Thread: Looking for a good all around rifle

Originally Posted by Bagheera

As Gimp says, shot placement is important. With the 243 you should limit your deer shooting to distances where you can hit a 5-10cm target under hunting conditions. With a 270 your target area is 15-20cm. This is one reason why small cartridges are essentially short range cartridges. The others are the vagries of wind slope and altitude. Look for the thread on “dinner plate challenge” and try yourself out.

For the big south island walllabies, a 223 is ideal.

What part of the animal are you targeting with a "5-10" cm shot placement with .243 vs "15-20" cm with .270? Why is it different? What bullet are you basing this performance off and why?


"small" cartridges simply actually are not short range cartridges - any cartridge using a poor bullet is a short range (or just don't use it) cartridge.


The laws of physics and the animals aren't reading the numbers of the headstamp on your brass. All they care about is the performance of the small bit of lead and copper flying through the air and expanding through tissue. That is entirely related to the specific bullet and it's characteristics. A poor .270 bullet will work substantially worse than a good .243 bullet; and a good .243 bullet works perfectly out to such a range where the shooter can no longer reliably place it (this applies to any bullet) or it does not have enough speed left to expand.

There is nothing wrong or limiting about using a .243, other 6mm, or small 6.5mm for conventional hunting in NZ. Use good bullets whatever cartridge you select to deliver them. They will happily and reliably kill everything in the country.