As I read this thread I noticed the lack of one ingredient to the mix that is actually very important, in my opinion, and is like yeast to a cake mix.

You changed bullets/loads but didn't have the shooter re-zero thier weapon at the range.

That would be the first place I would look. That leads me to ponder if the shooter, not you, zeroed thier rifle with the original load.

Just food for thought and something to consider. I'm also a fan of "heavy for caliber" loads when shooting, although I have been known to use "light" loads at times. Good luck figuring out what the issue was but I wouldn't worry about it. Just have your daughter keep going to the range and shooting. Nothing replaces trigger time done correctly.

Biker

i agree with critter on this subject. i've got quite a few kills under my belt with a .243 and have seen what it does to the deer family.

the other day, i killed my last whitetail of the season with the .243 and no problems. i would, however, change bullets, under your circumstances. (which is easier if you handload) on deer, use a fast expanding polymer tipped ballistic tip or similar, and you will be happy with the results.

i use an 80 grain hornady g-max propeled by 36.1 grains of Varget powder and CCI BR2 primers. my gun likes it, and i have a box full of dimes and pennies with holes in them to show for it.

the g-max is a similar alloy to what barnes uses, so if you're savvy on reloading, match your ballistic coefficients to the twist rate of your barrel keeping in mind that the g-max alloy is lighter than lead.

not gonna be long winded about this but i love the .243. 4 does and a big buck this year with shots 125 to 323 yards and the .243 drops 4 in their tracks and the other one never got out sight

The .243 with the proper bullet is more than enough to take those deer If they put the bullet through the heart/lung area.  From everything you've said I don't think the daughter or wife did that and that's why there was no recovery.  I also have to comment about your statement about going from 180 grains in your 30-06 down to 150 grains and not getting any penetration.  All I use is handloaded 150 grain Hornady BTSPs.  The mulie I shot this year at 174 yards with one tore the heart in half and he never twitched.  Something is drastically wrong if you aren't taking every deer you are shooting at with either of those calibers and the proper bullet.  I have to believe it's the shooter at fault.   One last thing and that is the comment that you made about cross eye dominance.  If the shooter is not shooting from the correct side and using the dominant eye on that correct side, that may be part of the problem.  What I'm saying is that if a person is left eye dominant they should be shooting from that side and vice versa.  Trying to compensate with a gun designed for a right handed right eye dominant person like most are when they are left eye dominant is not good.

I really have to believe here that it's not the tool, it's the mechanic. I used to shoot a great deal and taking down even an elk with something like a 222 rem would be no problem. It's not a good cartridge for big game but it will work and used well it will kill like lighting. 243 is a much better choice for big game than the 222 rem. And even though I've killed several deer with it, I don't care for it for hunting. Nothing really wrong with it, it's just that there are so many more suitable cartridges, I'd rather one of them.

As I said, I think the problem is the mechanic. All I've read about for practice is a bit of sighting in. In the field, if you have a flat out hot stuff target rifle but lack the skills to use it, you have nothing. On the other hand if all you have is a 22LR and a great deal of skill, you will kill your animal.

Lot's of practice creates confidence. Confidence in your ability and your load, fills tags. Short on confidence in the cartridge can be overcome by a well experience field shooter. A more suitable cartridge will not make up for a lack of skills. Choose your ammo wisely and shoot more!

well i just spent a half hour typing here only to have internet explorer crash when i clicked to post it. when i had the problem with my 06 useing the 150 grainsi belive it was the shells. i did kill 6 deer with them and recovered them all but i shot an 8 point at 30 yards perfect heart shot this was last year but i don't remember any broken bones that the slug hit but it stopped at the fur on the ther side i still have the slug fully expanded but in my opion it should have exited.after switching back to the 180 grains i haven't had a single problem with my 06 i've shot around 80 deer with it and recovered everyone of them.

we live in the middle of the country and the kids shoot there .22's and bb guns all of the time my daugter didn't get alot of range time with her .243 simply because we wern't able to buy it untill oct 12th and the season opened on nov 15th.she is a great shot at the range but shooting at a living animal is alot different then a paper target so hopfully she got excited and missed i hate the thought of wasting a animal. i did get a great deal on another savage 110 in 30-06 for her we plan to change the stock install a sims butt pad,a rifle basics trigger and maybe have the barrel magnaported (or at least have magnaport do the muzzle brake) this all should reduce the recoil and make the gun a dream to shoot. i had planed on taking her back into the field this week as our late doe season opens in the morning but due to a death in the family yesterday we are now 300 miles away from home so who knows what the future holds for us.

I'm one that always tells it like it is, so here goes.  I would never have let her take her first shot at a deer that was over 200 yards away, especially with the .243.  The deer at 34 yards quartering away that ran into the swamp over 50 yards away with no evidence was probably also missed.  Why did the deer you say you shot near hers with your 30-06 go that far and did you find it?  I think you're making a big mistake going up to the 30-06 for her with all the problems you've mentioned with the .243.  Shooting a bigger caliber, IMHO, is just asking for more problems.  If she couldn't hit either of those animals, using that bigger caliber won't do any good because you still have to put the bullet in the vitals no matter what caliber you use.  The .243 or even moving up to a 25-06 is more than enough gun for that girl IF she does her job and again, IMHO, doing all of what you just stated with a bigger caliber isn't going to help her one bit and may exacerbate the situation.