Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Have you used the .223 for deer/antelope?

Pictured is a 75 grain Amax I pulled out of the offside hide of a nice sized cow elk. Shot was 430 yards through the lungs. Starting velocity 2750 fps courtesy of a shortie 223. She traveled around 20 yards and piled up. Didn't cut her open to look at damage as it was a pack out deal, but the bullet apparently worked fine.

Have also used the 75 Amax for a neck shot on a cow elk at maybe 20 or 30 yards, but did not recover the bullet, as it exited. That cow elk went about 30 yards, rolling down a steep hill. Dead on arrival.

Necks of most any species are tough, no doubt. I've seen similar situations, several times.

One of the most telling was a smallish bear, which had a 225 spire point from my .340 WBY blow clean through the guts and exit (bad shot on my part). I put a finisher round in it's neck from roughly the same distance, which stopped the same bullet.

I found a shotgun slug flattened against the spine in the neck of a deer I killed one year. Wasn't my slug and was obviously from a previous season as it was all healed in there. Still find it hard to fathom how that deer wasn't brought to bag by the hunter who put that slug in it's neck. You'd think the shock to the spine would have flattened it. Especially baffling as I've killed a few myself with shotgun slugs and neck shots over the years and every one did drop instantly.

This one has become interesting since Form rang in. I have no idea how the man manages to get so much experience, but his revelations are very interesting to me.

A bit off topic, but will the 62gr Fusion stabilize in a 1:12 twist?

From my experience, yes. They shoot well in a 24" 1:12" using a stiff charge of CFE for me. In fact, the 64 Fusions also shoot well for me.

I didn't realize they were available as a component.

Got a few thousand from Rocky Mountain Reloading a couple years ago. They were not pulldowns, and were a bargain. As soon as they ran out of 64's, I bought 62's. Excellent hunting bullets, IMO.

Many thanks.

On lung shots comparing my 45/70 with a 405 Speer VS a 223 with a 55 grain Barnes ttsx I've seen better results with the 223. I've mentioned this before and yes it always seems to piss of those with big man syndrome!




Trystan

I like 224's on deer sized critters but damned if I've ever seen any ass to front or vice versa a deer; the 45 does it with wee handgun cases....

I try to tell the DNR knotheads that it would be better if they allowed smaller bore rifles just to cut down on recoil for the kids, but they don't seem to get it.

I wouldn't bet against a 50 or 55 grain TTSX going length wise through a deer, especially in one of the hotter 22 caliber cartridges.

I wouldn't either--but recently came to the conclusion that end-to-end penetration doesn't mean as much as many hunters think, because the inside of a deer-sized animal isn't nearly as hard as its "shell."

Such penetration is often held up as an example of the super-penetration of monolithic bullets, but I shot lengthwise through a pronghorn buck with a 150-grain Ballistic Tip in a .308, and have seen other examples of lead-cored "premiums" doing the same thing on animals from deer to medium-sized elk.

I've much .224 love when it comes to a killing rifle. Fairly certain that I'm pretty comfortable killing stuff with one, and fairly comfortable letting the kids kill stuff with the 223/223AI.
Over the last 10 years or so I've lost track of the number of deer/black bears I've seen killed with various bullets including the 40vmax (black bear), 45 tsx (deer/black bears), 50 ttsx (deer), 53 tsx (deer/black bears), 55 gmx (deer), 62 ttsx/tsx (deer/black bears) and 75 Amax (deer, black bears). (Probably some other bullets in there too, but those are the ones that come to mind...)

I haven't killed any elk with one, but only because I simply wasn't carrying one when I killed elk.

This fall the GF carried my Montana 223AI one day when we were out looking for mule deer. She wasn't expecting to shoot, as she'd already killed a bull elk this fall and was being fairly picky on deer, having already passed up a narrow and tall 4x4 and a really wide 3x4 because she really wanted a clean 4x4 with brow tines. We managed to find a clean 4x4 with brows and snuck up for a closer look. I figured him for about a 140" buck, which put him quite a bit smaller than the 2 she'd already passed on but he was big bodied and really pretty.

She put the little Montana over a pair of crossed hiking poles, and when he followed his doe out of the patch of timber they were holed up in he was exactly 303 yards on the nose, and quartered in to us. There was about a 10" window through the buck brush where he was standing when she said "I have a clean shot through his shoulder if you think this little pop gun has enough jam to kill him..."
I wasn't even done saying "kill him" when she triggered the shot sending a 75 Amax on the way.

He reared up and leapt down the hill out of sight, making 6 leaps or so and dying in the air judging from the tracks in the snow.

About what I expect from an Amax, crushed bone going in, a lot of tissue damage, and 16" or so of penetration.



Exit hole through his ribs.



Top of his ticker chewed off.... Not bad hole through the middle as well from bone shrapnel I think.


Obligatory gear porn.

One thing I hadn't realized prior to her killing that deer, is that she hadn't fired that rifle before other than shooting a few rocks at 600 or so last summer. Lucky for me she absolutely loves her Montana 7/08, or I might have to fight her to get my 223 AI back...... To say she was impressed with the little rifle and the damage the 75 Amax did was an understatement.

Previous conversation was talking about vertebrae stopping bullets... My daughter last fall shot a pretty good whitetail with a Vanilla 223 and 55 gmx (or might have been a 50 gmx) square in the throat at 177 yards. 14" or so of vertebrae absolutely crushed with a straight line bored down his spine an inch over from his spinal cord. Mind you, it was -30 C or so, so his bones were probably brittle.......(grin)

I'd just as soon a bullet didn't make it to the guts with a frontal shot. Unfortunately most will.

LOL! So true!

Nice!

David

Is the 75 Eldm the new 75 A-Max?




P

Yes