Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Speer 70gr vs Horn 55gr SP for .223 Rem on Deer

'70s through '90s used the 70 gr Speer and 63 gr Sierra SMP in 1:14 .22-250s and Swifts. Both stabilized just fine. Don't have recent versions to compare tho.

yeah, I've even stabilized them in a one in 14 twist barrel... along with the Sierra 63 gr SMP.

Guess I am the biggest user of this stuff on this thread at least....

both bullets have always worked for me just fine... and no real mess ....only one time an issue someone would complain about...

dead deer, but if one had wanted to mount the head to hang on the wall, that wouldn't have worked...

scenario... it only had a horn on one side.... Came out of the brush off a forest service road, way back in back country. it was going to turn in the direction I was in, but saw me at 200 yds away... I was uphill from him, so he turned and started to run downhill instead....All I was presented with was the proverbial Texas Heart shot. I don't do those, but I have been presented with them numerous times over the years....So I aim over the tail on them....

Ruger 77 mk 2 in 22.250, with a 70 grain Speer... Took the shot... when I miss, I miss clean... but most time I connect. I am not aiming at the head and neck, I am concentrating of just over that bouncing up and down tail. The bullet struck home, right in the back of its neck....deer was running down hill and went head over heals...
it roll ass over teakettle 3 times... the other younger buck with him took off...

Bullet hit the spine.... and came right out the front of the neck..... the exit wound was about the size of an open book... 10 to 12 inches high, and each side of it was split evenly, just like an open book laying on the table... about 10 to 12 inches of spine was blow out with it...

the rest have been behind the shoulder shots.... and have been as instantly lethal.....

the spike that was with this buck, kept coming out of the woods trying to figure what happened, and why his buddy didn't get up and just run....

neck shots do make it easier to gut them, not having the internal blood filled mess... which was a convenience...

but the Speer bullet certainly does its job.

Thank you, Seafire.

I did the same thing for my boy this year. I had loads worked up for 60 grain Partition, 64 grain Winchester Power Point, 70 grain speer and 62 grain Swift Scirocco. All were similar in accuracy through my 1:8 twist Ruger rifle. I had had a couple poor experiences with the 60 gr partition in the past. One dumb bad luck and one who knows. I have one kill on an antelope with the 64pp and it was pretty impressive. I decided to run with the Scirocco and it served us very well. My boy shot 4 doe throughout the season. All one shot kills. Ranges from 56-90 yards. All complete pass through. Deer ran from 35 to 70 yards. Two liver shots, one went 35, one went 70. One quartering shot got lung, liver and guts, went 35yds. One heart shot, went 70 yards. The shots that had guts had little to no blood. The heart shot had a large blood trail like any other round. The end of the season, I used the rifle to shoot three more deer at 120, 150, 180 yards. Deer ran 50, 50, 120 yards after the shot. The longer trail was due to hitting it back to far. Got liver and guts. The other two were heart/ lung and lung/liver shots. So in the season, we were 7 for 7, all one shot kills, all pass through.
I also have a friend that uses an AR with 62 gr Barnes X and he has killed about 10 that I have witnessed. All pass through shots with good blood. No deer has gone more than 30 yards that he has shot. All perfect placements on the top of the heart and in the lungs.
I would keep shots under 250 for that round. Placement is most important, and if you keep the shots in the chest, the deer will die.

I shot some 60 grain Hornady soft points out of my Remington 1/12 twist ADL at the range. The group was consistently about an inch larger than the 55 grain Hornady SP's. I don't see how a 70 grain bullet will shoot well at all out of a 12 twist. In a 12 twist I think you should stick to 55's or less. Just my opinion.

kwg

I've shot those 70s out of a 1 in 12 22-250 and they shot fine. It's a stubby little bullet made for slow twists

I guy I used to work with, let his little boy use his .223, with plain Win. 55 gr. factory load. He had a video of the kill, and his doe dropped like she was struck by lightning.