He almost certainly missed and guess what, that's OK, nothing to lose sleep over. It happens and I'd rather see a clean miss than a wounded animal. Good luck to him getting another pop at it.

Deer that get shot at and missed don’t fold over backwards

It looks like the same buck to me. Good luck.

Very unpredictable what a small load will do inside a decent sized buck - especially if the short is a little forward.

FWIW, my son is small/light for his age. After a similar experience to yours, I quickly moved him up from the biggest 223 load I could find to my .270 with 150 grain bullets. He handled it just fine. Now, he has a lot more room for error. He can go high shoulder, and even nice big full grown bucks drop quick. Might just gun up. I bet the boy will handle it fine with all the adrenaline flowing.

My son spent a ton of time learning to shoot live things with a .17 hmr, then a little time with the .223, and he took to the .270 with no apparent transition issues whatsoever. We do not do a lot of target shooting. Very little in fact. I just make sure the guns are sighted in. We just varmint hunt a lot and hunt a lot.

I asked because I've personally shot ~60-80 with a .243, and my dad has killed somewhere around 150. Granted, these are central TX whitetails, but hit with a decent bullet in the vitals, we never had a problem recovering a deer. Until they grouped poorly most were shot with 100gr Corelokt and very few times did we not get an exit hole. Now, it's not a 7mag, but it's a good deer cartridge if the hunter knows what he's doing.

I've killed lots of deer with a 243. Looked for some, tracked some but I've always found the ones that where hit. If the boy likes the gun just calm the nerves a bit and he will be fine. I have always shot 100 grain soft tip core locks and like I said have killed plenty.

That has been my experience as well.

Very sporadic performance. Sometimes deer bled well and died easy, some bled little and ran a long ways. Some were hit good and never found, even with dogs.

Ive tried to stay away from turning this thread into a debate over an effective deer caliber/cartridge. The fact that Quit(whos opinion I respect) has killed over 200 deer with one speaks to the fact that it can be effective. However i think Quit is somewhat of an excellent marksman. If you put the gun into inexperienced hands and there is just not near as much room for error. If my opinion a bigger more powerful cartridge is always better but I am well aware that you must manage recoil with a beginner. I do not think there is an easy answer to the dilemma of what to start out a youngster on.

FWIW ( pertaining to the OP’s dilemma ) when I was comming up, a lot of kids shot .22-250’s and .243’s. I was given a .30-30 and shortly after a .270. A .270 is pretty stout for a slight 11 year old kid but I managed and never lost a deer with it.

Maybe as a whole we need to re-think the small caliber advise for younger hunters. There is a middle ground to be found

we've probably shot 20-30 deer with 243's. About 1/3 of those were with the reduced recoil Hornady's and the rest were with core-loc's. Some deer had great blood trails, some didn't have any. Some shots blew straight threw the deer, others exploded inside the deer. Same thing with a 308. Some pass right through, others explode. Based on my own personal experience, the Hornady reduced recoil in 243/308 and the regular 243/308 SST's are more likely to explode on impact and I've never see a nice mushroomed bullet when using one. If I'm hunting somewhere that I absolutely need to have a passthrough, I go back to plain old core-loc's. We generally shoot high shoulder, but I've seen it on shots farther back as well.

Agree 100%, a .243 has accounted for nearly 20 deer for me. When hit in the right spot with a 90-100 grain bullet they seem to die very quickly, most have fallen where they stood for me.

For many years I wasn't a great marskman (still am not, but I get by). I get that there is a difference between shooting hill country WT at 100-200 yards, versus shooting lg south TX bucks at 200-300 or more. But Bell killed elephants with a danged 6.5; WTs are not tanks. The vital zone on a WT is substantial, nearly 8"x8", and further back you can catch liver, further forward you might get neck. A .243 is not a 7mag, but 100gr bullet still carries a lot of energy.

