I rate .243 highly. It's my second favorite cartridge after the .308. The advantage of .243 over .308 is that you can see fall of shot due to the softer recoil. For your range days I recommend reloading your own ammo as that really allows you to get the full accuracy performance from the .243. My .243 is an old and abused Tikka M55 and with factory ammo it shoots ok but with reloads it has shot ten V bulls in a row at 300yds:
