Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting At Ingwe's urging, a ".22 centerfires are no good for deer thread"

Nice mature Doe at 225 or 235 (can't remember exactly which) with a .223AI and 62gr Barnes. Two holes and she went straight down. Friend took one with the same rifle at 150 and it ran a tight circle and went down. Cousin used it last year at around 150 at again down right now.

.22-250 at 70 yards went in the front chest and out the hip of a small Doe. 55gr Barnes.

Daughter of a friend has taken a couple with a .223 and Barnes, both around 70. Short run and down.

Unless your deer weighs more than 800 pounds, you are good to go!

And Im guessing you're not shooting coyotes for the fur......






The more of this stuff you do the more you'll come to realize that we:

1) Use guns that are too big for the job and

2) use fishing tackle thats too heavy for the job.

Technology has fixed a lot of "what ifs" with premium bullets and super duper braided and other lines....I use the same 5 and 1/2 foot ultralight on creek trout and on Northern pike...

I shot one deer at 340 yards with my .223 years ago and while it did kill it the internal damage was waaaay less than when you shoot one sub 200 yards. It's the only deer I've ever shot past 200 yards with a .223 and the only one that went over 100 yards before it fell. In fact, no other deer I've ever shot with a .222 or .223 has ever gone more than 50-60 yards and that has to be approaching three dozen specimens by now. Consequently, I'm with ingwe on keeping the .223 within 200 yards on deer.

Bet you were sweating your Chistmas shopping that year!

Glad it all worked out for you.

David

My goodness things change fast in just 3 short days!

David

I have a way of winning people over. Its my stellar smile.

Ah!

I assumed it was the thong or were you referring to the vertical smile?

David

Most likely bribery.

Its too early to take this kind of abuse.

We're not abusing you,Ingwe,it's more like this.....

My take on it is yes the 223 will kill a deer just fine or even a avg sized hog. I will also say that seeing pics of animals killed with head shots or even 80 lb does with chest shots don't sway my view that much as I have seen too many cows dropped with a 22 LR behind the ear or between the eyes and small does are not that tuff, I want something a bit larger as often where we hunt shots are offered at deer moving thru the woods be it slowly but they are moving about. Or maybe they aren't moving but thou only see a part of the deer. To use Ingwe"s own words the smaller rounds need to be surgically placed and if a deer is moving its easy to miss your mark by 2-3 inches. I haven't had the time to hunt a wide variety of game that if a 10 point buck or 350 lb hog was to present itself and never presented a clear head shot that I would just think oh well ill get be back tomorrow or next week. So I will restate the premise in the form of a question of the proponents of the 22s for big game how many have shot large hogs with body shots and had them DRT or had to track them thru a swamp bottom. I just prefer something bigger. Now if I was hungry and had a 223 then look out. But Im not

70 TSX through brisket, then heart, then exit rear. 20" barreled AR for size reference:



Another 70 TSX from opposite direction. Again penetrated full length of deer and exited:


A couple shot via CZ 527 Kevlar 223 and 62 TSX:



If you don't think said bullets will reliably kill a hog, I'm not listening......

Once again, here is the pic of a .224 70 TSX flanked by a 6mm 87gr. Hornady SP and a 6mm 100gr. SGK. I have killed deer with all 3. All 3 work well. But the "little one" penetrates the furthest IMO....