aww....

thats not any fun at all

I have enjoyed reading this thread.

I grew up hunting deer with a 222. Almost everyone that hunted on my "uncle's place" used one. Every year 10 to 20 deer would be harvested with that rifle. Most dropped in their tracks. And that was with the bullets we had many years ago.

The variety of bullets and loads available today for 22 cal. centerfires is remarkable and we have used most of them to take deer over the years. My favorite is the 64 gr. Winchester power point. The Nosler 60 gr and the now discontinued 55 gr. Trophy Bonded Bearclaw are also good.

Many 22-250's use a slow twist, 1 to 14" barrel. So, users need to be aware that they need to stay with the shorter of the better constructed bullets. Though I have not used it the 53 gr Barnes bullet looks like a good choice.

Most 22 cal. centerfires drop deer like lightning. We have taken quite a few youngsters hunting and all but one deer harvested with a 223 Rem have dropped in their tracks.

This type of hunting is done at shorter ranges over a feeder with the youngster set up for a well-rested shot. The kids do better with the 223 because there is so little blast and recoil. The same for the 22-250.

A couple years ago I took a group of youngsters and their fathers/mothers on a doe cull hunt. We had every sort of rifle that the kids could shoot well. After we had all the deer skinned and hanging up I went back and tried to make a mental note of performance, shot placement, damage, etc.. I looked at one big one and the damage looked like a shot from a 243 so I called to the youngster that was hunting with a 243 and asked him to tell me what happened at the shot. (should have looked at the tag)Well, I was wrong.That deer had been shot with a 22 Hornet. I had not even realized we had a 22 Hornet in the bunch and as it turned out the Hornet had been substituted that day because of a problem with a larger rifle. It did a good job. Who da thunk it?

As to the 243 not being potent enough for deer...I wish I could insert one of those little smiley faces that rolls on the floor laughing.

It reminds me of a youth hunt I was on. The great grandson of the founder of one of the most famous ranches in Texas was helping with the hunt, along with the foreman of that section of the ranch. One of the kids had some questions about their rifle and both of these guys offered their personal rifles. Both were 243's loaded with standard 100 gr.factory ammo. Both used the same thing for Nilgai.

Here is another little quote on the 243 along with the url to read the entire section:
"During an elk hunting trip in western Colorado in about 1985, I attended a retirement party for a Department of Wildlife officer. I questioned 25 of the attending DOW officers as to the cartridge with which they hunted elk. The .243 Winchester cartridge was used by twenty-two (88%) of them, two of them used the 30-06 cartridge (8%), and one used the .270 cartridge (4%). While three Wyoming Wildlife officers were checking my license, I asked them what cartridge they carry for hunting elk. ALL three replied that they shoot the .243 Winchester cartridge (100%) and said they shoot it for every type of big game animal in Wyoming.http://www.udarrell.com/ultimate_deer_cartridge.htm

My personal favorite centerfire deer cartridges are the 308 Winchester or 270 Winchester. A favorite of my family is the 257 Roberts. We also like the 243, 22-250, 223 and 30-30, all depending on the circumstances.

The 22-250 is fun to shoot, very accurate, doesn't beat you up and if you reload it is very easy on the wallet.
My 2 cents...Worth what you paid for it.
Kell

this is really not pertinent to this topic, but...

I found out a couple days ago that if you shoot a skunk in the butt with a 22-250 from 15 yards there will be nothing left but skunk hide and pink stuff.