The .243 Winchester is a cartridge designed to have minimum recoil and high power. This round is a very popular deer hunting cartridge made to be used under 300 yards.
The short answer for what you can hunt is this:
You can hunt groundhogs, prairie dogs, deer, wild hogs, elk [if you are a good shot], black bear, coyote, bobcat, and pronghorn. Pretty much any varmints or medium-size game can be taken with a .243.
Why it’s one of the best deer hunting cartridges
The .243 is arguably one of the best deer hunting cartridges on the planet, this is because it has minimum recoil and can take deer out to 400 yards with a 90-grain bullet.
A .243 has an impressive 2000 foot-pounds of energy, at the muzzle; For a cartridge that has only a .24 caliber bullet, that is a lot of energy. This round has so much energy that some people have even used it to kill elk but more on that later.
Another reason the .243 works so well is that for 90% of whitetail hunters the furthest shot you will ever get is 200 yards; this is because a lot of the whitetail’s range is heavily wooded areas or ag fields. For a cartridge that can kill a deer at 400 yards, this round will work for most hunting situations on deer.
.243s for hog hunting
The .243 is very good for hog hunting. The .243 is a good round because it has the energy to kill a big hog while being in a compact package. however, a lot of people say that a .243 is too light for hogs, but I would say they aren’t shooting them right. I have seen lots of hogs shot with .223, a very small caliber, and it blows right through them.
The .243 is a great hog hunting cartridge. The round has minimum meat wastage and good energy to make a good wound channel in a hog, even at ranges beyond 200 yards.
243 for varmint hunting
Varmint hunting is an area where the 243 both has upsides and has downsides. Its energy is a very deciding factor for varmint hunting.
One upside is you can shoot coyotes out to 500 yards, but ask any big-time coyote hunter, and he or she will tell you that it will destroy the pelt on that coyote. There are very few coyote hunters out there that use a 243, but if you don’t care about the pelt and just want to get rid of some coyotes, then this cartridge is great.
For foxes and bobcats, it is the same as coyotes, they will not have very good fur left. You will end up mostly destroying the fur, and you are better off just using a 223 or 22-250.
.243s for elk hunting
Now you are pushing the limits of a 243. The 243 is powerful for its size and weight, but to kill an elk with a 243 you have to have good bullet selection and good shot placement. you also have to be very confident and accurate with your rifle.
In theory, you can kill an elk out to 200 yards, but that is of course in theory. Now if you were at close range in a pretty controlled situation, with a cow elk instead of a big bull, yeah, I have no doubt you could kill an elk with a 243; But it is a question of can you, or should you, and you probably shouldn’t.
Conclusion
You can hunt everything from prairie dogs, deer, hogs, and maybe even elk with a 243. This round has made its way to be a very capable hunting cartridge that can kill a lot of different game. But the main deciding factor of what you can hunt is the bullet weight, if you are hunting prairie dogs, then you will want to use a 50-grain bullet, but if you are elk hunting then you would want to use a 100 or 110-grain bullet. So in conclusion, you can hunt all medium-size game, varmints, and even some big game, with a 243.
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