Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Perfect caliber for Axis, black buck, and small whitetail

One 223 experience with Axis comes to mind.

We were hunting on a friends place with a bunch of Axis when my little daughter who was 8 at the time shot a big axis doe with a 60 grain Partition out of a 223. It was a pretty close shot, and the old girl tore out of there favoring a shoulder, but I honestly can't swear as to where she was hit because we never found her in the super thick South Texas brush where she was shot.

I am almost positive there was no exit, because we found very little blood which became no blood. I tracked her a long ways after she quit bleeding, and her track was pretty recognizable as she was favoring a front leg enough to leave a funny track on it. I jumped her once, but never saw her through the brush, but lost her track after that.

It may have been a poor hit, but if it was it was the only one of her career of killing quite a few critters. This is the only one out of 12 or 15 deer that she has shot at that we haven't found, and it was an easier shot than most she has taken. I suspect she just caught one lung and didn't get an exit, since the shot was at a pretty hard quartering angle toward us.

Because I'm pretty confident she hit her pretty good and probably killed her, I'd suggest going with a pretty stout bullet on Axis if a 223 is the choice. I think it would be Barnes or bust for me with a 223.

The next year, she stepped up to a 243 with an 80g TTSX and got a chance at another Axis doe. She shot her at about 80 yards quartering to us. In at the point of the shoulder and out behind the off shoulder. She ran around 100 yards or a bit more, but left a great blood trail both on the ground and all over cactus and mesquite, and we found her easily.



This one shows the entry wound...



Here's what we found when we opened her up. Blew some lung through the exit hole.





Pretty well souped the vitals...This is the entry side.



Entry on the left, exit on the right.



Anyhow...I'd sure use a good bullet on an Axis, especially with a 223. Even a Partition in a 223 might not be quite enough. Not dead sure of it, but I sure think my sample of one with a 223 60 Partition resulted in a yummy Axis in a coyote's belly instead of mine.

DJ