Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Varmint bullets on deer.

This seems like pretty good advice to me from Ingwe. Or you could ignore it neck shoot one with a 40gr V Max and post a picture of the gruesome aftermath to show your hunting prowess.

ClancyFromTexas,

Dunno what you call a big deer, or whether you judge by body size or antlers, but have hunted both whitetails and mule deer in a few places. Have yet to encounter a southern whitetail as big in the body as a big one from Canada, or the mountains of Montana, Midwestern farm country, whether a buck or doe.

In fact have seen whitetail does from central and western Canada bigger in the body than any Texas whitetail buck. And have killed mule deer bucks in Montana and Alberta as big as a cow elk.

70gr Varmagedon, 6x45, 3100fps, 25yds.

Adam

55 grain TSX out of my 223 put a thump on a large doe 125 yards. Perfect exit hole on a broad side shot.

LMAO you found one that weighed the same as your bullet

Mule Deer,

I refer to a big bodied deer as a big deer, and a big set of antlers as well, a big set of antlers.

When I mounted the mule deer I mentioned earlier, he measured 29 7/8" at the smallest neck measurement just behind the ears and bottom jaw. The biggest form available anywhere at the time was a Candaian Whitetail mount that measured 27" at that location. I bought it, spliced it, drove a wedge in it and reshaped the foam form. I still don't think it quite portrays his original stature.

I wish I had been able to weigh that deer whole. I was certain that he would weigh as much as most any cow elk I had ever shot. While that is the largest deer I have taken or mounted, I have seen many others that wore a lot of weight.

Not sure how we got off on this tangent. Let's get back to the original topic.

Try the Speer 130 gn. HP loaded fast out of a 30-06. Broadside shots will not exit, and the entrance hole will accept a softball. They don't go far, but, no room for error.

If a 222 was enough you would not have to ask!

When I was a kid in 1953 I shot my first deer with my 222 I loaded with the 55 gr Sierra. It hit the buck in the neck and broke his spine at about 175 yds.

Later that week I shot another buck in the ribs at about 50 yds with that 222 and it ran off. We never found it.

Hornady 60SP for cheap.

Though the Nosler 64BSB works more better IME.

There was once a wildcat called the .17 Flintstone Super Eyebunger. Some of these deer look like they were shot by it.

220 swift loaded with a Speer 70 kills like a lightning bolt

Vmaxs have worked quite well for me out of 22 CFs, and normally kill critters way quicker than soft points, though even the wally world soft point bullets have killed well.

Just don't try to break shoulder bones, especially with VMaxs or the like. Shoot tight behind the shoulder if possible, and deer/antelope often drop as quickly as they would with a CNS or high shoulder shot, with way less meat damage.

I have seen failures to kill deer with 40 grn B-Tips out of a .223 on body shots, but I've seen many many deer killed outright with standard 50 and 55 grn softpoints, .223 and 22-250.

For me I'd stay away from light plastic tipped bullets under 50 grains for body shots. If I was using sub 50 grain bullets, it would be high neck or head shots only.

Use enough brain.

He's out matched at any caliber then.

Right on. Since we already know .22 centerfires are adequate for deer there is no issue. We're merely discussing bullets.

I did on my doe. Shot with a 223 from my "weapon of war". According to the media the 223 "is just a killer". Yep, all the EXPERTS agree. They settled it for us.

That's awesome, I don't know how you find these things......