I think that the .243 Winchester is a cartridge for the ages.
Positives it exhibits:
--enough boiler room to push 117 grain projectiles well past a klick;
--enough of the same to push 50-60 grain bullets to just UNHOLY speeds;
--enough accuracy to have won, at least once, a national title in every modern rifle competition in this country, and several other nations to boot;
--enough power to kill any animal on this continent (and really anything but the largest African game) with an intelligently selected and carefully placed bullet;
--low enough recoil and blast as to make it shootable to nearly anyone who would ever choose to try;
--excellent history and knowledge base on trajectories and loads for the handloader, along with excellent component availability and selection;
--exceptional availability and versatility of loaded rounds if you don't load yourself;
--factory rifles to suit nearly every task for which the cartiridge can be used.
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above this line I basically understood, from assessing various sources but especially from the snipercentral snipingammo pages
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The main negative is, of course, a result of burning a lot of powder in not very much space: barrel life. Typically, match-grade cut rifled barrels will start to lose some of their razor-edge accuracy at 800-1,000 rounds, and will likely have died pitifully in your arms before 1,200.
It's like a hot saw that way: hellacious performance, but it burns a lot of gas to get there.
If you hear mixed opinions about this last, it is because of mixed crowds discussing the topic: most deer hunter types only shoot a box of shells a year, and clean once, and find that their rifle shoots "just and good now as it did when I's a boy", or something to that effect.
Contrast the Highpower or Silhouette shooter who is running 2,000-3,000+ rounds a year down range, with national competions toward the 75% portion of a summer season, and you can see why the need to change a whole darn barrel 2 weeks before Nationals might get to be a real problem.
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the next section, down to here, I had some general sense of but nowhere near as clearly expressed as you have put it here
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Way I see it, if you were born right at the end of The War [yes, Army Air Corps father, came out at the end of the war, built a house, raised a family], and you spent your boyhood in the '50s [yep], then you remember what that time of life in America was all about [oh, yes]. With that in mind, I get a little nostalgic...
I cannot think of a nicer rifle to own than a Pre-1964 Winchester Model 70 Supergrade, chambered in .243 Winchester. Such a rifle is as solid a representation of the height of American Firearms as you could possibly ask for, so if you have the dollars and the inclination, there is no nicer rifle for a man of your age to own and carry.
That's all I have to say about that. [and all I have to say is "I've been moving in a certain general direction, but you have CRYSTALIZED it for me. One more Rifle Bucket List item added. One more search begun. Thanks! ]
If you must go modern, then don't pass up a look at Sako's offerings. They are elegant rifles built to near the American "custom market" standards, and shoot about the same...which is to say "circles around" most things from Remington or the modern Winchester Repeating Arms. [well... not to supplant the above, but as a general recommendation... taken]
-Nate
Thank you sir!