases on this cartridge was what became the 22-250. Both are good cartridges, have a gun in each.

[243winxb]

My choice today would be a Ruger Precision Rifle chambered in 6mm Creedmoor with a 1:7.7" twist and 24" barrel or same in different brand.

In 243 win, need a fast twist barrel, these days.

[Shawlerbrook]

There are so many choices in a mid range caliber rifle that new 243’s are being crowded a bit. That said, it will not fade away the same way the 30 30 didn’t fade away.

[country gent]

I shot 243 in High Power rifle matches it was very good there. Flatter shooting and like a laser over all. I used it in 1000 yd matches even. My rifle was set u with a 1-7 twist hart OTC barrel. Easy to find good loads for and load . very accurate. For 200 and 300 yds I used 95 grn bullets, for 600 on out it was 107 JLKs vld offering. or bergers 115 and a few 107 sierras. My only complaint in this use was it was a barrel a year cartridge. I think the best I got was 2500 tds before x ring count started dropping. The newer 6x and others are meant to match performance with better barrel life. A couple rel performers are the 6 and 6.5 X 284 but again real barrel burners.

For most the 243 covers an awful lot of hunting, from ground squirrels to deer sized, and at the rate they brn ammo barrel life is way down on the list.

My AR-10 has 2 uppers 1 in 22-250 with a 1-7 twist kreiger barrel. This upper with 80 grn vlds is a tack driver and very capable. The other is a 243 win set up as stated above. The first was a pre 64 model 70 built into a OTC rifle.

With the lighter bullets its a very good varmint rifle with heavier it moves into the larger varmints and deer sized game

[JWFilips]

The .243 Winchester Hopefully will endure! The 6 MM Remington tried to put it out of business I feel it failed
Dang! Just look at it It is a sexy cartridge! You may as well say Marilyn Monroe should be replaced! Oh yes they tried with Twiggy!

The only rifle I ever achieved 4000 Fps with ( of course I fried the barrel after 600 rounds)