.243 shot placement on deer

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Steve Traxler

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I purchased a .243 for my son to hunt deer. (He has taken one deer with it.) I have instructed him to only shoot deer in the heart/lungs and pass up anything that is not either broadside or quartered away. Does anyone have any experience with shoulder shots with a .243. Have they been successful? Will a .243 go through both shoulders on a 120 lb deer?
 
I'd use 100gr nosler paritions, you can buy federal factory loads or if you handload you can load up a batch to use. They are very sturdy and will push thru pretty well, will go thru the shoulders on a high shoulder shot? probably break one for sure but a heart lung shot will kill quickly and probably give an exit hole for a blood trail. My 243 used to shoot thru 1/4 steel with 100gr soft points, wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it.
 
You certainly have the correct idea. That being shot placement. Know it`s limits and act accordingly .
If zeroed in and the shooter can achieve the benefits to the fullest, most any normal shot will be a good one.
Worrying about blowing through both shoulders is not what it`s about.
As noted by your comment, some "possible" shots are best left not taken . The 243 is not a cannon but a more than capable cal for taking deer.
I`ve had my Savage 110 in 243 cal for 50 years. Have taken plenty of deer. Have also passed on shots I thought were "iffy" due angle.
location in brush. What ever.
Give that 243 a good target, ( know the location of the vitals from different positions) and it will do the rest. JMO.
 
I've killed 3 deer with mine. No tracking required all drt. Never used partitions in my 243 but, the 60 gr partition from my 223 punched through the front shoulder and exited the offside ribcage on a quartering forward shot at 40 yds.

Destroyed the front shoulder joint and turned heart and lungs to mush
 
Why destroy so much valuable shoulder meat, regardless of the cartridge used?
I prefer not to however I had him wait on a quartered to shot this year unfortunately the buck ran off before presenting a broadside shot. If it was me with my X06, I would not have hesitated and dropped him.
 
I don't get why people won't take high shoulder shots with small calibers.
It generally plants them. Even if it breaks up, the bone and shrapnel will take out the lungs.
That being said, I have had every lung shot deer die also.
 
I have found 243 to be an outstanding deer round. The deer that have ran out of sight after the shot didn't run far, and I never had any problems finding blood the whole way. No issues with full penetrations after a shoulder hit. My rifle likes the cheap Winchester power points (100 grain) and they have always performed well on the deer.
 
As long as it is a bullet designed for deer or larger it will work fine for any angle. If you put in perspective a 243 100 grain has about the same sectional density as a 150 grain 30 cal. bullet. That means all else being equal, construction , muzzle velocity, range, and point of impact, that penetration will be about the same. The wife has used a 250 Savage for more than 30 years. I have used one for 7 or 8. Dad used a 257 Roberts for the last 15 years he hunted. All were with 100 grain bullets between 2850 and 3000 fps. Not sure how many deer these accounted for. More than 40 for sure. Broadsides were pass throughs. Quartering shots were about 50% pass throughs and depended on if a shoulder was hit going in or out depending on angle. Straight on shots ended up back in the guts somewhere. Plenty of penetration.
 
The only time that I had a problem on a shoulder shot was with a 90gr Nosler BT. The bullet went to pieces on the shoulder and the deer went 60 or 70 yards. The shoulder and rib cage was ruined on one side. This was a 60 or 70 lb. bambi. . Probably took a dozen with 95 gr Ballistic Silvertip and a few with 95 gr Accubonds. They worked fine but I pick my shots. I would probably load Partitions if I was loading for a novice or hunting big deer. Ours seldom top out at 200 lbs..
 
3rd rib from back, center body or just tad low. Takes out lungs. The hydro shock alone will waste the lungs. No meat messed up. Body angle pick same line preferably from back to front to avoid behind diaphram. Head on wait till head turn , base of skull within doable range for placement. They can run further on heart shot than lung shot. Never had one go more than 10 feet, most just hump up and fall or spin then fall.
 
I’m a believer in the double lung shot. They may not be “DRT” but they will rarely go more than 50 yards and will “ABD” (always be dead)

And as a bonus, very little meat loss.

I tried the shoulder shot a couple of years ago and saw no appreciable benifit on the two deer I killed
 
Why not take a head or neck shot then? Hit the spine or brain and DRT, no meat wasted. I knew a guy who hunted mulies with a 22K Hornet. he took only head shots and nothing very far - and it was a TC Contender. Right placement will make even a small bullet like that do the job. A 243 has been a favorite for quite a LONG time with an impressive record.
 
Because it ruins a bunch of meat.
It does lose some meat. But most people act like the bullet won't kill them.
It also reduces the odds of losing them. We had one that was lung shot by a 58 muzzleloader jump off a bluff. There was a tremendous amount of blood and lung tissue for about 50 yards straight to the edge. I would have needed rappelling gear to get to the bottom.
 
