Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting What's the better .223 deer bullet

What's the better deer bullet in a 1-12 twist .223? 55gr. Bear Claw or Gold dot.

Both work GREAT! Whatever shoots best for you.

I'm going to have to go with one or the other without pre testing.

Barnes 53 or 55 tsx

Haven’t killed a deer with either but my guess is they perform very similarly. I believe the Trophy Bonded are made by Speer no?

Pretty sure I trust Ingwe in this department however

Thank you for that vote of confidence!

I've used them both and was equally impressed. Ive never seen a deer I wouldnt use either one on.

I’d vote Bear Claw just because I knew Jack Carter

We've used 62gr. Fusion and Bears Claws with complete success. I'm going to do a deer load for my 1-12 Browning and need to drop down to 55grns. I can buy the Gold Dot or Bear Claw.

Knowing how well the 62gr. bullets have worked, I should probably not over think it and just go with the 55gr. Bear Claws.

223 give me a plain vanilla 55 grain cup and core spitzer. Not enough velocity there to put any strain on a bullet.

I’ve have no experience with the bear claw in 223, but the 55gr gold dot is good to go. I can’t imagine the two would perform much different. I’ve seen the 55gr gold dot break a whitetail’s shoulder and penetrate at least 20 more inches on a quartering shot.

I've used 70gr Speer semi-spitzers with good luck.

Nosler partition 60 gr woks well

Well, if nothing else you're getting a long list of bullets to use instead of the two you asked about.

Another vote for Nosler 60 gr. Had good luck in both the .223 and 22-250.

check out the Hammer bullet list you will be impressed , this brand bullet really shoot well and kill game excellent. Pete53

Yep. But, I enjoy and welcome other opinions and experiences. Have experience with 62gr. Bear Claws in a 1-9 and 1-8 rifles and it worked great.

So, I've just ordered a supply of the 55s for my Browning.

As is usual with 24HCF it took two whole replies before folks started mentioning things you weren't asking about and weren't interested in...

Why do you need to drop down in weight?

I know from previous postings that you are very much in favor of softer bullets for deer and I agree with you to a great extent. With 55gr. bullets being driven at 3100 + fps, I don't think a bonded bullet is a mistake. I want an exit. Our lease is on a pine plantation. If they get off the food plots very far, you are in for a serious tracking job and probably won't find them without a blood trail.

Using Fusions and Bear Claws we get exits on angle shots, not so much with Hornadys.

We've used 55gr. Hornady SP with success and I would use them again. I am well supplied with them for my general purpose bullet.

Send it to H&H.
Have then install a gold plated barrel 22x 375H&H, new stock of the finest wood.
A custom wood case.
Custom S&B glass.


Hand turned platinum bullets, 133.98gr.