re: 243 for young first time hunter, did I make a mistake?

Hard to argue with 7mm-08…. One of the best if not the best .308 offspring.

I

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You guys using copper bullets - what kind of results are you getting?

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Use the lightest bullets you can. It's lightening.

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(Zeroed at 100 Yards)

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Everyone please stop doing this regardless of caliber

Unless of course you are a tight woods hunter.

But if you see any sort of distance, sight in for a 3-4 inch arc. Make your life easier man.

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Everyone please stop doing thi

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It's just a reference point for comparison.

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Change your powder.

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I've used a couple of different but need to try with others.
The 8208x is suppose to be the best but I've not had luck with it.

Sitting depth may all be an issue with it as well. Just need to spend more time.

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But if you see any sort of distance, sight in for a 3-4 inch arc.

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You talking Maximum Point Blank Range sighting?

Yeah, best way to go.

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You talking Maximum Point Blank Range sighting?

Yeah, best way to go.

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I swear to God I didn't know this was a thing, but yes that is exactly what I mean!

Dialed in, it takes the guess work out of shots typically out to your maximum realistic distance.

I am about to share an unpopular opinion, but here goes:

I guided high fence for several years, was in a club for many years with 243 lovers, and was there to witness the shite show with my 2 young cousins starting off with 243. I loath the cartridge for anyone other than an experienced adult. There isn't much room for error with the damn thing. Most of the bullets for them expand much too rapidly or just break apart inside of 100 yds. If they don't exit you're not getting any blood due to the incredibly small entry hole. What comes next is a lost or incredibly hard to find animal if you don't see it go down or if you don't get a good idea of which way it ran. I've seen this play out dozens of times. You have to remember the 243 was invented as a varmint cartridge that could kill a deer at the hands of a skilled fur shooter if one popped up. It doesn't happen every time and people kill a lot of deer with them, but there's a chance it doesn't work or makes life hard when there are better options that would make it not as hard. Another thing 243 people love to do is claim they just missed or made a bad shot when they in fact didn't. When you're shooting shite fenced in you can stumble across them a few days later when the buzzards show up. On my old club we have found several then the shooter claimed he missed but didn't feel like going looking because he didn't have any blood.

This is my lived experience of almost 40 years of deer hunting. Personally shot over 150 and I've been around hundreds more. I won't shoot less than a 6.5 mm cartridge and feel confident. I much rather see a kid use a 30-30 than 243 or 223 or anything similar. I started my girls on the 3030 and then moved into a 308 shooting 130 grain barnes. 308 with the 130 Barnes has the same penetration 150 grain projectiles, but with equal to a 6.5 CM or 708 with 140gr bullets. It kills like freaking lightning.

If you insist on 6mm and smaller cartridges for deer, use Barnes, Partitions, or something bonded besides Federal fusions as they are extremely soft. They tend to pancake inside of 100 yards. I've seen the 180 grainers not make it out of fallow deer at 90 yards. It wasn't really a problem because 180 grain bullet out of a 30-06 has a lot of power and creates a large wound channel because of the 30 cal bullet. They would all fall within sight.

Lastly, I don't give a damn what cartridges you're shooting. If you know your shots are going to be less than 125 yds and you're hunting in thick terrain, don't use thin jacketed tipped cup and core lead bullets like ELDX, SST, Ballistic Tip/Ballistic Silver tip, Corelokt Tipped, Berger, and similar. They can and do go to absolute crumbles on impact. Sometimes they get in the cavity enough to kill the deer and allow you to recover it without too much trouble. Sometimes they just wound the deer and it either lives or dies days or weeks later due to infection. Does it happen every time no, of course not. Get your sample size up and you will see it happen eventually. Been there, done that, lived it. In those conditions Barnes, tougher bonded, and partitions are the only fails safe options. All of that high BC shite is for target shooting. It is meaningless inside of 400 yds.

My buddy who has a ranch in OK refers to ELDX bullets as "dog callers" because there's about a 50/50 chance that he's going to have to call the local dog handler every time he hears family or a client shoot when using them. They switched all their ammo to Federal Terminal Ascent. They have a lead nose that is bonded to the jacket followed by a solid copper base. I have seen his wife put big arse Midwest deer on her arse with a 6.5 CM with those and they exit. They are amazing bullets.

My dad has had a .243 for 50 years and never hunted with anything else. Killed a ton of deer