Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting .223 for whitetail - yes or no?

Seems to me a 55sp is amongst the favorite of bullets for deer out of .22 center fires. At least from some that post here.

I carried a 22-250 with 55sp bullets this year. Didn’t shoot schit though.

Yep. A good bullet and proper shot placement Trump bullet diameter every time.

This 64 grain factory Power Point Ammo is a great little hog and deer killer.
I used them in my 16” .223 T/C Carbine to let all of my nieces and nephews shoot their first deer and hog.
The 60 grain Nosler works just as well. Nowadays, I mostly use the 62 gr Barnes TSX bullet.
I’ve yet to lose a hog or deer with it out of my heavy barreled AR-15.

55gr Hornady is an excellent deer bullet out of the 223.

Selecting from loads I've put together for my 223, if I were to take it out after deer I'd most likely be using the 65 grain Game King.

Around here, a typical mature 3.5yr+ doe is going to weigh 115-135lbs. Every now and then we get one pushing 140lbs, but it is rare. A typical 3.5-4.5yr old buck is going to be 160-190lbs at his best weight in the fall.

I agree with you on the longer-range head and neck shots, there's just too much that can go wrong. If I'm just going to shoot a doe or sow for the freezer, I can afford to wait for an easier shot presentation, and at that point, nearly any centerfire rifle will do the job. But if we are talking "general purpose" deer and hog hunting, then shot presentations and circumstances are sometimes not ideal, and I like more gun for those times. A tough shot angle, right at dark, near heavy cover, is not really when I want a .22cal centerfire in my hands. Like the 6mm rounds, it'll certainly kill them, but I've had better results in the field with the "standard" deer rounds like the 7mm-08, 30-06, 308, etc. I simply get very few shots at decent bucks in a given hunting season, so I plan for the worst....

How big are these large does you’re shooting? Some places deer in general aren’t very big, even the “big” ones.

I believe the "general disdain" directed toward using .224 bullets on big game is based on antiquated information of bullet performance from a bygone era. Note, I'm not attacking anybody's personal opinions or comfort level. We simply have better bullets now than we did in the past. Yes, I acknowledge that applies to bullets of all sizes. However, the smaller calibers have benefited more, in my opinion, and a 223 with the proper bullet is an excellent deer round.

Fusion, Partition and Nosler Bonded. All of those are well constructed bullets that expand and shed some of their core/fragment.

I have some 55, 62 and 65 grain GKs loaded, but haven't shot anything with them. I have so much confidence in the 60 grain Partition and the 64 grain Nosler Bonded that I have a hard time not using them.

If you have the proper twist rate and you can find them, the 75gr Gold Dots are great deer bullets.

funny how now it is acceptable from most experienced hunters at least, that 223 and above is plenty good for deer. i am 65 now and have been killing deer all my life with the 22 high power rounds. a few years ago, it was considered foolish to use such a caliber on deer sized game. i think most of that came about from so called "expert" gun writers, who most never tried such a caliber or maybe never even got from behind a desk and in the field at all. i remember reading all the story's about how a deer shot with a 22-250 would only have a superficial wound and run off to die a lingering death! back in the early 60s-late 80s my dad used to kill deer with a 22 hornet with no problem, but he would keep shots around 80yds or less. not saying a hornet is a deer round but i can tell you this, an average sized SC deer, 120lb or so hit behind the shoulder with a hornet will die fast! i have skinned his deer and the bullet will penetrate to the offside skin or exit every time.

I've been using a 223 for deer for about 20 years, no problems.

I certainly concede that a .223 is "adequate," especially within a reasonable distance. But "excellent" means that it excels or is superior to most others. I wouldn't go that far, personally. I have killed deer with 10mm pistols, when that's all I had with me, but I would prefer to shoot one with a .223, which has about a third more energy than the 10mm loads I shoot. I live on 5 acres and sometimes just hunt my backyard. When I grab an AR for that purpose, I always grab my AR10 and not my AR15. The .308 is just way better with no downside. If I only had my AR15, I would use it without reservation. But the .308 recoil is nothing to me. If I was shooting hundreds of deer and was in terrible financial shape, I could see using a .223, but that's not because it excels, but because it likely would do the job in most circumstances. It's adequate.

The last deer I helped look for someone shot with a 223 we didn't find until the buzzards circling showed us where it was the next day. There was no blood trail after a few feet

What projectile was used? Range? How well was the deer hit? Internal damage?

Lots of focus on the bullet, less on the energy behind it. I've upped the powder charge a full grain without pressure signs and still half a grain below Lyman's max. It's a hopefully better combo coyote/maybe deer load in a light rifle I like to tote. The guy in the panhandle swears they've put over a 100 deer in the freezer with the 55 V Max factory loads, without a single loss. Whatever powder it is, the stated velocity is 3240. The bullet does not seem to fragment as advertised but the plastic tip forces reliable mushroom deformation. Perfect energy transfer. Speed kills. Same bullet might not do so well at say 2800 fps? I've had deer shot with "big game" rifles run 90 yards on 3 legs with a sliced heart. Difficult to find. A neck shot or high shoulder is much more effective, regardless of caliber, chambering, or bullet selection. Dead deer can run a long way sometimes. One thing for sure, 223 is cheap to shoot, and versatile. But it's no 6.5 Creed!

That’s my favorite.224 deer bullet and, if I shoot another deer before the end of the month, it’s what I’ll use, the .223 having come up in the rotation.

My first.224 deer was in 1967 with my 788 in .222 shooting a Norma factory load with a 50 grain bullet. DRT at 200 yards, spined through the upper shoulder with the bullet under the offside hide. I was young and didn’t know any better.

I tried to like the 60gr NPT but I couldn't get it to shoot. I'm not expert on loading but I tried more than a few. I'm going to get another rifle going for my daughter that's shown some interest in hunting. I'll set her up with 55gr ttsx of the 60gr Win PP's.

The three worst "find a wounded deer" goat rodeos I've helped with with included one a guy hit with a .30-06 and one a guy hit with a 12 gauge shotgun slug and one a guy hit with a .300 WSM.

Shot placement matters.

Caliber doesn't compensate for incompetence.

Speed does not kill. It seems to help but its not the end all for sure. Killed a lot with the creed. Never lost one with 223 either.