Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles .223 Rem Deer Load

I now have two .223 Rem rifles. My boy and I plan to use them for walking/still hunting guns. Both have 1:8 twist barrels. A Ruger American and a Tikka T3 Stainless.

I have several types of powder and bullets. The powders are IMR 4350 and Varget.

Bullets are Nosler PT 60gr, Barnes TTSX 62gr and 55gr.

Am I ok, or should I look for a different powder?

I use H335, CFE223, AR-Comp, and H4895 in my .223 loads. Varget may work, IMR4350 is too slow.

I use varget in my 223 with the Sierra 65gr game king with excellent results on whitetails

I figured. Thanks.

Excellent. Thanks.

Have not reloaded for the .223 YET. Building a brass base. That said, I have shellacked deer and hogs out to 250 yards with 55gr soft points from Remington (Greenbox) and Black Hills remanufactured. The Green Box shot better groups in my RAR with a 16" barrel.

I bought 10 boxes of these 64gr Gold Dots for $9.99 shipped They print tiny groups and should be great on game.
http://palmettostatearmory.com/speer-223-remington-64gr-gold-dot-ammunition-20rds-24448.html

No on-game results yet, but Varget has been very accurate for me with the heavier bullets. 63gr Sierras in one rifle, 62gr Barnes in another.

For your Tikka, try TAC, mine likes 26.4 grains but work up to it, with a 50 grain TTSX, 2.180", I get 3230 fps and a five-shot group of .285".





P

Varget and the Partition.

Not always super accurate, but good enough for hunting. And it'll do very well.

If buying, Nosler Bonded Solid Base 64 grain are an incredible hunting bullet.

62gr tsx and Varget would be the way I would go but only for a place that was open and I could choose my shot and have a solid rest. I would aim for the neck.

With a 62 TSX drilling shoulders would be no problem.

Do you not "choose your shot and have a solid rest" when shooting other guns?



Have killed a bunch of deer with a 223 and do not shoot them any different than I do with any other chambering.


303 yards. Around 20 inches of penetration with a 77gr TMK.






A tick over 100yds. 77gr TMK. Again 18-20 inches of penetration after destroying the onside humerus.

Tzone,

I haven't shot a whole bunch with .223, but what I shot worked well. I got two holes with a 200lb deer and same with a 150 lb. I used 53 grain TSX. I'd probably go with CFE 223 were it me. It's a nice clean powder. Varget won't give you enough speed. The case capacity limits you and even a lot of compression isn't enough. I think I used BLC-2 with 70 grain TSX and a 26 inch barrel rifle and got excellent speed and it killed deer well.

GET SOME BLUE DOT! 8-12 grains of blue dot and some 32-35 grain hornet bullets is a great plinking and chipmunk/red squirrel load.

The 62gr TTSX works well in two of my .223's w/ 1:8 twist with 25.5gr Varget (MAX load!) and the third likes 20.5gr Varget.

All three rifles love the 55gr TTSX with 27.4gr CFE-223. Another 'Fire member says that 27.5gr CFE-223 works better for him. I have killed a number of coyotes, hogs, and whitetail deer with the 27.4gr load at distances from 35 yards out past 220 yards.

Ed

I'm not opposed to buying some more.

That might be fun for some walking around.

tzone, another source for great .223 caliber deer hunting bullets is Rocky Mountain Reloading in Lewiston, ID. The have 62gr Federal Fusion bullets for $135.00/1,000. LINK

These bullets are used in Federals Tactical Ammo and is known for its controlled expansion. They are very accurate in all three of my .223's. I use the same load as with the 62gr Barnes TTSX.

The folks at RMR are great people. I have visited their facility twice and can assure you, they are shooters, hunters, and just plain good folks.

Ed

The 8 grain load is pretty quiet. The 12 barks a little more respectably. The 35 grain VMax will vaporize chipmunks and red squirrels. Chucks, coons, porcupines won't vaporize, but they don't need a second dose either. I do not like the Barnes Varmint Grenades much. Hornady 35 grain is best. Speer 32 grain is excellent. Nosler 35 grain lead free is OK None of those will ricochet at 12 grains. They come undone completely and instantly (as do the chipmunks and red squirrels). They will shoot accurately out of my 9 twist barrel and kill coyotes at 100 yards.

I've been happy with Amax 75 and 80 grn over H 4895 in my RAR, and the Sierra 65 grn with IMR 4320. The 4320 load is not a screamer for speed, but is super accurate.

