Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting Bullets for longer range work in .223/5.56

For you guys buying at a little longer distances with .223/5.56 for stuff other then small Varmints ( southern whitetail )and down what are y'all liking as far as bullets ?
And look if you don't like .223 or whatever that cool fine not asking about that or other cartridges . .223/5.56 300yd to like 500yd max just wanna hear what people have or do use and why.
Thanks

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

Almost 300 pages of hunting with a 5.56/.223.

I was thinking of that thread myself-Thanks.
Besides what has been mentioned above:
Barnes 77 grain LRX and the 80 grain and 88 grain ELD-M.

One of the biggest things is determining what your impact velocities are going to be at whatever max distance you are desiring.
All bullets have a minimum impact velocity

Including match bullets? Where do they provide this info? (e.g. ELD-M)

I have a dead coyote at 750 with a 223ai and 70gr RDF. instantly flopped and spun for a second.

Including some match bullets.

77 grain TMK - I have not personally used on big game.

88 grain ELD-M, I have used on big game.
The ELD-M will perform well down to a 1800 fps impact velocity, and there will be a group of folks who have used the ELD-M's more than me that will say it goes down to 1600 fps minimum impact velocity

I don't personally get the fascination with heavy-for-caliber bullets, but that's just my position. Having said that, the heaviest I have/use in my AR556 is the 62gr Speer Gold Dot. Haven't shot any deer with it, but it does work on pigs. My self-imposed limits is 300 yards with my AR.

I used Sierra 69 OTM in my Bushmaster Predator on Prairie Dogs, rabbits. I liked the Hornady 68 OTM in the two 22-250s (one was faster twist and Ackleyed, = Best one!) on Coyote, Prairie dogs, Marmots, etc. I used a 75gr Scirocco in a fast twist Lilja barreled .224 TTH (22-6mm) on a big hog and varmints. Those were plenty heavy for me!

I really like the 69gr SMK, for varmints, paper, and steel out to 600 yards. You are asking about out to 500 yards, so that bullet will suffice. Another good one is the 77smk, and it will edge out the 69 further out. The 88ELD match will edge out both, but further out than your asking about. Especially if you are running a 7 twist barrel in your 223 rem. Speaking of that, one of my more accurate AR's runs a 9 twist barrel, so I mainly stick to 69's in that one:


That's more than accurate enough to knock the schidt out of varmints at 4-500 yards.



In general, or just for the .223 rem? There are multitudes of reasons to go heavy for caliber/chambering bullets. It's not always about shooting far out either. It could also be for shooting close up, and destroying less meat. I knew about that when I was 12.

The OP wants to shoot deer, so I'd pick the 77TMK or the 88ELD match, if wanting to go heavy for caliber.

what twist does it take to stabilize 88's at 5.56 velocities 8? 7?

7 is what it says for me.

I use a seven twist

Wolfie, what twist ya running?

I have shot a few deer with a 77 TMK. If you are looking for a reliable bullet for deer, they are impressively effective. I’d second the Rokslide thread above, there is a significant amount of real world information there. That thread led me to the 77 TMK. I wasn’t disappointed, I don’t think you will be either.

Good luck.

Frank

How much expansion are you getting in the critters with 69gr SMKs? Looked into 140gr SMK in 6.5, but all reviews were negative for hunting.

I've used the 69gm SMKs for chucks, but had a few runners compared to bang flops

I've killed deer, hogs and yotes out to almost 500 with 62gr SP's

I've used the 75 Amax quite a bit out to 450 on a bunch of deer and black bears (just by virtue of how the shots presented, didn't stop at that range for any particular reason) and it was exceptionally effective. That was from a 1:9 223AI. Typically bust a shoulder on the way to or from the rib cage.

I've been using the 88 ELD m the last couple of seasons from 223AI's, spun 1:7. Built two for me, and one for a buddy. He used his on a big muley this fall on the last day of the season at 404 yards, quartering away. Bullet hit at the last rib, was under the hide just behind the off side shoulder. Buck managed to stagger 15 yards sideways and fell over and died.
I've shot a couple moose and a black bear with the 88 ELD m, but none of those were all that far - 151 to 170-something yards.

I've been happy with the 88 ELDm, and the 75 Amax as far as holding together well enough to break femurs on stuff, but I might try the 77 TMK just for giggles, after reading the entire Rokslide thread.

I guess the old rule for remaining energy ft. lbs. for deer is about useless now. Ya'll seem to have no trouble dropping deer at long range with a .223. And I'm sure you know that there's not a lot of energy left at 500yds. in a .223

It never was particularly useful. Put a bullet, that expands, in the right place and things tend to die pretty quick.

The only big game animal that I ever shot and lost was a pronghorn antelope that I shot with my .22-250. That was many years ago, and it was an expanding bullet, HP or soft point, not a FMJ.

My first shot was maybe 150 yards and it knocked him down, but before I could get to him, he got up and ran over a ridge. When I got to the top of the ridge, I shot him again, and again he fell down, then got up and ran over the next ridge. By the time I got to the top of that ridge, he was nowhere to be seen. I spent the rest of that day searching for him, but never found him.

I knew and hunted with @scenarshooter when he still lived in Bozeman. He and 2 of our other friends killed a pile of deer, elk, black bears and even a few buffalo, Pat with his .220 Swift, and Bill and George with their .22-250s. They were always proud of the animals that they killed with those rifles, but never said anything about the ones that they lost.

At one of our gun club picnics one year, the club had set up some steel ram targets at the 400 m berm. Bill and I were shooting them with our .22-250s and we could hear the bulllets hit, but they didn't have enough energy at that distance to knock them down.