I’ve been selling fur for 30yrs, a 243win is NOT a great choice for anything smaller than a coyote, and not the best choice even for coyotes. If you’re only interested in blasting animals and not concerned with recovering fur to make use of the game, then a 243 is fine, but you might as well just use the .30-06. If you’re making value out of your small game, the 243win isn’t on my list.
So personally, I’d draw my lines differently. Prioritization based on utilization. If “badgers to bear” is the paradigm: In any given year, I can (and in many years have) harvest hundreds of coyotes, hundreds of coons, dozens of badgers, beaver, bobcats, and fox - furharvesting is game of numbers... but on the other side, the big game side, meat and trophy hunting is a much lower volume game. We used to be able to take 9 deer per year in KS, and I used to go to TX and NE for 4 more, then the occasional elk trip, and even more seldom bear hunting trip. I do usually go on a couple hog hunts each year, where I’ll knock down between a handful to a few dozen hogs in a year. Ruining hundreds of hides for the sake of using a deer rifle (243win) for varmints just isn’t practical.
So for me, a deer rifle and a big game rifle - a 243win and a 30-06, doesn’t make sense. I did field that battery for many years, and still have them at hand. The 243win is fine for a rancher wanting to kill coyotes without regard to hide damage, but those folks are a low percentage of the folks who bought a .243win with an eye for small game. The rest are just wasting hides - wasting our natural resources.
If I were after only 2 rifles, I’d fully skip the 243win. I’d be running a 223rem or 243LBC on my light end for small game, and a 30-06 or .300win mag on the top end for my big game use. I’ve killed bear, elk, and bison with a .30-06, as well as over a hundred whitetails - the 300 would be extra oomph. Full value on my hides, less waste, and plenty of punch for anything over 100lbs up to 2,000lbs. For North America, my 2 gun centerfire battery would be a 223rem and a 300win mag (which, not so surprisingly, is exactly what I have built for myself as my “go-to” North American hunting battery).
