Kind of off topic: I'll be as brief as possible.
I had a 30-06 Ruger w/ scope that I had bought circa 1978.
After a house fire the contractor stored all of our belongings.
They returned a rifle to me, in MY case, that is a .243 w/ scope and I think it is a Savage. I had stopped hunting prior to the house fire but after 9/11 I started looking at refreshing my shooting skills.
The statute of limitations has expired so that I can't go back to the contractor and complain about his returning the wrong weapon to me.
In the meantime I have become out of touch w/ firearms.
What is a .243 good for other than varmints?
Depends on what that particular rifle "likes" in terms of bullet weight. There are a variety of loads available, with the heavier bullets being entirely suitable for whitetail deer and other similar game animals.
There are a number of "youth model" hunting rifles available, often chambered for .243 (which is just a necked-down .308 Winchester).
With the lighter-weight projectiles, the .243 is a superb cartridge for tougher varmints, such as coyotes.
My first high-powered rifle was a Remington 788 in .243. Wish I still had it, but I foolishly traded the plain-Jane (but accurate) rifle in and bought something shinier.
I'm curious... how long after the return of your gun case was it that you discovered the contents had, er, changed?
State law, or federal? We are, after all, talking about something that is under BATF jurisdiction.