It does lose some meat. But most people act like the bullet won't kill them.
It also reduces the odds of losing them. We had one that was lung shot by a 58 muzzleloader jump off a bluff. There was a tremendous amount of blood and lung tissue for about 50 yards straight to the edge. I would have needed rappelling gear to get to the bottom.
Never lost one that was lung shot, but I suppose if I was shooting a deer that was near a bunch of cliffs I might reconsider that (though in my case, if I needed rappelling gear to get to the deer, I'd get my rappelling gear and get to it.:thumbup:)
 
Iv'e used a 243 for years. I switched to a 7mm/08 and haven't looked back. I shot many deer with it and many stopped in their tracks and some I had to trail. I got tired of trailing because where I hunt, the neighboring property I posted and the guy is a real jerk! The 7mm/08 puts them down! I've shot 4 with it so far and all of them dropped in their tracks.
 
@natureboy - “ABD,” I like that!

I angle for the high heart + double lung. If I never get anything but a frontal presentation, then typically I wait for another day and another shot. Given the pressure of “last day of season, with a shot on the biggest buck I have ever seen,” I’d take the neck shot over the shoulder. It’d be a mental coin flip as to whether I waited to try again with my bow the next day too. The paradigm of taking a bad shot just because you have it doesn’t make sense to me. A meat hunter won’t want to ruin meat, and it’s not the best wrapping for a trophy hunter to admit they don’t actually care about the meat... I used to be a “they don’t run far if you knock a wheel off” hunter, but after ruining so much meat, and realizing I had shorter tracking work when I DIDN’T shoot the shoulder, it’s been about a decade and over 20 deer since I’ve intentionally taken a shoulder shot.

I have also rarely understand the “only shot I had was frontal” situation. I always expect this is an excuse for short patience. Unless they walk in and then RUN out because you blew your hunt, there’s going to be an opportunity for a broadside or away shot. I’ve never had a buck face me and walk backwards from my kill-box.
 
I have shot deer with my 243 for over thirty years. Every deer shot died, most droped in it's tracks.the ones that did run only went a few yards, but I shot only walkingnor standing still deer. I don't take running shots or shot at deer that are walking fast.
Shot placement is the key to any caliber.
A friend on mine does a lot of elk hunting in several western states and his elk gun is a 243.
Another friend does guided hunts for mule deer and elk. The guide service he uses has 243 caliber loaner guns for guest to use if their gun malfunctions and need something to shoot.
They have the clients shoot targets from a hundred yards, two hundred yards, three hundred yards and on to see what they can hit at the different yardages and only let them shoot at their competent range and rifle capability.
I will call him and see what his safe shot distance is on elk for his 243.
This past New York deer season I shot one buck and four does ranging from fifty paces out to two hundred paces with 87 grain FBSP bullets traveling at 2750 FPS. One went about five paces and the other four droped where that stood.
My brother shoots a 7mm08, he generally gets a deer a year. In the past fifteen years or so all of the deer he shot dropped in their tracks except one. Two years ago a big doe he shot went about fifteen yards and folded up.

I am buying a Remington model 7 in 6mm to use next deer season. Sunday night I loaded up ladder loads for it.
100 grain SPBT over Alliant Reloader 19.
Next weekend I will load up somemore 100 grain SPBT projectiles over a couple of different powders to test the 6mm rifle when I finnish paying it off.
I will be putting a Leupold 3x9 scope on it and when I test fire it I use a lead sled rifle rest.
 
I prefer not to however I had him wait on a quartered to shot this year unfortunately the buck ran off before presenting a broadside shot. If it was me with my X06, I would not have hesitated and dropped him.
That .243 will do it, as long as you pick the right bullet, no sst, use 80+coppers, 90 bonded, 85+partitions, or 100 gr Sierra or Hornady (speer has been soft in my experience). If you don't handload, federal premium is a good place to start, the fusion line will do what you're asking but be less traumatic on broadside heart/lung shots.
 
I've shot a lot of deer with my 30-06 in the past 30 years, and this year one with my .243. I've occasionally carried the .243 the past 4 years but the deer never cooperated and only showed up when I had the old faithful 30-06. Over the past 5 years I've read a lot about the .243 and shot placement and such. I'm going to say shot placement is paramount no matter what caliber you use. I always choose hear/lung shots. That deer was just as dead with a .243 as it was with countless 30-06 kills. I believe the .243 with proper bullet (I use 100gr) is a fine cartridge for deer. I'd advise one to go with a heart/ling shot but I believe a shoulder would be fine after seeing my most recent harvest.

-Jeff
 
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