i have a 243 win and i need to upgrade. but to what?

Get a .270. Best all round game gun you can get. Plus you can load it from varmint stuff all the way to elk. Can't beat that. Other than that I would say a 30-06. It's what the .308 wants to be.

OP never said anything about hunting. Maybe he's just ready for a bigger gun for shooting in general.

I have no experience whatsoever with 243 but I know WalMart always has ammo for it. If that's all you need to kill TN critters, then that's all the gun you need.

But, if you want to have fun shooting and hunting, get the biggest thing you can carry/shoot and still afford ammo for. I love recoil and actually shoot better with bigger calibers, that's just who I am.

Lack of info gets you three pages of opinions and no answers .

Ehhh...The OP has stopped listening and doesn't want to say what he's actually hunting. Let's just hijack the thread and have a good debate on big game cartridges.


SMITH - With all respect, I must disagree. The .270 is a great cartridge, but it's not as versatile for hitting power. The .308 (a.k.a. 7.62 mm NATO) wins for penetration, damage, and ability to handle brush based on the cartridge chosen. Flatness of trajectory is a very different story and the .270 is superior IME.


.30-.06 Lovers - WOW, that cartridge can do almost anything but it kicks a lot harder and the trajectory isn't as pretty as a .308.


7mm Mag Lovers - I'm with you hard core. I actually prefer a .270 Weatherby for trajectory, but they're stupidly expensive to shoot.


.243 Lovers - It's a nice little round as is the .25-06, the .223 (e.g. 5.56mm NATO), and the .22-250. Great for anything less than 100lbs, but I prefer critters with some meat on their bones.


May the fire bombing begin.




P.S. - For the record....I'm a lover of the .270 Wby Mag, .308, .30-06, 7mm Mag, and .22-250. (In that order)

.280 Remington....accept no substitutes!

Originally Posted by Muttling

Ehhh...The OP has stopped listening and doesn't want to say what he's actually hunting. Let's just hijack the thread and have a good debate on big game cartridges.


SMITH - With all respect, I must disagree. The .270 is a great cartridge, but it's not as versatile for hitting power. The .308 (a.k.a. 7.62 mm NATO) wins for penetration, damage, and ability to handle brush based on the cartridge chosen. Flatness of trajectory is a very different story and the .270 is superior IME.


.30-.06 Lovers - WOW, that cartridge can do almost anything but it kicks a lot harder and the trajectory isn't as pretty as a .308.


7mm Mag Lovers - I'm with you hard core. I actually prefer a .270 Weatherby for trajectory, but they're stupidly expensive to shoot.


.243 Lovers - It's a nice little round as is the .25-06, the .223 (e.g. 5.56mm NATO), and the .22-250. Great for anything less than 100lbs, but I prefer critters with some meat on their bones.


May the fire bombing begin.




P.S. - For the record....I'm a lover of the .270 Wby Mag, .308, .30-06, 7mm Mag, and .22-250. (In that order)

Just for fun!

The load that made the .270's reputation was a 130 grain spitzer bullet at a muzzle velocity (MV) of 3,140 fps. The recoil energy from firing this load in an 8 pound rifle amounts to about 16.5 ft. lbs. This level of performance can still be achieved by the reloader. Today's standard factory loads drive the 130 grain spitzer to about 3,060 fps. The Speer 130 grain flat base spitzer has a ballistic coefficient (BC) of .408, and a sectional density (SD) of .242; the 130 grain boat tail spitzer has a BC of .449. These numbers are right in the big game ballpark. And because the 130 grain .270 bullet is fast, it hits hard. Factory energy figures look like this: muzzle energy (ME) of 2,705 ft. lbs., 100 yard energy of 2,226 ft. lbs., 200 yard energy of 1,817 ft. lbs., 300 yard energy of 1,468 ft. lbs., and 400 yard energy of 1,175 ft. lbs.


These figures show that the .270 hits as hard with a 130 grain bullet as the .308 Winchester does with a 165 grain bullet at all ranges. (A .30 caliber 165 grain bullet has a similar sectional density to the .270 caliber 130 grain bullet.) The .30-06/165 grain bullet hits a little harder than the .270/130 grain bullet at the muzzle, but at 400 yards they are almost even. And the .270 definitely shoots flatter than either of its .30 caliber rivals. According to Remington figures, at 300 yards the .270/130 grain bullet has about 1.7 inches less drop than the .30-06/165 grain bullet, and about 1.9 inches less drop than the .308/165 grain bullet.

Originally Posted by gregintenn

.280 Remington....accept no substitutes!

Put an AI behind that and I'm with you! I got a 280 Ackley Improved and love it!

Lets hijack even more and bash the 270! Or better yet the the diameter! 6.8mm is so close to 7mm but so far from it at the same time. I'd rather go down from 6.8mm to 6.5 if I had to.

How bout 6-06 or 6.5-06? Great cartridges. Yeah I like odd balls!

Sorry, Smith.....I'm not basing my info on theoretical crap but actual field tests.


Having taken a number of white tails with BOTH cartridges, the .308 in a 168 grain BTHP outperforms ANY .270 for hitting power.

As I posted above, the .270 is certainly the better performer on trajectory



P.S. - All staying in good fun and respect my friend.

Originally Posted by GunTroll

Lets hijack even more and bash the 270! Or better yet the the diameter! 6.8mm is so close to 7mm but so far from it at the same time. I'd rather go down from 6.8mm to 6.5 if I had to.

How bout 6-06 or 6.5-06? Great cartridges. Yeah I like odd balls!

Yeah....But what about my beloved .270 Wby Mag?


Run that baby up from warp speed to ludicrus speed and it does some damage while flying flatter than my ex-wife's chest.




(Needless to say, my ccw is a .357 mag.)