All lead figures are in feet. Running shots should only be taken under Safe Shooting Conditions! Be alert and never take a running shot unless shooting safety conditions are right, proper terrain and background to stop the bullet, etc.!

Always figure you lead from the heart/lung area. It is always better to over lead than to under lead. You have an opportunity to get a quick kill head or neck hit or clean miss if you over lead a little. I recommend always leading from the front of the heart/lung area and dragging your horizontal reticule through the center of the body. The lead figures in the chart show the lead from the heart/lung kill area. With an empty rifle, practice keeping your swing steady with a consistent follow through as you pull the trigger and after the firing pin falls.

Swing through below the center of the body, and squeeze off your shot when the lead looks right, --be sure to keep swinging, --follow through. This 85 grain HPBT bullet is supposed to be the "Ultimate Deer Cartridge." However, the all copper Barnes  85 grain XLC would be better on angle shots due to better penetration and bullet weight retention.

Whisky Chamberlain of Idaho took 15 consecutive big bull elk, all one shot kills, with a straight .243 Winchester, therefore I believe, with will placed and proper ranged shots, the 95 grain Barnes X bullets in my 243/06 Wildcat ought to do the trick on elk. Using 25/06 cases it's a breeze hand loading for it. I still need a good variable range finder scope to mount on it. It has been my hot-rod rifle since the mid 1960's.

Select the zero that best fits the size game, range and terrain your hunting permits. On running deer a one deer length or 200 yard shot should be the outside limit, 25 to 150 yards is better according to your shooting skill level.

Keep this lead information in your head and practice visualization leads in your own mind and with your rifle, squeezing the trigger and following through! It works for me and it will for you, too! Visualizing in your mind the various combination of shots and angles, --conditions your brain's reflex conditioning and will make a huge difference in your shooting abilities. I no longer claim to be a marksman, as I have a lot of handicaps these days.

In many southeastern states in the U.S., deer are hunted with trail hounds and running shots are the norm. Those Southeastern states include: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and Virginia. They post themselves at clearings where the hounds will push them through so they can get a quick shot at them in full flight! They use both rifles and shot guns with buckshot, quick shots in clearings at running deer is the rule. For clean kills the proper leads are required with both weapons. (This information is needed by a lot of deer hunters, so bear with me my friends.)

During our three WI 2000 deer seasons I loaned my 243 Winchester to Derek, a first time young hunter, --he dropped a running spike buck with a lung shot at around 95 yards. He was using Remington 100 grain core-lokt factory cartridges.

For close range shoots on deer, use the New Remington Core-Lokt Ultra bullet, or handloaded 100-grn Speer Grand Slam bullets. Test results on other .243 Win pages.

Whisky Chamberlain of Idaho took 15 consecutive big bull elk, all one shot kills, with a regular .243 Winchester, therefore I believe with the right bullet and will placed and proper ranged shots the .243/06 Wildcat ought to be adequate on elk. I don't want to buy a new larger caliber rifle just to go elk hunting once or twice.

Today, 03/04/07, I saw on the Men's Channel "American Trophy Hunters,"  - Dish-TV CH 218, a massive old Elk shot at over 200-yards & dropped in his tracks with a .243-Winchester with open iron sights. They did not mention the  bullet weight or construction type, however, it proved to me that a Well Placed .243 bullet at 200-yards will deck the biggest Elk that walks.

Therefore, my 243/06 Wildcat ought to do the job on big Whitetails, big Mule Deer and on Elk with the Grand Slam bullet. I do not want to buy another larger caliber rifle to hunt elk, perhaps once in my lifetime.

In the 243 Winchester for big Mule deer & Elk, I would use the 100-grain Remington Core-Lokt Ultra factory cartidges, if reloading I would use the 100-grain Speer Grand Slam Bullets.

Related Pages 

Main Split-Screen Shooting and Ballistics Pages  
 http://www.udarrell.com/leadingrunninggamerifle.html
 http://www.udarrell.com/ultimate_deer_cartridge.htm
 http://www.udarrell.com/wisconsin_coyote_hunting.html

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