Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting .223 for whitetail - yes or no?

Poor hits are part of the problem, a poor hit with a cartridge that passes through a deer is usually recoverable as there is double the chance of there being a discernable blood trail. A small bore bullet leave a very small entrance and no exit and even very little evidence of being hit. I've had 243 100gr Federals(1969) not open and pass completely through a deer and the deer kept right on walking never showing a sign of being hit. I followed up on the shot to see where the deer were headed and found the deer twenty yards into the woods, I was dumfounded and actually had to feel the underside of a leg to realize it was warm and the deer I shot at. The bullet passed through the deer cutting an artery and the body cavity filled with blood leaving no trail or even spots in the snow. Now I find a 100gr .257 NPT to be the minimum I'll hunt medium game with. I'll save the small bores for predators and varmints.

I have gut shot a deer with a 35 Whelen 200gr RN and it left a softball sized exit and a very sick deer that was easily recoverable but did take a second shot to finish. Again, very little evidence of being hit other than hair and stomach contents spread across the forest floor. Same shot with a 223 would have been a lost deer in my opinion.

My thought is everybody wants a "tough" bullet in small calibers. No thanks.

The tougher, the smaller expanded diameter. Take a reasonably soft bullet and killing deer with a 22 caliber is no issue.

We are talking a 250# animal and that's on some of the larger bucks, not exactly a big critter.

Like has been stated before, this is why Partitions are such excellent killers, a very soft front end that expands pretty violently but a back end that gives an exit for blood trails if needed.

15 years ago I got on the 22-250 with 60 grain Partition kick. No telling how many deer I shot in 3 or 4 seasons as we hunted a suburban area where seeing 15 deer a day was common.

No issues killing and I can actually only recall 2 runners which were easily found. Both were killed in heavy brush.

Lung or shoulder shot deer.

In the 223 a regular soft point is all that's needed.

I still prefer a 55 grain Gameking in the 223 for deer.

The third biggest buck on my wall was killed back in 1993 with a Remington 788 .222 and a handloaded 50 gr. Nosler solid base. He was quartering away at 125 yards and dropped at the shot. The bullet hit at the last rib on the left side and the little solid base was recovered from the right shoulder. His lungs looked like grape jelly. He field dressed 172 lbs.. Since then a bunch have fallen to my .223's firing 55 gr. Nosler solid base, 55 gr. Hornady sp, 55 gr. Winchester sp and 65 gr. Sierra Gameking btsp.. No problem or complaints with the performance of any of them.

I always have used 55gr Hornady sp, well really the bullets are seconds that look like the Hornady 55gr sp. This year I've been working on a Barnes 55gr ttsx load for my .223's I'd like to stretch my range out to 500yds. Using a 8+lb rifle, shooting off a good rest you can see brains and eyes explode. Using the high shoulder - neck shot you can see the hair fly and body caving in on impact. Never could see any of that shooting a .243 or larger caliber rifle. IMO bullet placement trumps everything else when it comes to killing power.

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I'm going to murder deer, trap coyotes, and catch fish.[/quote]

My preferred load! I’ve posted a pic on here 1/2 dozen times of my sons deer he heart shot. The heart looked like a slinky. Mulie…shot at 98 yards. It’s the only one we’ve shot that ran at all after the shot. Ram 40yds downhill pouring blood out

55 gr Hornady SP from a 223 on a large doe at 80 yards. Double lung.

.223 Rem with the 70 gr. Barnes has served me well on several whitetail. Keep your shots at 300 yards or under, it'll do the trick. Further the expansion may be lukewarm.

Anyone tried out the little 18” threaded CVA cascade in 223? Barrel twist seems to be harder to find than Obama’s birth certificate.

I’ve shot about 10 deer with 223 and Sierra 1365’s. One ran maybe 85 yards. The rest were either bang flops or at most 25-30 yards death sprints (heart/lung shots). Those deer were all shot in open fields at maybe 75-225yards… if I was hunting in the woods id want a bigger caliber that left a good blood trail in case my shot wasn’t the best. As others have mentioned…it is a lot more about where you hit them than with what.

My buddy, Bob, gave me a lot of good advice when I started writing for the outdoors. One of his gems was as follows: "Keep everything you write in a file drawer. After 8 years, you'll never have to write anything new. Nothing changes."

I took his advice, only I put all my past work up on a weblog. He was right. Nothing changes. In fact, a few years ago, I started a feature over in the left sidebar of my weblog: On This Day.

I think I asked this question for the first time back on shooters.com. It was the demise of this platform that brought me along with a bunch of other refugees to this august forum. I don't have the actual text of this thread at hand, but I asked the same very question and I was soundly trounced for trying to perform a "stunt" on a live animal. I did get some sound advice, and I had a load worked up for my Mini-14. However, I started having good luck with my 30-somethings, and the project slipped. Since then, I've acquired several .223 REM rifles including a minty Savage 325.

Over the intervening 2+ decades I've seen the question of .223 REM on deer slowly migrate from a "stunt" to a "finesse round" to finally having enough acceptance that it has become a matter of personal taste. Me? I still have a 63 grain Winchester PP load cooked up. I just find that I still have a mountain of other projects to test, and .223 REM falls by the wayside. I don't know what will someday push me over the threshold.

I'm like that kid on the side of the pool with his toes over the edge and his hands arching up over his head stuck in. He just can't make the first dive.

I have taken whitetail and antelope with the 223 using the 60 grain nosler partition and the 55 grain sierra game changer. Put the shot in the vitals and it works fine, as do most other centerfire rounds.

I wont be acquiring one for that specific use but I wouldn't hesitate to hunt deer with a .223 if I was somewhere without my deer rifles and someone handed me one to use.

This nonsense has been discussed beyond reason. Most of the people that endorse the 223 and small calibers for game will be singing a different tune when you ask them about personal defense.

How is it that small calibers and cartridges are such great game killers, but you need a canon to kill a human in a self defense scenario?

I'm kind of the opposite. I want a .223/5.56 with expanding bullets in a defensive scenario due to the ease of hits, effectiveness, and firepower on hand. I'd rather have .25cal or more for dedicated deer hunting, mainly due to better blood trails. With that being said, I have killed deer and hogs with the 223 and it will get the job done at reasonable ranges with bullets matched to the impact velocity. It's not my first choice when I head out on a hunt around thick cover, but isn't terrible for targets of opportunity.

Spot on!

Yes or No? No

BUTTT, if all the rifles except those chambered in 223 disappeared tomorrow I guess I'd be carrying one this fall and make it work.

In a word -- No!

I missed the conversation where a "223 is fine for deer" proponent expounded on the need for a 30-06 for self defense.

In my experience - I usually hear the opposite.

"Why can I engage and kill terrorists who go 200lbs with a 223 but a 120-140 lb deer on the hoof is suddenly too much?" (disregard bullet construction differences in the 2 scenarios)

I don't know the answer- would I hesitate to shoot a deer if all I had in my hands was a 223 with proper bullets? Nope. Would I generally select a 223? Nope. For me there's a difference between "prefer" and "works".