Thread: The Mighty 243, never lets a man down

Another quick bush stalking report.
After that big stag i got a while ago ive been out and found animals in two or three hunts. All resulted in spooking them, either the darn wind going the wrong way, not seeing them in time or the deer hearing me before i saw them.
Been frustrating but its good to see animals in DOC land local. Today, thought it was time the Mighty 243 went for a walk.
Been taking the 308 on most of the recent hunts, more the fact that i have heaps of ammo for it and none for the 243 lol. After dropping the 308 heavy on the last hunt i figured its unlikely to be sighted in great so this week went and bought some 243 ammo and took my fav cal for a look.
Went to a good spot X, havnt been there for awhile and had hopes could be a deer there.
On the drive there saw a nice big spiker on the side of the road having a feed. Just my luck, was just what i was after but its not the first time ive seen deer on that piece of grass in the early hours so i plan a hunt there in next couple of weeks.
Arrived nice and early and no one was there, always a bonus and headed into the bush.

Was quite abit of sign early on so that was good and didnt take long before i spooked (lol) my first deer, It was out to my right and all i heard was it jumping into the river and saw it crash up the bank on the opposite side and gone . Deer 1-0.







Another half hour staliking saw nothing then i got to a nice wee clearing which has had little sign on it in the past but this time there was plenty.









I decided to head up to a spur and followed some good marks then suddenly i catch movement and spot 3 deer high tailing it across the face above me and clearly they have smelt me .
Bugger, ...Deer 4-0.


Im thinking at this stage its not going to be my day, you dont normally get too many chances in the bush and ive blown two already for the day.
I head up, very watchful in the direction where the deer were going. They looked all like yearlings so maybe they wont go far as sometimes they are pretty silly those young ones.

I get so far up this ridge and only 50 yards away i catch the movement of a deer standing there looking at me and it turns and bolts up the hill and i have no chance for a shot.
FFS, is this for real, how i didnt see it first fuck knows, i was creeping along and watching closely but now its DEER 5-0 .

Starting to think ive lost my touch and after a quick re group im off again up the ridge but only get 30 yards and i see something ahead that looks like a stick with a deer head on it lol.

Is that a deer? I couldnt tell, there was abit of scrub here and there and it was a little way ahead . Had a quick look though the scope after winding the mag up and sure enough as clear as day its the same deer coming back down for a look with its head and neck streched as far as it could as it tried to work out what i was.
Couldnt belive my luck, silly yearling for you and i centred the crosshairs on the base of its neck and squeezed off a 100gr Fed powershok BOOM.

It disappeared but i heard nothing but i knew the shot was good if the rifles sighted in haha.
Sure enough, wandered on up and a nice fat yearling is stone cold dead with a hole at the base of the centre of the neck.
The Mighty 243 never lets me down





















Cheers, another good day out in the NZ native

Nice, not often you see that many deer in a day bush stalking.

Originally Posted by stug

Nice, not often you see that many deer in a day bush stalking.

Yeah, one of my better days animal wise. Normally if it goes wrong you get one chance and thats it, to get multi chances in a short period was very good and it would of been not good not to get one so was a happy man in the end

Go the bush Hunter.

Great day out, that's what makes bush hunting so interesting. You have to earn the deer you get.

what a tubby bugger! should be primo eating

What a beauty. Nice looking bush as well

Bodes well for my new one do chest shots work well with it?

Looks like good bush.

Nice fat deer, well done

ideal for chest shots...take out the front wheels and animal wont go anywhere...take out its boiler room and it will stay down.
great report on the bush stalking...

Good read, hooked me straight away with mighty 243. Nice looking eater, well done.

Mmmm ... good to read..

Started my hunting career many long years ago with 243, and just bought another recently. Little suppressed Marlin XS7 which has just shot 0.5" at a hundy with 80gr Fed Powershok, and 0.7" with Highland. Impressed... Will be ideal all-rounder on properties we shoot with some long range bunnies, reds and piggies..

What ammo are you using? And that yearling will be great to eat - very fat!!

Well done!

Excellent

As one who has never shot a 243, keep it up - I'm starting to think that I should get one myself..

Like 6.5x55, some calibres are out of "fashion" (whatever the fuck that is) and are still bloody good calibres, 243 sounds like a fine round

could feel your frustration in your writing deer243. good yarn. glad it all turned good . nice animal.