SmallCaliberCentral

Been a long time since I've been on this site due to gaining an instant family (girlfriend with kids) back in September 2010. That's over now, and after a year selling off guns to pay our bills, and not hunting in over a year, I'm working in the North Dakota oil patch, and there's coyotes everywhere! I still have my calls and white camo, so figured I better go after some up here. The company has put me up in a hotel here for the foreseeable future, and on my 2nd day off in a month, they just so happened to be hosting a gun show. I looked and looked through a good selection of used rifles. Only a couple .204's, but used, and too high priced. I was actually keeping my eye out for 25-06 and .243's also. I had a debate going in my head about whether the .204 was going to be as effective here as it was in Minnesota. The wind is crazy here. it's been about a steady 20 most days, gusting to 40. I was thinking I should maybe be looking at something that can launch a heavier bullet. I was almost done snaking through all the tables, and thought I may not find anything worth buying, when I saw a white box with the Tikka logo. it was a T3 Lite in .243Win, new in the box. It had a $450 tag on it, and I asked if that was the best he could do. He said it was a buddies gun, but he called him. The guy said he'd take $400, and it was mine in an instant. Now I need a scope, then need to work on turning this all black rifle white. Think I should have it dipped or just tape it up?

I knew you guys would appreciate this find : )

I'll still have to get set up with another .204 someday, but I think this .243 may be the right tool for the job, right here, today.

I think a 243 would be good where you are at. I just got one the other day and put scope on it and the scope was bad. So now a waiting game lol. Hope ya get to kill'n soon!

you will love the .243 for yotes. I highly recommend the 75 or 87 grain V-max if you dont care about the hides. It smackes them deader!!! With windy conditions the 87 grainer should shine!

Baba.....Gube is going to be very proud of you! I'm sure he'll chime in when/if he sees this. Remember to post some pics when you get her scoped and field ready.

Gube.....got your yearly "meatcicle" frozen and out for bait yet to warm up that Tikka T3 243?

Rick in Oregon wrote:Baba.....Gube is going to be very proud of you! I'm sure he'll chime in when/if he sees this. Remember to post some pics when you get her scoped and field ready.

Gube.....got your yearly "meatcicle" frozen and out for bait yet to warm up that Tikka T3 243?

Ah, yes, the ole meatsickle. Haven't been on here in a long time. Been so busy with work these days. The yearly meatsickle will be set up but not until I get back from Mexico (daughters wedding).

Baba O. I think you will be very impressed with that T3 243. The 75 and 87 gr V-max's are like the "hammer of thor" on yotes.

On another note, some of our Alberta Raptor Feeding Society members did manage to sneak away to feed the birds and have a bunch of "frame by frame" action shots to post again. I hope to have them posted in the near future. Been away so long that I see I have a lot of reading to catch up on. Hopefully work will slow down a bit this winter and I can "catch up".

Sounds like Your going to have a lot of fun taking down those Coyotes!


I have been using my CZ-USA in the .204 for taking down the Coyotes around here,hopefully I will get me a few Bobcats and Foxes this Winter too?I was using my Browning Bolt-action .243 and it did minimal damage with 100 grain Hornady Custom bullets...personally I would try something in a 50-60 grain to do less damge and it will reach out flatter/further!The .243 is a good accurate Rifle and with those wind conditions Your going to need a heavier grain bullet to stay stabilized....Gube may know more then me about what grain bullet to use?


I've got a Friend thats planning on going to North Dakota to haul Crude Oil...I heard work is really kicking off there!

Oh boy...

3:30pm
Was sitting around transferring stuff from my old phone to a new one, and realized I hadn't taken time to zero this .243. Weather here in SE Minnesota has been warmer than in North Dakota, but has been too windy or rainy this week to want to go out. 28 and calm, I figured I better get going. I went to do a first cleaning.





4:30pm (sun is setting behind the clouds)
I arrive at my favorite range, 20 miles from home. I didn't have time to print up any targets, but grabbed some paper plates and markers before I left. Couldn't find a stapler, but found some sticks to hang the plates on.

5:15pm (getting pretty dark now)
After 4 shots at 50 yards to get windage set and shooting low, I shot a couple more at 75, and 4 more to get it about a half inch high at 100.

These were shots 11 and 12 at 200 yards. Good enough! : )



After walking back and forth checking the shorter targets, it was so dark I could barely see the crosshairs on these shots at 200. As I neared the target, I shrugged, thinking I hadn't hit the plate, and there wouldn't be time to shoot any more. It wasn't until I reached out and felt the bull that I got a warm fuzzy feeling. Makes me wonder if this is going to be one of "those" rifles : )
Do I dare clean it now? lol. I would have liked to clean more during break-in but ?

These were HSM 75gr V-Max by the way. I won't have time to develop a hand load til summer now.

I haven't been to my laptop to verify, but that last post was my first time using tapatalk gor Android. Looks like the images may have posted kind of funky. I'll try and fix that if needed.