It sounds like you've had good success with the .243. However, if you want more blood (never a bad thing) you'll probably get it with a larger caliber. Larger holes leak more blood.

.243 all day long. From the Red to the Rio.
Winchester Power-Points. 100gr..
Ride with Quality-Glass.

I have had good luck, just wondering if the no blood thing was common with a 243

i hardly ever got blood out of my 12gage on a thought and through they never when far maybe 20-30 yrs at most they tend to bleed on the inside my son to two dear so far this year one just the other day with his 25-06 through and through the other shoulder deer when about 35yrs and landed own in the bruch and died big exit hold no blood any where it has to do more with were you hit the fanamle then the caliber or gage your shooting i would say 90% of the deer i killed were with my 20gage in New York I got a lot of tags for being Nucens for eating the crops so i took a lot of deer and with those federal barns expanders were nasty rounds the would much up the lungs and anything hit then exit hardly ever and a blood trail the last 2 killed with my 30-30 had not blood trails and there went through the shoulders so i wold not worry much I was using the 95grain hornity ballistic tip and love them granted i have not shot anything but i have killed plenary of dear with my 22-250 the issue the it it is a varmint gun and weights a ton i can hardly shoulder it with the weight pulling down puts strain on my lumbar and hurts i have taken a deer with my 220 but you better not be off by much or take it in the head my 222 one year it door a largest bodyed but i have ever seen up in New York i best that guy went 250 or better I is shot him in the head it must have glanced he folded ring on the spot i i got about 20 yards from me it sprung right to its feet and took off like a bat out of hell i shot gain hind his head but missed shot placement is more inportanted the bullet caliber i have seen deer killed with 22mags and 22longs both behind the hear and 2 were through both lungs it ran quit far befor laying down and dyeing i int to see what my 243 wild with a deer but unless i meet someone that will let me hunt on there property or i get one on ft hood this weekend i wold I bought the cables bullet grain matched scope and am going to switch to a 100grain federal powershock round they worked well in my30-06 and my 3030 of the years and alway mushroomed nicely i dont care bout the bullet exit i want all that energy in the body cavity and destroy lungs hears as long as it drops in 30-40 yrs it did its job and did not destroy as much meat i never understood my guys shoot through the shoulders just so the deer wont run put it right be hind there and take out the lungs or a rib it is just as dead going through the lungs but the 243 at 100 shoot well enough i have confidence in a head shot at 100yrd 150 yards

I shoot em in the lungs and they always die. That's the good news. The bad news is that sometimes a big tough old buck can rocket off a good ways before he drops. Years ago in failing light and a light fog, here came the huge old 9 point I had hoped to find. I had the 270 and made a good heart/lung shot at 268 yards (lasered). That old buck crashed through a briar patch and all the palmettos and across the slough and I heard him die hard in the palmettos across the slough. I lasered the bush next to where he was when I shot him, walked to the spot, found a good blood trail and tracked him. Used up all my TP as I followed the trail and finally found him. 275 pounds body weight. Great palmated rack, with a kicker.

Would never have found him without the laser RF and a good blood trail and flashlight, and let me thank the guy that taught me to use TP while blood trailing. The point here is that you need passthru and a good blood trail. You might not need the blood trail to find your deer, but then again you might. And that's why this is the last season I'll hunt with the 100 gr BT in my 260. I get a blood trail only sometimes. Haven't lost a deer yet, but I want penetration like I used to get with the 270, which gave me blood trails Stevie Wonder could have followed. I really like my 260, but it's not the hammer the 270 is with the 130 gr Nosler BT at 3000 fps.

If you are going to deer/hog hunt with a 243, use a real good bullet - Accubond, Partition, or something equal.

The ole .243 pulled it out yesterday at 140 yards...shot placement...had a huge blood trail for the 40 yards until she fell over

Lots of deer get shot with the .243. Shot placement is what its all about.

really though a .243 will break a deer down in the shoulders just fine... lots of punch in that bullet. iv dropped plenty of 200+size pigs with shoulder shots

I have long said a .243 has plenty of power HOWEVER it does not always have the power to punch through the other side, thus making tracking very difficult. I have lost deer before because i could not find blood. I remember one time i shot one and only found one tiny SPECK of blood, luckily i found him but there wasent even the smallest blood trail, and it was a perfect lung shot....why even mess around in my opinion? Just use a 30-06

Iv seen a 30-06 do the same exact thing on a lung shot... more than a few times. Iv also seen a 300win do the same thing with a lung shot... I had it happen a few times with my .270win and stopped shooting behind the shoulder.

A good bullet will make a difference also but put a 85gr tsx bullet on the shoulder of a WT and its punching through every time

In my experience a good 180gr 30-06 core lock will knock any deer flat on its [censored], elk too for that matter.

I like the fusion bullets in .243. My daughter shoots that round and hasn't lost a deer.

Iv had plenty do the same but still plenty runnoft to be tracked... lots of different things take place with shooting behind the shoulder.. not a bad one to take its a very lethal shot but when I do pick up a rifle these days ill put it mid or high shoulder... with that iv hardly had one make it another step.... I did have one plow the field with its shoulders for a few yards but bout it

The main reason I am using the .243 this year is because i only have one good scope. My girlfriend doesn't want to shoot anything bigger so we moved the scope to her gun. Next year I will get another good scope and I will move back to my 30-30.

The 243 85gr Barns Vortex is laying them down on my lease and we shoot a lot of mature animals and they don't go 20 yards if they take a step. Just put it behind the shoulder and smile.

My brothers in law both use 243. Killed plenty deer. I shot one this year with Federal Fusion 165 gr .308. DRT. Big hole out the backside. Would have been easy to track if it had run.

I have no problem with a 243 but I dont have one so I shoot something different.

The .243 has been bringing down game since I started hunting with one back in the 60's and back then most people hunted with 30-30's 06's and .243's. There were other calibers available back then but walk into any hardware store or gas station and that is what was available.
The old .243 never died and it's probably even more popular today, and with better bullets we have now and more choices in ammo it's never going to go away.
A bad shot is just that! You can have a bad shot with any caliber, and if you place a proper shot on bone, (shoulder) the deer is going down regardless if it's a pass through or not.