Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 22-250 to light for Deer ??

Yes
The answer would be the same whether the bullet is 22 diameter or of larger bullet diameter. Use a bullet that will penetrate sufficiently, driven at velocities where it will open up at the ranges in which one intends to shoot. If I was planning on regular azz shooting I'd probably use a Barnes.

So what? A 22-250 will work fine on all of them. We're talking deer here, regardless of size they aren't difficult to kill.

Funny how it takes a lot of power to kill a deer with a rifle but archery tackle kills so easily.

This would be my choice:

Barnes VOR-TX Ammunition 22-250 Remington 50 Grain TSX Hollow Point

I've read well over 1,000 posts on the .22cal. for deer. I disregard the hunters that would never do it and listen to the ones and their pictures of the ones who do it. I came to realize that the bullet does something to the vitals of the animals that does not do what my .270 Win. ever did. I just plain makes the vitals a blood bath. I never uses a 22 cal. for deer. However, I have seen a difference when I went from my .270 WIn. to my .243 WIn. The .243 Win. is much the same.. Last year I made my very worst shot on a deer. Still can't believe I dropped it right there ,, flopped around some and died. Bullet went in just north of the guts and under the tenderloins.. Nothing but blood in the cavity. A 100 gr. Rem. coreloc with 40.5 gr. IMR 4350. Not exactly a hot load , 25 yd. shot. I am sure a " marginal shot" is actually more effective with a 22 or 24 cal. than a bigger cal.. A .270 Win. /130/150 gr. is more suited for elk, bear and moose. If a .270Win/ 150 gr. is suitable for moose and elk, then a 223Rem is suitable for deer. I am interested in 223 Rem . cause the day may come when powder , bullets and cases may be much more expensive . IMR is $65 lb.. and many components are still hard to find, but the 223 Rem. is still all over. A light .223Rem, for Wis. marsh hunting should be a very good combo with 50yd . shots max. No wind drift to worry about neither.

The right 130 in that 270 kills deer as fast as greased lightning.

Load a 130 Sierra Gameking up at max velocity and schitt dies quick, fast and in a hurry.

No pics because those were the days before I had a cell phone but good sized exits were an understatement.

I've seen that too, and I have also seen them run off with good shots.. In my experience . A .270Win. knocks them down faster and they stay down when through the shoulders, when they run a bit with the . 243 Win... However, I have had deer run 100 yards a bunch of times with a lung shot.. The .243 Win. has put them down in 50' every time regardless of there they were hit... It could be just coinsedence ,, but it is my experience . Also, I am not saying the .270 Win is not as good , I am saying the .243 Win is as good ,, for deer anyway and I am sure the .223 Rem. is as good, and kills a fast as anything. it's all in the bullet. We can made a 22 cal. bullet blow up on a gopher , or make them go through metal.. Caliber makes no difference .

I had one run 80-100 yards after a broadside double lung with a .243 just last season. No blood on the ground. Cover so thick you had to push your way through. Had to double back and try a different route to get through several times and crawl through some spots on hands and knees. Couldn't see it till I was 5 feet away. Could have been tough to find if there weren't snow. As it was I came out of there covered with burrs and ticks. Picked 7 of the little varmints off me on the way home. Spent two hours the next day picking the burrs out of my coat and pants. Lost my favorite hat somewhere in there.

This.

I’m always fascinated by these discussions.

From an 80# deer in Florida to a 300# deer in Alberta, there isn’t a deer walking that I’d fret a decent bullet from the 22-250.

I hunt deer all the time with a 223, like every season somewhere at least. I multi state hunt. I don’t think twice about it and the deer died like they were shot with anything else.

I am not in the small diameter lightweight bullet camp for deer hunting, but I have no issue with it whatsoever for those that choose this route. I have seen many deer killed with the 223 with no bullet failure, and some relatives have used the 22-250 exclusively for deer hunting for many decades with nothing but success.

