The 243 used to be the recommended starter rifle caliber for Deer Hunting. It is easy to shoot and doesn't really have any recoil to be concerned with. There are calibers that hit alot harder and are also capable of taking game larger than Deer. If Deer is all that's on your agenda a 243 should do fine. I don't own one but the friends that hunt with them selected the top weighted loads in 243. I believe that the recommended Deer loads are 100gr or 105gr. If you are looking at buying this rifle you may want to consider other calibers like the .260 Rem, 7mm-08, .308 Win, .270 Win, or 30-06. Deer are not that hard to kill. Bullet placement is always the most important thing, and a 243 makes it easy to put it in the right place. Some of the Hunters on this forum use the 243, and I am sure they will offer their opinions.
I shot my first deer with a 243 win and consider it the starting point for deer caliber selection. For most deer hunting it is fine. Are there better ones to pick from, you bet. Purchasing a 243 is an excellent way to pass a rifle down to a son/daughter ect. Good luck and happy shopping!
I have a 243 already but we've never used it to hunt deer. Its just alot easier for me to see through the scope on it than our other guns so I wanted to give it a try. I just figured id get some opinions first.
It would be a good idea to pick up at least 3 boxes of different manufacturers 100gr ammo for your rifle. Head out to the range and find which manufacturer's 100gr works best in your rifle. Then plan on buying several more boxes of the one that your rifle likes. Try to never buy other Companies ammo after you have settled on one. It is amazing that shooters are sometimes surprized when the point of impact or group size changes drastically after swapping to a different manufacturer. Ammo for a rifle is not like gas in a car, the rifle will behave differently if you change it. I always worry when I see someone shooting the last of their ammo up prior to the Deer Hunting opener. They usually say I have to go pick up some more from the store. I just hope for their sake that the store still has on the shelf exactly what they were shooting. There is a lot number on the inside flap of a box of ammo, many shooters will check to see that the boxes they just grabbed off the shelf are the same lot. Companies tool up for a run of a cartrige and then loads thousands of rounds. These are then boxed up and all given the same lot number. Two rounds out of different boxes with the same lot number are identical. Let us know how things work out with your 243. If shooting ever starts feeling like work you are doing something wrong.
I shot my first deer with a 243 win and consider it the starting point for deer caliber selection. For most deer hunting it is fine. Are there better ones to pick from, you bet. Purchasing a 243 is an excellent way to pass a rifle down to a son/daughter ect. Good luck and happy shopping!
Passed mine down to my daughter, so that my grandchildren can learn to hunt. My youngest son used the rifle to kill his first deer.
We use Remington Core-Lokt in 100 grain and trust them implicitly.
RR, I've also trusted Remington ammo over the years. I shot that 3 pt in PA with the 243 and he took like two steps after a heart shot. Funny, this week my son was giving me his list of guns that he wants. He wasn't too happy when I told him his sister wants a few! I should just sell them and get a boat!
I have killed more than 40 deer with a 1958 Winchester model 70 in .243.Once I started knocking them down with it,I saw no reason to change.I use Remington core-lokts in 100 grain.
is a 243 a good rifle to shoot a deer with 
I should just sell them and get a boat! 
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