I'll agree with 17HMR as well. I never could make either of the ones I own shoot better than 1-1.5" at 100 yards, even with no wind. Tried a bunch of different ammo with no improvement. Groups were more commonly 1.5"-2" with some in the 3" range. One Savage and one CZ.

X2- I was pretty young and inexperienced. In retrospect I think I was hoping for more terminal effect than well- a .243. With the minimal recoil it was fun and I shot the crap out of it. I cooked the barrel on it quicker than any other rifle. It is a 7-08 now.

300 blackout as well! does nothing a 556 cant do shooting heavies! Made that mistake once early on like many.

9mm I don't think a 9mm would kill me.

The difference in one stop shot percentages between 38, 9, 40, and 45 are surprisingly small.

like half the murders on First 48 are 22lr lol so I’m pretty sure 9mm will kill you pretty dead.

Seriously? Had no idea...

I've never murdered anyone. I'm just disappointed in how little authority 9mm rounds have on the steel poppers at the range. They don't go all the way to the ground, they just flinch a little. My 357 sig and 10mm sends them all the way down.

X2

No, not seriously. This is a common wives tale, but is simply untrue.

243 and 257Rbt's both have left me wondering why all the falderal gushy love for either one of these cartridges.

In my early years of trigger pulling I shot a very accurate SAKO 243 for several years back in the later 1960's, learned to reload on it, learned to turn baited river rats inside out at 2-300 yards in the Trinity River bottoms west of Farmers Branch before that area was annexed by FB or Dallas, won some cash bets "writing" my initials on a bidnizz card with it at the old Winchester Range on Luna Rd ...but it did not put WTails down with any kind of authority no matter where I hit them or any bullet of the day that were available back then.

The Rbt's was a M70 XTR that I shot the barrel out of it was so good on WTail sized critters with it;s preferred ammo, killed my Pronghorn in Wyoming at 444 "yards" (long steps by the 36" inseam wearing 6'5" tall guide) leaning against the guides Bronco, shooting super quickly when the herd we were stalking got antsy and started to break into a run, from the smooth canter they'd been at, and I hurried to take the shot off hand that I was so confident in kinda accurate, but even on the Speed Goat when the bullet broke his back just behind the withers at the base of his neck for a perfect High Shoulder shot, it did not DRT him.

Later I had to put 4 of the same 100gr WW ST RN bullets into a 125lb hog at under 75 yards to finish him off, with the 1st 3 of the 4 creating a broken shoulder as well as heart lung HVAC kill shot hits in the middle of his chest from the front..the 4th round finisher was at 25-30 feet face to face just under his right eye and exited the back of his skull, and left me shaken at how close I'd come to getting ripped up by the dying hog, trapped the way I was in the brier patch I'd followed him into crawling on my hands and knees. I put that gun back in the safe and never hunted it again. Elmer Kieth, one of my favorite old time gun writers most noted quotes was "Use Enough Gun" and I've done that ever since.
Ron

Have never been disappointed in a caliber. Only bullets, guns, and me. A few times I started getting disappointed in a few calibers, until I found the right bullet.

Men have always been fearful of a lack of performance due to size.

Some on this thread are mixing caliber with a particular round. 300 Blackout, 308, 30-06, 300 Win Mag, 30 Nosler are all 30 calibers. I haven't seen anyone say all rounds in a caliber are bad because because of a specific round or bullet.

You're 100% correct, Scott...but a discussion of bullet diameters would be awfully boring. This way we can bring headstamps into the spotlight and trash em. I hate the .243!

You were stalking the pronghorn from a ford bronco? No wonder they ran.

I just want to make sure we aren't being racist and judging an entire caliber because one headstamp.

We know the 6.5 caliber guys are always touting their superiority over all other calibers.

Only been disappointed in some of the decisions I've made. Bought into hype w/o research.
.17 anything makes the list.

After reading all of the hype, I expected my .378 Weatherby to be an absolute beast since "it has the worst recoil of any cartridge ever made." I've since shot it with full tilt loads from the bench, and while not exactly a pleasant experience, it's nowhere near as bad as advertised. I suppose you could call that disappointing.

..."stalking a pronghorn with a Ford Bronco" ...yep and a 80 power spotting scope at the very headwater depression hills and vales of the Little Medicine Bow River. We'd seen the herd from a couple miles away, and moved into their line of travel and waited them out. When they appeared, coming over a ridglinea little ahead of our estimated ETA I was standing in front of the drivers door with my butt leaning on the fender watching the area behind and a little left of where we thought they'd come over the ridge with my binoculars..and the guide spotted some does further to the right and finally the trailing buck popped over the ridgeline, giving me only a quick shot as they spotted us and got hinky about it.

Did the same kind of approach twice more and my pard could not hit anything with his chest heaving after hiking up a 800/1000 foot hill on the 1st set up. Later we came back to the same area I'd scored in and he popped a Buck with his 3rd shot at the targeted buck, offhand using a BAR 7Rmg , at almost 500 yards away. Bob was a national level trap shooter from Phoenix in those days, a 3 pack a day smoker which did not help at all climbing hills and trying to keep up with the long tall cowboy of a guide...I could could hear Bob's lungs rattle at over 300 yards away when they got back from the 1st setup, but was totally comfortable taking that offhand shot on his 2nd setup ...just kept hitting the rocky outcroppings along the bucks line of travel initially that he could not see in the periphery of the scope until his buck came into some clear line of sight flat creek bank. The guide was a Rocky Mtn Gun Rep based out side of Boulder, with Weaver as one of his lines, and had just come back from guiding a Rocky Mtn Sheep hunt in Alaska 2 weeks earlier for a PRA event...and very crisp on his range estimations. Those were the Good Times in my gun bidnizz career.
Ron

I've shot my three biggest whitetail with a .243......Wanna arm wrestle...LOL..Bullet placement.

50 bmg did not suck a deer eyes out when i missed

Don't misunderstand me. I'm not down on all 6MMs. I have a 6-284 and a 6mm Rem and love them both. It's just the .243 W that sucks.

I use to be kind of down on the 243. I'm a magnum fanatic and always thought the 243 was a bit on the puny side. Once I got tired of burning up high dollar magnum ammo on pigs I gave the 243 a try. I was very impressed with how it handled some very large Boars. Didn't always get an exit with it but more times than not the pig was laying right where it once stood.