Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles .223 and deer bullets

Dink I've never killed anything with a .223 but I do have some anecdotal stories for you. Make of them what you will.

A acquaintance of mine many moons ago decided to go from black powder muzzle loaders back to modern arms. He settled on the Ruger Mini-14 in .223. He asked me what type of bullets he should use. I responded that his caliber choice was crazy but if he had to use that caliber full metal jackets were the only thing use. He shot a antelope with FMJ several times before the antelope died. No blood trail and extremely hard to find but he did find the antelope. He switched to 55 grain soft points on his next kill which was a Muley buck shoot through the neck. One shoot and dead right there. The big difference between the FMJ and the soft point was the FMJ went in and out leaving two small holes and no blood trail whereas the soft point exploded inside of the deer like a hand grenade had gone off. No exit hole and no blood trail but there was no need for one as the deer died right where it had been shot. The next target was a very large black bear. Same outcome. One shot in the boiler plate as the bear stood up on its hind legs at about 75 yards, the bear let out a woof fell over backwards and died right there. 55 grain soft point, no exit hole, the insides looked like a hand grenade had gone off.

Hunted with an old mountain man type who hunted with the only rifle he had an original Remington factory rifle in 22-250 who hunted everything from prairie dogs to grizzlies (when it was legal) with elk his favorite meat. 55 to 60 grain bullets with same results.

I've worked with retired professional hunters for the Feds that used .220 Swifts and .22-250's to hunt everything including grizzlies. They all used 55 to 60 grain bullets at high speed that fragmented like a grenade inside of the animal. No blood trails but there really wasn't a need for one. All animals were DRT or a few feet from where they were shot.

All the anecdotal evidence I've heard or seen has suggested to me a .224 caliber in the 55 to 60 grain soft point range driven at very high velocities and that fragment will get the job done. But if one wants a blood trail to follow than big bullets that leave a big hole hole going in and hopefully an even bigger hole coming out is the way to go.