Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters .223 deer bullets

Starting to play with a little compact .223 Ruger Hawkeye I've had for a few years. 20" 1-9 twist.
What would be your choice of deer bullet for whitetails ?

Nothing new in my recommendations, but the 55gr Hornady has a long history of success. 64gr Winchester Power Point and 60gr Nosler Partition likewise.

Several guys on the forum, however, have experience with lots of new bullets like the Barnes, Gold Dot and the heavier bullets with higher B.C.

I spent two years hunting Barren Ground Caribou with a Browning Micro-Medallion in 223. The 64 grain Powerpoint had a great balance of expansion, penetration and price. Good wound channels until they ran out of steam. Never let me down but past 150 yards the energy levels become a bit anemic and killing power suffers no matter what you feed it with. The heavier bullets with higher bc helped a bit but the round doesn't start with a lot of energy to begin with. The 22-250 was quit a bit more emphatic as a caribou killer there I used a fast twist and an 80 grain Allred Partition.

I’ve killed a couple of Axis with 64 grain PowerPoints and was happy with the results.

62 gr TSX

50 grain ttsx at warp speed

60 Gr Nosler Partition was specifically designed for "big game" and the 223. I trust Noslers, However, having shot exactly one deer with a 223 (My son has killed 2) it's not a suitable round, IMO.

+1 to Hancock27's post, .223 is a varmint round not suitable for deer, but there are those here that insist otherwise. To each his own, my deer rifle is a .30-06.

60g Nosler Partition
62g Swift Scirocco
64g Nosler Bonded
70g Nosler Accubond

Did you shoot a deer with a Partition? I load them for my grandson. I suspect he killed 15 or so deer with it in 223. Most of them were bang flops. Most were complete pass through. All of them wrecked the innards. I now load for his 22-250. The 64g Nosler Bonded bullets give similar results. These are smallish coastal deer where mature does weigh 120 or so. He did hit a few decent bucks. They died pretty too.

I'm switching to a 222 this year due to a shoulder injury. My barrel is a 1:7 twist. Is there any reason to go with the heavier bullets vs the 60 grain partition? I'm not ever going to shoot past 150 yards.

The good ol' campfire...where the best elk round is the .243, the best deer round is some kind of .22...surely it's time for one of you to bag a moose with some kind of .17.

Not in my opinion.

77 Tipped Matchking has given the best terminal results for me. It penetrates deeply and leaves a nice 2.5” diameter wound channel through lungs. The two that haven’t been pass throughs have both retained around %40 of their weight.

Besides the 77 Sierra I’ve used 75 Hornady BTHP, 53gr TSX, 50 and 55gr Ballistic tips, 50 and 55gr Hornady SPs, 55gr Speer SP, 53gr Varmeggedon tipped, 53gr Vmax, 40gr Varmeggedon tipped, and 40gr Ballistic tips or deer or pigs with most of the recipients being pigs.
Rifles used were a 700 in 222mag with a 20” Shilen 9”twist, AR with a 16” 9”twist Mossberg barrel, and an 18” SS 7”twist PSA upper. Shots from 10 feet to 300yards. Deer from a yearling buck of about 110lb to mature bucks going about 150lb. Pigs from 30lbs to 250lb. People say pigs are tougher than deer though I don’t necessarily agree but take it for what it’s worth. Sample of 4-5 deer and over 100 and probably close to 150 pigs. YMMV

No

Uhhhhh....yeah.Ive killed scores of deer and deer sized critters with a .223 and a variety of bullets ( bullets intended for the purpose, not varmint bullets) and literally cannot see a difference in how quick they succumb with the .223 versus an '06

A great many people continue to think it is inadequate and invariably they have zero experience with the round on deer, or very little at best. Its like me constantly degrading the .270...in truth I have never fired,let alone owned one!

The first deer I killed with a 22 CF was in 1967 with a Remington 788 in .222 shooting Norma factory ammo loaded with a 50 grain bullet. It worked. Although I've killed a lot of deer over the years with a lot of cartridges, none of them seem to do any better than my current .22 CF pet deer load which is a 65 grain SGK over 27 grains of Varget. It just works.

70 grain Speer semi spitzers work great on these Texas white tails out to 200 yards from my Kimber Montana. Cost is $13/100 last I checked if I’m not mistaken.

75g Hornady BTHP will kill deer and hogs in spades!!!

75g Speer Gold dot is excellent if you can find any.

The 60g partition is a difficult bullet to get to group well, in a lot of guns. Since you have the twist, the 75g bthp is a great choice for you.

It would not be a third choice to go with the 88g Hornady...not by a long shot. I have two barrel blanks on the way and that is what I am going to shoot in mine.

Anything shy of a super lightly built varmint bullet or FMJ will be just fine. Pretty much any el cheap 55 grain soft point up through the heavier premiums work good and even the FMJs are fine, though those bullets through lungs tend to create tracking jobs. To answer your question directly, the 55 Horn, 62 Sierra SMP or 62 TSX are my recommendations.

I'm not a barnes fan and about the only one of those I "trust" is the 62 TSX, and even that has given me pause a few times, but not because of the diameter.
Set forth and kill with that .223, without worry.