As stated many times in this post, deer are not hard to kill.

I’ve found through much experimentation that no animal can live with a 2” hole through its lungs. They don’t know or care what put the hole there. Many projectiles are available that will enable even a lowly .224 caliber rifle to put a 2” hole through a lot of tissue.

Pick a rifle. Select a decent bullet. Put it where it needs to go. Caliber and more so headstamp mean less than ever before with modern projectiles.

So we should stack everything but a .22 caliber? I have shot probably 70 deer and antelope with various .22s. But I am not buying they are perfect for big game hunting.

Of course not. Just shoot whatever rifle you want, use decent bullets, try your best to make good shots, and enjoy yourself. I love to hunt but I also love rifles. In a given year I’ll shoot “big game”, mostly pigs, with rifles from 17 to 45 caliber. They all work when used with some level of precision and all will produce a rodeo when poor shots are made. I just don’t see the need for the trepidation and/or disdain for the use of 22 calibers on deer sized game.

And nobody is saying they are.

Most are stating they work fine and the real naysayers have never even pulled the trigger on a deer while using a .22 caliber. Almost the same on the .24 calibers.

Those of us that have killed with them get to see how well they can work.

I grew up around a bunch of guys with running hounds and they ran far more coyotes than they did hunting deer. A fast 22, 243 or 6mm was the norm for those guys to shoot running coyotes in front of the hounds. Not enough $$ for them to have multiple rifles so they used their rigs as a dual purpose gun. I saw early on how fast deer died when shot with a hot .22 or a 243/ 6mm. Deer died about the same when shot in the same spots.

A big gun around those guys was a 25-06. Talk about thinking you were looking at a magnum sized round.

I was dumb enough at about 7 or 8 I thought the 6mm Remington was just a tick below the 7mm Mag. It was a real power house you know.

That I can buy. I like fooling with rifles of all kinds. But sometimes a perfect shot on a deer is made, but they still run. Late in the eve. with no blood trail that is a problem. My use of the .22s on deer and antelope is always a low stress hunt. I am not in a rush, game is plentiful and I have time. That is the way I like to hunt all the time, but the numbers of game, and the restrictions of the area also play a big part in my choice.I always felt if you have to ask this question is it big enough, then for that person, no it is not. You do not have the experience or skills to use it. We all know they can kill cleanly if we have a good shooter, and a good shot.

So true. Good example happened a few seasons ago. One deer was struck with 338 win mag, blew a literal fist size hole through him. Second was shot by 223 in the identical spot. Both ran 80 yards.

I've had to deal with ticks and I've had to deal with snow. Just never both at the same time. That would stink.

One of my cousin's wife, shot a deer at 250 yds with one, from the kitchen window when Ben was taking her brothers out hunting, when they came up to West Virginia from Florida and has borrowed his other guns. The buck was in their "apple orchard" ( 5 apple trees). Ben had told her it was too light to be used on deer. So she aimed at the eye and hit the eye.

That was in the early 70s. That sold Ben on it, so he tried it and it did what it was intended to do. In WVA, you can buy an orchard permit, and take up to 25 deer on it... back then it cost $2.00... and no one was counting. So ever since, Ben had purchased an orchard permit and has taken quite a few deer each year. Everyone taken with that 22.250, and has also included taking wild hogs wandering thru his property.

All he has ever fed it, was Factory 55 grain SP ammo. Most years Remington but occasionally Federal on sale. Went thru about 3 boxes every 2 years. Ben claims that every deer he ever shot with that rifle have been bang / flops. DRT. His boys back that up.. and they've also taken deer with the same rifle most of their lives. Ben's only rule has been they have to buy their own ammo, when they were old enough to start a part time job.

So he's given the 22.250 a pretty strong test. He still uses the same rifle. A Model 700 BDL her bought in about 1972.

looks like this thread has had a lot of reply so this is probably fruitless..
but with proper bullet selection a 22-250 is quite capable