Fellows:

Any strong opinions on the economy of choosing a 243 over a 25-06 for someone who shoots a lot? I'm very biased toward the 25-06, but a friend of mine was asking me about the merits of picking the 243 for a whitetail/antelope rifle due to the economy of factory ammo. There is really no sense in comparing performance between the two as they are both perfectly adequate. I just never thought about economy of factory ammo between the two.

Thanks!

If you like to shoot enough to worry about the cost of ammo between the two you need to buy a reloading setup.

I reload .243, it's fun and ammo is much more accurate than factory. I don't have my calculator in front of me but with the readily available supplies for .243 it probably costs me about .50 cents a round.

The 243 uses smaller bullets, pushed by less powder. - It's got to be more economical than the 25-06.

It's also one of those magic cartridges that you can almost always find ammo for. - The 25-06, not so much.

I couldn't agree more.

As a long time owner of both, never had issues finding ammo for either.

It's a necked down 308 and a 30-06...

More powder more money... But really doing to have to shoot a ton to see a significant difference

Agreed on the reload comments. If you re-load the difference in cost is negligible. Using used brass I can knock out .25-06 with premium Nosler Accubond bullet for $.73/round.

Not sure it's fair to say that there is "no sense in comparing the two." Energy differs by several hundred pounds.

At the end of the day, if your friend likes the .25-06 (and I agree, great cartridge) then I would get setup to produce re-loads to his specs and not look back. Same could be said if he prefers the .243. Pick your favorite and roll your own.

Depends on what you mean by 'a lot'. Is he shooting a box per week? Just glancing at Midway I see a difference of $2-5 per box on most of the stuff, or $.10-$.25 per round. That's pretty negligible, IMO.

The differences between both price and availabilty is significant based on what I've been paying for off the shelf ammo.

The 25-06 is a much hotter cartridge IMO, with larger bullet weights being available. That makes it a more powerful cartridge, again IMO.

If you are near an Academy, Gander Mtn, Cabelas or any other chain sporting goods 25-06 is usually on a shelf. Lately I've been having a hard time trying to find bullets for reloading. Hornady is making some good factory ammo for the 25.