Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Elk and the .223.Why not?

If all there was, was .223's and elk, why I'd be eaten' elk.

Partly 'cause .223 would break my teeth!

Why not, it's been plenty good for a 40+ year old.

Not me, I'd blame the guy who started this thread.......

Didn't know about that one..Just the name Swift speaks volumes in reputation.

(Requires 1-in-8 twist)

100 bullets per box Caliber .224 Diameter .224" Grain 75 Profile BTS Length 1.085" Sectional Density .214 Ballistic Coefficient .419

Have you shot them or worked up loads for them yet?

Jayco

So, it seems you have to use premium bullets for the .223 to be effective. You also need to shoot at closer ranges. You also need to take safe shots. Lung shots.

Kind of sounds like what you'd do with a good old 30-30 with cheap core-lokts.

The 30-30 will destroy less meat, and i'd feel more comfortable shooting a bear with the 30-30 too. Just in case you run in to a grumpy mama with cubs.

I still don't get the .223 except for varmints.

It's just something to argue about.

Not everyone takes two weapons for Elk.I know around here some are taking two now,but one is for Wolves.So the Elk caliber goes down and all you have with you is a .223 that you use for Wolves.

Now we know the modern .223 shoots and penetrates equal to the 30-30 and .243 on game(Deer) from test from the NRA contractors.

So if you put the good bullet in the good place,your going to have just as dead Elk as shot with the 30-30/243.

Jayco

Die where?

Is this really still going on?

If you punch the lungs of an Elk with a 45-70 hard cast,you have punched the lungs with a ..459/.460 bullet for the most part..If you punch the lungs with a .223 Federal Fusion,you punched the lungs with a .54 caliber expanded bullet.

Which is better?

Jayco

Cabin fever boredom...

Awe Yeah,,Cabin fever and it snowing sideways...

2-3 more weeks till' Stealhead on the river where I like to be/want to be and need to be.Just alittle more time for things to warm up and the fish will be jumping into the nets.



Jayco

Will a .223 that expands to 2x caliber really penetrate like a 45/70 hardcast?

Not sure I buy that.

I didn't say that,did I?I said a 45-70 hard cast through the lungs is about .458/.459 in diameter and a .223 through the same lungs,has expanded to over that...

If either penetrates through the lungs,which is better?

Jayco

buffybr: I cut into that by getting slapped around with a 375H&H yesterday......only another week or two to bass fishing...Hooorraahh!

Oh, gotcha. I haven't been following the thread and really don't care as I can say categorically I will not be hunting elk with a .223.

That said I'd certainly shoot an elk with one in some sort of zombie apocalypse where it was just elk & .223's. Head shot or in the armpit as others have said.

The elk hunting I've done doesn't lead me to believe that I'll see many "shooters" in .223 range holding still for those perfect shot angles. I'm sure that means I'm a chitty elk hunter more than anything.

Bob, I'm almost healed up to where recoil is imaginable again. Actually sitting in the neurologists office right now- will ask his opinion.

I MISS recoil therapy!

I've seen game lost, but never to a .223... usually but not always shot with something containing magnum in the name, by a guy who could neither hunt, shoot, nor track worth a damn.

The worst crippler if game I have ever seen was a 6mm shooter..he usually crippled at least two head every fall..his last even, he shot a big bull and chased it to the boundry of his unit...the bull crossed out of the unit into another...and just out of his sight fell dead...a spike stood up looking around at all the noise...since the big bull escaped, he took a crack at the spike..killed it dead..fortunately the game warden was watching and he was arrested and lost his license for 5 years...most of the game wasting cripplers I know shoot small bore rifles for the game...