A little over 40 years ago we used a .243 Win and 22-250 on mule deer. Erratic results were experienced to say the least. My stepdad at the time always over estimated distance and swore a person could hold dead on a deer out to 400 yards with the .243 and DRT. It was more in the 200-300 yard range, but there were some dramatic results. He preferred the 80g varmint bullets and was not a handloader. I shot a little buck a little bit back and with no blood showing it got away.
Then he was all about shooting deer with the 22-250 and it did a decent job at times. I shot another little buck at 300 yards behind the ear. The bullet hit where I was aiming. Of course, it was DRT. Later I shot a doe at ~100 yards taking off the arteries on top of the heart. She just kept walking like nothing had happened as we watched a blood stain grow on her side and than she just fell over. Shot another doe that might have been too far back that we never recovered. Both lost deer (the one with the .243 and this one) were traveling well and had non-shooters in our party jump ahead of me and spooked them out of the country. My last deer with that cartridge was a doe at 10-20 ft as she ran by me. I hit her in the hip dropping her and then had to finish her off. Obviously a bad shot. But, what was interesting is the bullet dished out a lot of meat exposing the pelvis, but did not break it.
These were all varmint type bullets and obviously not all hit well. What I did notice was more blood from my 30-06 and it had the capability to break bone compared to the varmint bullets we used at the time. I didn't use .22 on deer again until a few years ago when my son started hunting. This was due to reading post by ingwe and others about how effective they were.
Well, shooting the 64g Winchester PP out of an 18" barreled AR my son made 4 (what should have been) killing hits on a large-bodied mule deer buck. Longest shot was a little over 100 yards. The deer came back closer to us after the hit. Then as it stood broadside at less than 100 yards he shot it 3 more times, 2 in the lungs and one that should have been a heart shot but broke the leg and deflected into the ground. Finally blood started coming out of his nose and he fell over. On dressing him out we discovered the first shot hit the liver with little damage and the lung shots pretty much penciled through with little damage, but none exited. I almost gave up on it right there, but taking ingwe's advice I bought some Barnes bullets to try, but then sold the AR to buy something else so haven't tried them yet. The only .22 centerfire I currently have is a .220 Swift with a 14" twist that Barnes says is too slow for the bullets so haven't tried them yet.
LMAO.
Poor shooting and you're blaming Ingwe for saying it works? My kids have taken 5 deer with the .223 Win and 55gr bullets. None requiring a second shot. None closer than 50 yards and only one took a step. It was pouring blood the entire time it was stumbling down the hill.
Chamberings get blamed often for poor bullet selection and placement.
