Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Best deer bullet for 6x45 (6mm/.223)?

Kinda thinkin he ain't thinkin what a 6mm/223 is?....:)

Very very nice lookin buck Scott!

maybe he's thinking 6x57???

Grin.....or 6x45 just sounded fast?

But in all fairness the 6x57 is pretty quick. My lil brother has killed much with his. Lol.......Course he don't know it. He'd tell ya he likes his 6mm though....grin

My 8 year old will be thrilled to know I built him a screamer

Yeah - this is a slower load, with virtually no recoil - probably 3 x less than a .243. I built it with the idea my boys could learn to shoot it accurately and I'd have better choices for deer bullets than I would with a .223. (Plus Scott already proved how cool it was). I've got a pile of .243's that they will graduate to later.

I'm going to try some more BT's - found some 80 grainers on the bench that I didn't even know I had. Will also try some 85 partitions, 85 tsx, 85 interbonds, etc. I think that 70 grain BT will be a good one if they keep it off the shoulder bone.

I very much appreciate the input. The 65 V-max's will be a good one for me to judge how well the kids are shooting off the bench, and will be a good coyote round for them as well.

The 223Ai is a better mousetrap for deer, but I still like the 6x45 much.

I think it's a awesome round for your son! I'll prolly build my nephew a 8 twist 223AI but that's legal in TN. If not the 6x45 would get the nod!

Guess I'm typing slow tonight...grin

FWIW, had a 600 Mohawk, shot an 80 PLHP into a dirt bank point blank - bullet vaporized - ENTIRELY

Then fired an 85 XBT into it...picture perfect mushroom, weighed 84-85gr.

Yes, this was a 243, but in an 18.5" bbl, at around 3080mv IIRC.

Drill a deer thru lungs w/PLHP = dead deer. Hit a shoulder or azz end....may be a painful ordeal for the deer...and possibly non lethal.

Soft bullets can and do work, but work best when used w/in their limits, i.e. head/neck/broadside lung shots...

No doubt I'd rather run a 62 TSX or 75 Swift in a 223 vs a varmint 70gr TNT in a 6mm of any kind.

But there are bullets that do ok in small 6s on deer, the biggest problem is many 6x45s and similar rounds done on 222, 223, and 222 mag case were mfg. long ago w/14" ROT for light bullets - as THEN the guns were built w/paper and varmints in mind.

KT - figuring your rifle is a 14", as my 12" ROT 6TCU in a 21" Carbine did well thru 85 BTHP. If you run a 70 NBT at 2900 and take broadside shots BEHIND the shoulder, all should be well.

Your rifle may/may not do fine w/80 flat base, WW, RP, Speer...if so the Speer makes a HOTCORE IIRC and should hold up better.

Good luck.

Most all rifles are screamers compared to shotguns and handgun rounds.I thought the man was looking for advise.That's all I did??

It's a rough crowd around here.

Just cuttin up...grin

I think calibers like the one you want to use are for "sharpshooters", guys with experience and confidence who can keep a cool head and place shots precisely when the adrenalin is high. I would not jump shoot or brush hunt with it. I personally would not use Corelokts in any caliber, although they are excellent practice bullets due to price and accuracy, at least in my experience. Too many bad stories floating around about exploding on the surface of kritters. I have broken most of the rules on bullet selection out of ignorance or arrogance and have won some and lost some. I have killed deer, very well, shot broadside with a .222 and varmint bullets, but would not recommend it again. I killed a bear with a .257 Weatherby at 40 yards with a 100 grain Nosler Ballistic tip. According to Nosler, that bullet was "supposed to" explode at that high an impact velocity, and Nosler themselves told me not to hunt bear with it. Instead, it was a perfect mushroom and the bear went five steps. The problem is not which bullet as much as which deer and which shot angle and maybe velocity at impact. I have found .224 bullets susceptible to brush and obstacles, less with the .243 caliber I would speculate, not knowing firsthand. I've killed my biggest bucks with a 7mm-08, 375 Winchester, 270 Titus, and all took more than one shot to keep these big dudes down. The biggest bucks are truly tough and deserve a good quality bullet. For the record, my personal choice at this time is the 270 Titus, 130 grain Hornady GMX, at 2800 fps, in a Savage 99. This bullet at this velocity gave me the better performance through bone and penetration was full length on a 5x5 blacktail this year. The small light bullets and calibers are not ideal for jump shooting or brush work, which happens to be where I'm at in my hunting.

That was worth a laugh.

so you're giving advice on a round that you have no personal experiance with?

I AM giving advice on a round I have no personal experience with. Didn't I say that in my first post? Am I stupid? No. Am I inexperienced? No. Do I need your approval to validate what I believe to be obvious? What do you think? If you want to hotdog with a small caliber round and an inexperienced new hunter combination expect to track deer longer than you want to. I'm not suggesting magnums, but I'm not advocating too small a rifle either. On top of all that, I qualified what I said by saying that's where I'M at with MY hunting. I do alot of jump shooting and brush work and that caliber would not be ideal for me. Nor do I think it is ideal for an inexperienced HUNTER. I think it's perfect for an inexperienced SHOOTER, but that's different entirely. Does that make any sense? Use what works and stay away from the extremes (too big or small) to hedge things in your favor in the event conditions or shots are not perfect. Sorry, but that makes sense to me.

my girlfriend shot her first deer tonight with a .243 loaded with a 70 gr ballistic tip. she shot her first antelope with the same load 2 weeks ago. she isn't by any means an experienced hunter or shooter. I introduced her to shooting 2 years ago, got her first rifle for christmas last year. didn't have to track either. we didn't "jump shoot" any of them however, I save that for ducks.

I'll take my 8 year old. $500 bucks a 3 shot group. We'll shoot as many as you can afford. He's shooting the 6x45 and you the .270 Whateverthephuckyoucallit.

Oh - and Paul wasn't even talking to you...

Firenuts obviously ain't overly bright, there's a lot of that around here these days.