Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game 5.56 for Big game

Stamp in hand now, going to be a good year.

yeah why go that route when a Daisy Red Ryder would even recoil less....

You have it Seafire.. With all the rifles available we have to endure this crap!!

Well, I agree that a .223 is not a proper elk gun.

However, you are making the wrong assumption on what happens with large 30’s. People see elk soak up multiple hits with large 30’s, as I have, and assume that smaller guns would do worse. Fact is, elk are tough and they’ll soak up multiple rounds regardless of caliber.

CH is a known idiot.

Not sure why people even get worked up over his posts anymore.

Just ignore him and let him wander around yelling at the plants like the retard he is.

While it's not my first choice, 40 years ago, after an eye surgery temporarily kept me from shooting anything with recoil, a friend's dad loaned me his M 722 in .222 Rem. Got my deer, returned the rifle with the 19 remaining cartridges. It worked well.

My kids shot the 62gr Federal Fusions for a couple years before they graduated to larger calibers. Most deer fell in their tracks, I think the only runner went about 75 yards.

I had a buddy shoot a 200pound plus hog with the 62 gr Fusion out of a Savage bolt rifle in 223. He got 18 inches of penetration but the blood trail was awful. Fortunately the hog was white and black nd he was easy to find in the pines.The recovered bullet was magazine ad quality and I believe it weighed 46 grains.

Bill

got 13 tags for the fall coming. all but one will be filled with a 75gr eld-m from a 20" 8 twist tikka.

have to step up to the mighty 6br to dump the ironside elk.

You won’t be legally using a .223 for elk in Kentucky, 270 minimum.

The .223/5.56 load I've been using has worked really well on even big feral hogs some shot at over 200 yards. We load the Hornady 62 grain BTHP #2276C250 bought from Midsouth in bulk but no longer available even on backorder. A max load of Varget is what I've loaded but I suspect IMR 4064 or either 4895 would work fine. Never once have I shot one with the .223 that got away, but for deer hunting I use a .30-06. There are occasional 300+ yard shots and deer are brought home, not dragged off to the gut pile as are hogs. I shot a big boar the other night from across a bayou with the .30-06 and a 180 SST and he went hiking off. I had to drive around to the highway bridge to go check on him and when I got there was able to shoot 2 more with the .223. Those 2 went down DRT and the .30-06 victim had made it about 70 yards. Place of impact does matter a lot (duh).

What’s your muzzle velocity?

Pharm he has 39 pages of this B.S. over on that other forum linked in this thread, RokSliders or whatever it is. 39 pages of B.S. so deep you need a life boat.

The only bullet I've ever used with a .223 for deer was a Speer 70 grain Semi Spitzer. Drops 'em dead on the spot. Yeah it's not a 400 yard bullet but then I dont think a .223 is a 400 yard deer gun either. You want a 400 yard deer gun get a 30-06 or a 6.5 something or a .270.

[quote=Coyote_Hunter]Both of my centerfire bolts are Rugers - a .223 and a .22-250. Both have the older, slower twists of 12 and 14 respectively. The .223 loves 40g bullets but accuracy degrades quickly above 50g.

Neither is what I would chose for big game hunting, although I've taken a lot of 'yotes with the .22-250. While I think most of the deer (all mulies) and elk I've taken over the years would have fallen to a properly place .224" bullet from either, there is no way I would chose them for such use, even if they were legal in this state.

A fast twist .223 with a heavy bullet is something I might use for antelope but, although I've hunted elk and mulies with a .44 Mag handgun, and carbine and a .30-30, it would be far down on my list of choices for elk and deer. Maybe in part because I've seen more elk wounded and lost after being shot with a .243 Win than all other cartridges combined, bullet choice unknown in most cases.

That said, a fast twist .224: with a good bullet is undoubtedly a pretty capable cartridge. But for elk I'll stick with my .257 Roberts and a 120g A-Frame @ 2947fps (+P load and brass) as my minimum. I've always used 2000fps and 1500fpe as my rule of thumb yardstick to compare the effective range for elk. Granted, my .44 Revolver doesn't get there and my carbine only reaches the 1500fpe mark but not the 2000fps. I don't know of any .223 Rem or 5.56 NATO load that reaches the 1500fps mark at the muzzle. My Roberts is good to about 320 yards at 7000 feet altitude, which is well within the range where I've taken most of my elk.


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Have you tried the 70 grain Speer Semi Spitzer in your 1-12 twist? They shoot really well in my 1-12 twist and reasonably well in my 1-14 .22-250 Remington 700. They're Semi Spitzer and not as long. so they stabilize better in the looser twist. For out to 200 yards they're accurate and kill deer with regularity and of course with proper shot placement, which is required no matter the caliber or bullet.

What’s BS about that thread? I read the whole thing and thought it was informative. Lots of data points from dead animals in that thread to include a bull moose killed with a 223/77TMK.

I got a Tikka too with the 1/8. The heaviest I ever shot where 62 grain TSX.

What will most of the game be?

Loads are being worked up. So far only whitetail on the menu. TMK are flying well.

I wouldn't, unless it was the only gun I had.