.243 is a very very good rifle for varmint hunting but underpowered for deerhunting even though it is legal. and ok 3 years ago during deer season opening morning like 7 in the morning i had a timberwolf come out in front of my stand 100 yards broadside and i held the crosshairs right on his guts but couldn't pull the trigger for a few reasons. 1 the deer population is overpopulated here to begin with. 2 who are we to determine that all wolves should be shot. 3 i am not about to give up my hunting rights because of a bunch of legal crap if i got caught. 4 i had my 30-06 semi auto that was passed down to me from my grandpa when he passed away and i will never allow this particular gun to be taken away from me. my ? is has anyone ever had the same dilema? and after 3 years i am very glad i never pulled that trigger even though i caught alot of flak at deercamp but a person can talk big but when the moment arrives all that stuff runs through your mind.

 

Underpowered? I've taken dozens of deer and antelope with the 22-250, all on one-shot kills and never lost an animal. Do you know ballistics for the .243 or 22-250? .223 is the official NATO cartridge and most soldiers it bags are larger than the average deer.

 

The 22-250 is quite a bit more powerfull than the .243. I have seen people take deer with a 22-250 and they tear up a lot of meat. The bullet is so small and traveling at such a high speed that it practically explodes on impact.
The .243 is a .223 with a slightly bigger bullet. Although it is legal for deer. This round is typically a beginner round for young hunters but it results in a lot of wounded deer.
The .223 or 5.56 NATO is the prefered round for US troops but it is not a knock down type of round. It does a lot of damage when it hits bone, but if it doesn't hit something solid the full metal jacket bullet will go in and out.

 

Then they're using hollow points instead of solid boat tails. The purpose of a high velocity smaller caliber is flat trajectory and reduced tissue damage. I've dressed game shot with a wide variety of high velocity calibers and other than head shots, tissue damage (meat loss) is directly related to bullet size, bullet configuration and placement.

Regardless of caliber or projectile, inexperienced hunters and those who do not practice on a regular basis are normally guilty of poor shot placement. A flank shot with any caliber is not a testimony for using larger calibers.

Any modern caliber will effectively down a deer with proper shot placement. I had a neighbor who used .22 longs to take his garden deer, head shots only. A hunter's shooting ability and judgment should be the determining factor of caliber choice for deer. Not taking marginal shots for freezer meat being rule number one regardless of caliber.

 

"I've dressed game shot with a wide variety of high velocity calibers and other than head shots, tissue damage (meat loss) is directly related to bullet size"

... interesting... my expirience has been the total opposite... in the past I regularly hunted with a party that shot a wide variety of rifles, & studied the wounds during processing... most in the party were using 30 caliber rifles... of the 30's, consistently the least amount of blood shot ( bruising ) around the wound were the 30 - 30's, next were the 30 - 06's, then the 300 win mag... my old 45-70, had bruising more consistent with the 30 - 30, & most pf the time ( depending on shot placement ), less than the 30 - 06, with the 300 win mag having the most bloodshot in every wound I examined...

... granted a wide variety of bullets were used, but the blood shot ( bruised area ) seem to be most related to the velocity of the bullet, rather than bullet weight or diameter...

... I'm not doubting that the solid boat tail will provide less meat damage than a hollow point, but IMO, a solid 22 caliber bullet is insufficient for the "normal" hunter to effectively kill large deer... IMO, even a good solid engine room shot with a 22 solid, has a very likely chance of atleast a very long trailing to retrieve the deer... my 1st deer rifle was a .243, & IMO, it's fine with a well placed shot, but still marginal... with the 30 cals being much more business like in the dropping of deer... & I still stand that my 14" hunter barrel on my TC with a 405 grain solid point 45-70 is one of the best at real woods deer hunting of large deer...

BTW... the reason the military uses small bores are many, none of which have to do with better killing... things like how much ammo a soldier can physically carry, & the fact that it takes much more energy for an army to care for a wounded soldier than a dead one...