75 grain Swift Scirocco with 25-26gr of Varget will be your Huckleberry. Varget is one the best powders for a 223 and your TTSX bullets are top 2 or 3 bullets also. I wouldn't shoot any bullet other than a Scirocco, TTSX, or Partition at deer sized game especially if its a kid shooting.

Why is that?

The bullets would be more than adequate, and Varget oughta getcha close. If it didn't play nice for you in either rifle, then maybe try R15, H4895 - stuff faster than 4350.

Just a thunk.

FC

Tom, I'm using a max load of CFE223 and a Barnes 55 gr. TTSX in my 1 in 8 twist Tikka.....seat it in a bit, like most Barnes,shoots like a house afire and kills stuff really dead!!!

Same-o here with the proper bullet.

Horry sheet it tore the buck in half! 223 for the win lol

I use 0.1gr less than max under the TTSX. I don't want it to overpenetrate.

That's the load I mentioned earlier. Your rifle now makes it five that I know of that really likes that combination.


Ed

ingwe, I thought you were stuck on the 53gr. tsx? Are the 55's more accurate in your Tikka?

I don't hunt deer with a 223, but the 62 grain Barnes will kill pigs. It rips cshit out of them. I use Varget and CFE.

T, not specifically a deer load, but 28 grs of CFE-223 pushes the 55 gr TSX's to 2900 fps in my 16" barreled AR house guns, I spect they'd work fine for deer and may give upwards of 3300 fps in the longer barrel of your bolt guns.

The testing around the house tells me I'd surely not want to catch one, even at a lowly 2900, it's a mean little buzzsaw of a bullet in homemade test media, complete with a sporadic cow leg bone in with the tight packed wet newsprint and old hard glossed magazines.

My daughter will be heading afield in two weeks with a single shot 223 loaded with 60 grain partitions over 23.3 grains of tac. 1:12 twist. Best group was .8". Shots should be fairly close.

Why is wut?

Tom, Im shooting CFE223 in my Tikka...gets a LOT better velocity than Target...great accuracy.

Excellent. I'll pick some up on Friday when I can make it to the LGS. After now owning any .22 cal centerfire rifles, and now owning two...I need more! It's pretty nice to be able to see your target through the entire shot.

I think my big gun is going to be a .22-250.

H335, not TAC, read the wrong note and loaded the wrong load. Still accurate enough, but not as good as the h335.

My son was shooting a similar load today with the 60 grain partitin and TAC. We'll be out next weekend on a youth hunt. Good luck

My "big" gun is a .243...Im overcompensating.....

Why only those bullets for deer in a .223?

What youth hunt on that weekend? Parks hunt or something? My son will be doing the state wide youth hunt on the 6-7th of October.

Michigan's youth hunt is next weekend. Going up to the UP, wife has family there. We will be out Oct 7th as well

no experience with 223rem on deer but my thought process was to load the cheap Sierra 65gr gamekings for deer and use 62 gr barnes tsx for pig hunts?

Or just load 62gr TSX's or everything.

Steelhead,

Yes, could use the 62gr tsx for my hunting needs and use the 65gr sierra gamekings as cheap practice fodder.

I'm loving those in the .223AI...

They work well. I've killed more than a few cans/bottles out to 600 yards with the 65gr Sierras

I couldn't get the partitions to stabilize worth a crap in a 1:12. Glad somebody can!

As to the original question: Varget isn't the perfect powder, but it should get you where you need to get speed-wise. If in the market for another powder, my recommendation would be CFE. It gives me top speed and best accuracy out of all the 223's tried. The Partitions do stabilize well, and shoot into about 3/4" at 100 in my RAR. I'd feel completely comfortable packing that setup for game up to deer, but I haven't done it yet.

My RAR in 223 likes Hornady 68 bthp, and shoots them really well. I've taken two bucks with them. One was a neck shot, through the spine and gone, with the buck dropping in the scope. The second was a smaller meat buck, drilled through the shoulders. Busted the on-side humerus, through the ribs making soup of the forward lungs, and stopped just past the busted off-side humerus in the shoulder. Deer dropped, but took a minute or so to be dead. Shots were both just shy of 100 yards. I should have taken more time to get set for the second deer. Pulled the shot a bit. Didn't mean to peg the shoulders, but in retrospect, I'm glad to know what that bullet does in that case. Have also watched another deer get shot with that same bullet, at about 50 yds, through the ribs. Exited, leaving soup, deer dropped at shot. I'm quite happy with this load. I bought a bunch of the Federal Fusion bullets from Rocky Mountain Reloading, and they shoot great out of the RAR, but I've not hunted them yet.