Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting .223 ?

what are your guys thoughts about the .223 for deer? its def not common, but i hear of guys saying they use it. i am not goin to use it either way- i'd prefer .270.

Works just dandy, especially with the bullets today.

I figure if folks have no problems pointing a 270 shooting 150gr bullets at a 700 pound elk, dropping the diameter by 53 thousandths of an inch and cutting bullet weight in half ain't gonna be a problem for deer.

But a good bullet where it belongs and critter dies.

This is one of those lightning rod topics. Stand by for 5 pages of vitriol. I made the mistake of asking the same question several years ago on here.

The overall consensus around here as of the last time this was discussed was that in the right hands with the right bullet and the right shot placement and the right relative humidity . . .

. . . that was right around the first of the year. Let's see what the fashion is now.

Bullet and placement trump all.

Have often heard that.... and may have even witnessed it first hand in the field once or twice. <grin>

Ain't many things more simple than killing deer, though many enjoy complicating it.

So what brand/weight/bullet type?
Am thinking about setting up my M4 for my recoil sensitive girlfriend

Killed them with 64gr Power Points, 62 and 70gr TSX and 75gr Swifts.

Oops, strike that. I have WATCHED them fold with 70gr TSX's.

Have used 53gr. TSX, 55gr. TBBC, 60gr. NP, and 64gr. PP to great effect on deer and hogs. The TBBC even worked on a Red Stag.

There's been a bunch of 223/deer threads, seems like there's been even more pictures of the end result.

I like to sit down every once in a while ( with a nice mixed drink, or 2) and read some of the stuff posted in this one. Seems I always find something new in it to laugh at..it was pretty good.

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/1120347/page/0/fpart/1

I keep hearing they work great but I saw a doe shot with a .223 run a few hundred yards with a very light blood trail. The guy shot the deer off his picnic table with a bipod. The buzzards found the deer after we lost the trail. Many of the folks on this site are great hunters and shooters that I am sure are very successful using .22 centerfires. Not me! I am humble enough to admit that the extra power and size of a .30 cal helps my confidence and as a result I am very successful. No .223 for me and I would not recommend one for the average hunter.

Fine for NE Texas Deer. A buck might go 130 and a 100 lb doe is a bigun.

I plan on using one during the Thanksgiving doe days. I have some nice sierra 70s

Got into a discussion about this today with my father.

His exact words were "that caliber was designed to wound people an it will do the same on deer"

Needless to say, I'll be packin my .223 this year not only because I want to and am confident in it. But also so I can give him the oh so rare "told ya so"

mud bogger put the mojo on the deal when he said confident. That is half your battle right there. If you are confident in being able to hit the spot you are shooting at the 223 works like a charm. I've taken plenty with plain jane 55 gr hornadys to satisfy me.

BCR

The ONLY thing wrong with useing "plain jane" .22's is you'll get the lead pepper effect...they come apart as they are designed to. Deadly as hell but unless you like eating itty bitty pieces of lead you're better off useing a bullet that stays together...

Shot 3 with the 62TSX/223AI last fall. While none of the shots were long, I recovered no bullets. I've been shooting them (62TSX's) out a little bit farther this summer for testing. I've got them shooting sub-MOA out to 600yards. Figure that's good enough for what I want to do with them. I can tell you that anything under 400 is really in trouble. In all likelihood my shots are going to be under 200yds. Only killed one deer with a .224 centerfire over 250yds and that was via 22-250/75 A-max. I don't know how many wt's I've shot with the .224 centerfires, but probably about 10-12 (lose track of the does) but the only one I can recall that went more than 10 feet was poked in the lungs with a 75 A-max; That one went a whopping 30 yards before piling up. No exit with the little A-max, it completely came apart and lungs were nothing but soup. Center punched one through the shoulders with a 75 A-max a couple seasons ago and he didn't know what hit him. I don't foresee myself trying to break shoulders with the A-max anymore though, it was a wee bit lacking in the penetration dept.

I do agree with you guys that say having confidence in your rifle is half the battle. When you put a good bullet where it counts, does the deer care what's stamped on your casehead? I don't think they do, nor do I sweat it too much. Of course our deer arent' all that heavy, a good buck will go under 200#'s dressed. I've only seen a handful that were over 200#'s dressed. Seems like most of the ones I've weighed are in the 160-180# range.

Good "luck" to all you stunt shooter's this season (grin)

Totaly agree with you Miner. I was not advocating using 55 gr varmit bullets on deer and should have made that clear. I just meant that they worked fine as to killing. I just popped them through the lungs and it was Dear John sent your saddle home. A couple of jumps and lights out. There isn't enough meat on the ribs of a Texas whitetail to make a decent meal for a house cat anyway.
The 55 will work fine on hogs too and on a wild hog the backstraps is all I fool with anyway if those. Depends on how bad it stinks when I get up to where it is. Maybe take the hams if it is a good hog, cold weather and a good acorn crop so they are acorn fat.

The 53 TSX works w/o all the lead specks but plenty of bone shards if you want them

BCR

Everybody knows varmint bullets won't kill deer.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth...r&topic=0&Search=true#Post654322

My hunting buddies and I are on a MLD lease together and have the privelege (sometimes becomes a job) of shooting 90+ deer a year and I can confidently say that a .223 in the right spot will do the job. However a .300wsm in the wrong spot will wound a deer for the buzzards. So it is going to be shot placement above all. killed with .204, .223, .243, .270, .300wsm, .325wsm,50 cal muzzle loader, and all sorts of arrows.