Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 223 Rem best deer bullet?

I love the 55gr ttsx

The box has always said “varmint” on it for as long as I have used them, which is only a few years. But it’s just a word on a box. I have cut one lengthwise and it’s a simple thin jacket with uniform lead core. I think the weight and velocity hit the sweet spot of expansion and penetration in the 223. Besides, our Texas deer are like varmints anyhow. Give them a try and see what you think.

You're all lucky to kill a doe much less a big buck with a 223.



Nuff said...... hint.....

I recommended the Power Point because of availability. My favorite.224 bullet for deer and such is the 75gr Gold Dot hands down. They’ve been hard to find as a component for a couple years now. All three Gold Dots are loaded in Speer’s LE line and can be found online.

77TMK... do the research and see the carnage

https://rokslide.com/forums/threads/223-for-bear-deer-elk-and-moose.130488/

Did you, perchance, read the first page of this thread?

Same here. Got a nice 6 pointer with the Speer 70 grain in my 223 Rem. 150 yds., Pass thru, 2" exit hole behind the shoulders, did the mule kick, DOA 25 ft. later.

I’ve shot several truck loads of deer with Sierra 1365’s out of 22-250 and 223. No complaints. Also like 55 and 60gr hornady SP. Of the 3 I’d probably pick the 60 horn SP but put any of those in the right place and it’ll be time to get the knife out.

This one is not a fan of the .223/55gr ttsx. Shot him in the heart at 40-50 yds. Death run of 30 yards, watched him fall. When I gutted him, the heart was actually off. Not much blood on the dry ground but enough if you needed it.

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Why has the 75gr Gold Dot become your favorite? I’ve shot 3 deer with the 77TMK and one with the 64BSB, no exits with any of that small sample. If the 75gr Gold Dot would give me exits, it would likely become my favorite as well if I could find acceptable accuracy.

Thanks.

Frank

That’s exactly why, it exits. I’ve shot probably a dozen deer so far with the 75gr Gold Dot and haven’t caught one yet.

I have used a wide range of .224 bullets on deer through various cartridges. I like the tougher bullets driven fast by the larger platforms and the various 70-80 grain bullets have their use but a good 55-65 grain soft point is hard to beat, especially from a .223. Not fancy but they work.

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Exactamundo

Hint, hint……

77 Tipped game king if you can find them

Sierra doesn't list a 77 grain game king on their website. Do you mean a match king?

Perhaps germane to this discussion... Today I was boning out a shoulder roast from a buck I shot about seven weeks ago with a .223, the bullet being a 65 grain SGK. Distance was about 30 - 35 yards. When I got the meat off the shoulder blade, I found a dime sized hole in the middle of the shoulder blade. There was a crack running vertically from the hole to the top of the shoulder blade. There were a few particles of core and jacket in the muscle around the hole. That was the shoulder on the off side of the deer.

I was shooting from above and only had a couple of seconds to take the shot as he left where he'd been standing in a spot to obscured to take a shot and was heading across a small opening to more brush. I shot him in the neck just ahead of the chest, smashed the spine and down through the forward part of the heart-lung area before busting through the offside shoulder, stopping under the skin. He dropped DRT and never moved.

I think that's pretty good performance from a 65 grain bullet traveling pretty fast.

Thanks for your reply. What was your load?

That's been my experience with the 55gr too for the most part.