243 for black bear

[demontang]

With a good heavy bullet it should get it done. After my experience with a bear I'll stick to something with a bigger dia.

[mountainman]

Of bears I have harvested, 13 of them were put down with my old M70 in 243. None required more then one shot....all under 100 yards..

[dune]

6mm and 243 are the same round just a little more powder behind the 6mm I have shot deer with 7mm and 243. the 243 dropped them faster almost every time.

[grade-creek-rd]

We primarily hunt with 2 calibers in our house...my youngest shoots a .243 (100 grn Nosler Partition loaded with 40 grains of IMR4350) and myself and my oldest each shoot a 7mm-08 (139 grn Hornady GMX loaded with 45.5 grains of IMR4350)...your just fine with the .243 and if you don't reload then just get some Federal Premium's in 100 grn Nosler Partition.

That's my opinion anyway!

Grade

[jrebel]

First things first.....GREAT RIFLE!!!  My wife has two lady hunters, one in .243 and the other in 7mm-08.  I hand load and the .243 loves 100 grain partitions pushed by 42 grains of H4831.  Though my wife likes the 7-08 better at this point, the .243 would definitely do the job  in my opinion.  Make sure to post pics of the luck wife when she tips over a bear.   

[jasnt]

........Make sure to post pics of the luck wife when she tips over a bear.   

[JakeLand]

Accuracy and placement = dead bear

[Mxracer532]

I killed my spring wenaha bear with my 243, handloaded 95gn Berger VLDs. If my memory serves me correctly it was right at 300 yards or so and first shot was back of lungs and it passed through. Shot it again quartered to me right through the front shoulder and it dropped like a sack of taters!

[JoeE]

I killed a bear with a 243 shooting 100 grain corelokts. Didn't take a step.

[dmoua]

My gf shoots a .243 and the plan is to let her use that instead of my .308 but after seeing a bear close to 300 lbs it made me think twice.

[WAnoob]

Some bears are weird, I dropped a black bear with my 30-06 180gr partitions while my dads black blear took 5 lung shots to bring down with a 35 Whelen with 200gr partitions