Originally Posted by jimmyp
This is just my opinion, and there are many people who are smarter and have more knowledge than I do.
I have gone full circle on the 223, 6.8 spc and 300BO, never shot a grendel. I have taken the biggest deer of my life with a 223 and a 62 grain tsx at about 50 yards, it ran about 35 yards or so and dropped, a large sow with the 75 grain swift bullet, as well as a bunch of shoats, several with the 6.8 spc with the 95grain barnes bullet, one with a supersonic 110 grain barnes from a 300BO, I would not hesitate to shoot a deer under a hundred yards with any of them, as I am a pretty reasonable shot with a rifle. When your over 100 yards and you deliver a small hole to a larger deer, finding the deer becomes more problematic. Then my grandson's are doing the shooting now and unfortunately a lifetime of shooting cannot be condensed into a 12 or 13 year old with buck fever and a shoulder shot can wind up to far back as it has before. I don't know the numbers but based on more than a few years killing deer, the small calibers work in the hands of a good shot, at closer distances, while something with the ability to provide a a more significant wound channel and more blood is in my opinion a better ethical choice at distance. The big 10 whose heart I blew apart with a 62 grain tsx, left single drops of blood from where I shot him to where he collapsed, had I not heard him fall, it would have been hard to find him. Yes these small calibers work if you can shoot, don't get excited, don't have to track in thick brush, OTOH having killed a few deer and pigs with them, the more ethical choice for me and my grandsons is a bit more significant cartridge. This is of course not the case where the shooter can hit a deer in the head at 300 yards.

You'll see better performance by using bullets matched to the velocity window of the cartridge. That is to say, use faster opening/softer bullets, especially in fairly pokey rounds like those you mentioned.