Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Hunting Deer With Smaller Calibers

I've read this entire thread, and one thing many hunters apparently don't realize (and perhaps wouldn't accept if they did) is that a 6mm bullet's diameter is just about the same as a .224 bullet's diameter when wrapped in an average (not deluxe) business card. In other words, there's no magical difference in diameter--or the hole made in animals, which is what kills 'em, not some magic amount of bullet diameter, weight or foot-pounds.

The difference, if any, between ".22" caliber bullets and 6mm bullets is basically in construction these days, since many modern .224 bullets overlap the weight of 6mm bullets. The big deal USED to be the difference in weight between typical .224s and 6mms, since there were very few .224s weighing as more than 55 grains, due to typical rifling twists of 1-12 or even slower. 6mm twists were generally at the very slowest 1-12 (as in the original .244 Remington) but more often 1-10 or 1-9. This made a difference in the weight of bullets that could be used, and that generally meant meant 6mm bullets were also started slower.

This was the typical solution to bullet penetration 100 years ago, when cup-and-core expanding bullets were the only ones available. But that started to change considerably in the 1930s when RWS developed their H-Mantle bullets, and changed even more in the late 1940s when the Nosler Partition appeared. But apparently some hunters are still operating under the "rules" of a century ago--which were extended in many U.S, game departments in the years after WWII due to old farts running the game departments, many of whom hated the very idea of using a ".22" on deer, or any other sort of big game, even javelina or pronghorns.

This has changed in recent years. I did some research a few years ago on U.S. "caliber regulations," and over 2/3 of the states now allow .22 centerfires on big game. Some states never had any restrictions, including my native of state of Montana--where even when I started hunting many years ago you could legally use a .22 rimfire. Apparently the Montana game department believed hunters were capable of choosing something that would work, while other states tended to micro-manage--including not only limitations on caliber, but bullet weight and even cartridge length.

Personally, I've not only killed quite a few big game animals with .224 bullets, but seen a lot more used successfully. Also know several guys who've killed elk neatly with .223s and .22-250s and didn't even use "premium" bullets! One was a U.S. Army sniper who did more than one tour in Afghanistan, who's been hunting and guiding since he was a teenager. He killed a mature cow elk with a 77-grain Hornady ELD-M (one of those horrible "target" bullets) at 450 yards, using a fast-twist .223. He put the bullet in the ribs behind the shoulder, and the elk went less than 50 yards before going down. He found the expanded bullet poking partly through the skin on the far side of the chest.

Could provide far more examples, but anybody who categorically denies that smaller-than-6mm cartridges aren't enough for big game doesn't know what they're talking about. It does NOT depend on a tiny amount of extra bullet diameter, but a bullet that penetrates and expands sufficiently, put in the right place.

In a way, these threads tend to remind me about those discussing the best brown bear cartridges. Generally, 90% of the answers are from hunters who've never seen a brown bear--and who tend to ignore the answers from guides who've seen dozens or even hundreds taken.