Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Have you used the .223 for deer/antelope?

I've much .224 love when it comes to a killing rifle. Fairly certain that I'm pretty comfortable killing stuff with one, and fairly comfortable letting the kids kill stuff with the 223/223AI.
Over the last 10 years or so I've lost track of the number of deer/black bears I've seen killed with various bullets including the 40vmax (black bear), 45 tsx (deer/black bears), 50 ttsx (deer), 53 tsx (deer/black bears), 55 gmx (deer), 62 ttsx/tsx (deer/black bears) and 75 Amax (deer, black bears). (Probably some other bullets in there too, but those are the ones that come to mind...)

I haven't killed any elk with one, but only because I simply wasn't carrying one when I killed elk.

This fall the GF carried my Montana 223AI one day when we were out looking for mule deer. She wasn't expecting to shoot, as she'd already killed a bull elk this fall and was being fairly picky on deer, having already passed up a narrow and tall 4x4 and a really wide 3x4 because she really wanted a clean 4x4 with brow tines. We managed to find a clean 4x4 with brows and snuck up for a closer look. I figured him for about a 140" buck, which put him quite a bit smaller than the 2 she'd already passed on but he was big bodied and really pretty.

She put the little Montana over a pair of crossed hiking poles, and when he followed his doe out of the patch of timber they were holed up in he was exactly 303 yards on the nose, and quartered in to us. There was about a 10" window through the buck brush where he was standing when she said "I have a clean shot through his shoulder if you think this little pop gun has enough jam to kill him..."
I wasn't even done saying "kill him" when she triggered the shot sending a 75 Amax on the way.

He reared up and leapt down the hill out of sight, making 6 leaps or so and dying in the air judging from the tracks in the snow.

About what I expect from an Amax, crushed bone going in, a lot of tissue damage, and 16" or so of penetration.



Exit hole through his ribs.



Top of his ticker chewed off.... Not bad hole through the middle as well from bone shrapnel I think.


Obligatory gear porn.

One thing I hadn't realized prior to her killing that deer, is that she hadn't fired that rifle before other than shooting a few rocks at 600 or so last summer. Lucky for me she absolutely loves her Montana 7/08, or I might have to fight her to get my 223 AI back...... To say she was impressed with the little rifle and the damage the 75 Amax did was an understatement.

Previous conversation was talking about vertebrae stopping bullets... My daughter last fall shot a pretty good whitetail with a Vanilla 223 and 55 gmx (or might have been a 50 gmx) square in the throat at 177 yards. 14" or so of vertebrae absolutely crushed with a straight line bored down his spine an inch over from his spinal cord. Mind you, it was -30 C or so, so his bones were probably brittle.......(grin)