The thing I see most with this type of situation is unlearned hunters or poor shots. If that buck is the same deer, he looks fairly healthy for having taken a round a few days ago. Looks to me like it was a non-vital hit (or even a close miss). A non-vital hit with a .30-06 or a .243 is still a non-vital hit. 'Hit good and not found' does not compute. If you didn't find him, you can't really say how well he was hit, and most well-hit deer die quickly. My uncle shot a buck with a .270, 130gr PowerPoint-we tracked that deer 600 yards and never found him. He thought it was hit well. We killed him opening day of the next year. The shot was in the shoulder, but low, and apparently at a shallow quartering-away angle so he didn't get any cavity. The front shoulder/chest muscles were all knotted up and the deer was three-legged, carrying it like this, with 6" hooves.




Hunters that show up at the place a few times a year, never shoot much in between, and have low experience to begin with experience these types of problems with much greater frequency. They're not familiar with the gun, they aren't sure of the sight picture or how the deer was standing, they don't know the land and don't know specifically to watch which way the deer went and what trail he was on. They don't do adrenaline very well. I've been on many tracking jobs that started with 'I *think* he went this way' or 'He was standing kinda over here'. Those are the jobs where you have a much harder time finding the deer, if you do at all.

Dangit, now I sound like a preachy jerk. I'll hang up and listen. Good luck to the young hunter, I wish him quick redemption on his next trip out!

What do you mean he looks fairly healthy? I only have a pic of the right side of his face, if it's him at all (fingers very crossed). We'll see what happens.

We've also killed plenty of deer with a 243 and I'm not questioning the rifle's effectiveness and certainly wasn't looking to start a debate.

Thanks for all the feedback folks, and I'll report back either way when I know more. Hopefully with pics of a dead deer and a very smiley whippersnapper.

It sounds like the OP is optimistic that the deer is alive and well and from the pic I think he should be. Hes ready to move on. Its not up to me to say but if the effectiveness of a 243 wants to be debated im sure it will rage on if someone starts a new thread in the Firearms section. This really has been an enjoyable thread and I think some knowledge was there to be gained. Please keep us posted if the buck shows up more. Good luck.

Good luck OP. I hope your boy gets his deer. I remember when my son got his first buck.

.243 is junk!.......Please send all that worthless .243 ammo to me so I can dispose of it properly!

Appears to be the same buck from that photo, hope he gets back on him!

I would have 100% faith in the 243. And i also 100% believe that the reduced recoil ammo is at no fault. If the bullet would have hit vitals you would have a dead deer. Maybe he would have been hard to trail but he would have been dead.

Grosvenor, you should check out some federal premium 100 grain nosler partitions for your 243, it will almost, if not always make 2 holes.

Thanks

I shoot Hornady White Tail ammo and a 30.06. There is not much blood with those either and they rarely pass through and leave an exit wound. They do a lot of internal damage especially to the lungs and tracking more than about 20 yards has not been necessary. Maybe the Hornady bullet design??

Is that a kicker on the right g2 or not?

A 243 is plenty of gun for killing deer. I’ve only seen one instance where it didn’t do the job with a well placed shot. This was 35 years ago and my grandfather shot a nice buck in the center chest facing us. It turned and started running off. I shot him in the back of the neck with my 243 and he flipped. His bullet blew up with no penetration on the chest at a little over 100 yards. There are much better bullets now and we shot what was cheapest. It’s not what caliber you’re shooting it’s where you put the bullet. If he had shot that deer in the center of the neck I wouldn’t have had to shoot. We were driving around in the truck and things happen in a hurry when killing deer like that.

Same pic enhanced

Looks like same buck to me.

my daughter shoots a 243 for deer. Her buck this year was a perfect high heart, lung shot. Not a single drop of blood but massive internal damage. He ran into the pasture and tipped over after 30 yards. I'm glad because he left no trail. I let Sam practice shooting from the lead sled so she gets no recoil. When she's hunting she does not notice and does not flinch. Just a thought.

22.250, shoot them in the head. Hud spawn three still uses it.