Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 22-250 ON DEER

are oyu people crazy? The 22-250 is a VARMINT round. I know there have been and will continue to be people that will hunt and kill deer with this and other varmint rounds. But that doesnt make it right or ethical. too much room for error. Now if the person were a usmc sniper i would not have as much of a problem with it. But continuing to post crap like this is encouraging other people to try it. To me a 243 is boderline as a deer round. I know bullet technology has and will continue to make great strides in progress but please, leave the varmint round to the varmints.

We had this same debate here at G-Nutz.

http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/viewtopic.php?t=18577

Seems like the loudest naysayers have no practicle experience on the subject.

sc........

Just talked to my buddy last night, and he said that he had taken a nice 25" mulie. Our northern bucks up here grow quite large, with the average that I've taken it late November in the rut dressing 170-180 lbs at the butcher. The largest I took dressesd 232lbs on the rail. Needless to say, these are decent sized critters. Anyhow, he said that the shot was a nice broadside shot at 175 yards plus. He hit the deer in the lungs, and not being one to watch and admire his shot, put another in within seconds as the deer staggered. It dropped at the second shot. Assuming that he had used his 7 RM with the usual load of 162 hornadies, I asked him if his bullets exited. He said yes, with 2 nice 3/4" holes. He had used his 22-250 and the 60 gr Hornady factory load. His 7 mag was out of commission and the 22-250 was all he had. The point here, is excellent marksmanship and patience coupled with a stout bullet proved effective. However, this was under ideal circumstances, and my buddy has the brains to know when not to shoot. He even admitted that it isn't his first choice on deer.

280_ACKLEY

I must admit that the 22-250 or even a 223 will kill whitetail deer all day long when loaded with 60 grain Nosler Partitions. But good shot placement is very important. Here in Oklahoma everything from a 223 up is legal for deer. I don't really agree with that but the Department of Wildlife approved it, so go figure. I like to think of myself as a excellent rifle shot but even still I don't hunt deer with any of the 22 centerfires because there is allot better calibers for the job. I simply have more respect for animals that have given me so much hunting pleasure than to under gun myself and run the chance of wounding an animal and having it suffer a prolonged death. Just my two cents worth.

I respect a man who knows his limitations and compensates accordingly. If you aren't confident in your ability to cleanly harvest deer with an accurate 22-250 shooting a Nosler 60 grain Partition, I'm glad that you're using something that you feel confident using.

Personally, I feel supremely confident in my ability to harvest any North American antelope, caribou, or deer that ever lived with my pet 22-250 and a 60 grain Nosler Partition. I find that most people who don't like this combination have never used it, have never seen anyone use it, don't know anyone who has used it, etc., etc., etc. The first time you harvest a deer with this combination, your reaction is likely to be; "Wow, I've never seen a deer get so dead, so quick!".

FWIW, I have seen far more deer wounded with larger, more capable, cartridges. The keys to a clean, one (1) shot kill are proper placement of a proper projectile. The cartridge used is meaningless if the placement is wrong and/or the projectile is too fragile or too sturdy. Goldie Locks might have been selecting a small caliber deer bullet when she is alleged to have said; "This one (1) is too hard, and this one (1) is too soft, but this one (1) is just right!". If you're shooting a .224" bore for deer, the 60 grain Nosler Partition is just right!

Sincerely,

Bearrr264

My huntin' pard once killed a bedded whitetail doe at almost 300yds with his M700 6mm Rem. Shot it from the bipod right smack in the gourd, dead instantly. When he offered it to the visiting kin of a neighboring farmer, (they had to go home that night and had one dead doe between the six of them), one guy said that was BS to claim he'd killed it from that far away. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

The farmer said in response that he'd watched us kill a helluva mess of woodchucks from farther away than that and made mention that he didn't see much difference between a deer's head and a woodchuck, size-wise.
Huntin' pard pointed out that bedded deer are a lot easier to spot with the ol' 10x50's, than woodchucks are, when one of 'em asked him how he did that. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Don't think much of shooting at running deer with 223's and the like, but people do it every year. Peckin' one at close range while it's moving or dropping one at rest with a well-placed shot appears to be equally lethal, when it comes to 224 centerfires or other so-called varmint rounds.

I have been using the 22-250 on deer for about 7 yrs. between myself, my daughter and 4 other hunters that I load 22-250 for we have killed over 35 deer. Only 2 have required more than one shot. None have been lost. Stick the bullet in the lungs broadside and the animal goes down within 25 yds every time.

The 63 gr sierra is very good for this with the 55/60 hornadies running a close second. My daughter just filled her doe tag this morning with a 788 22-250, 55 hornady soft point, on top of 35 gr of h4895, about 3600 fps. She shot the doe at 180-200 yds. the doe was broad side. bullet pulped the lungs and exited. deer ran 20 yds stopped and tipped over. Pretty typical performance in my experience.

The 22-250 is very effective and I would rather a hunter use a less powerful rifle that they shoot well than an eargetsplittinloudenboomerthundermaker that induces lots of flinch. A poor shot is a poor shot wether you use a cannon or a pea shooter. But a properly placed bullet will get the job done with either

I've killed 5 deer on Kodiak Island with 6 shots using my CAR-15 and the Nosler 60-grain Solid Base ( no longer offered ). All were perfect called shots - I shot the first one twice since it didn't seem to react to the first shot. After that I just used one shot each....a dead deer 15 seconds later. None reacted to the shot much at all, each just wandered off then layed down or tipped over. Only one bullet did not exit - I had purposely downloaded to 2850fps MV to make sure the bullets stayed together, which they apparently did. Does this experience make the .223 a good deer round?

Only under certain hunting conditions IMO. There were so many deer on Kodiak that year I was able to pass up many opportunities in order to get the shots I wanted. None were shot over 150 yards, and all deer were either stationary or moving very slowly. I am an accomplished game shot. These facts were what made the .223 so effective; under those conditions even a .22WM would have killed the deer.

No .22 centerfire is an adequate round for the 'average' deer hunter; these bullets require better shot placement and better hunter judgement than does a .308 or 7mm Mag. A quartering shot from the rear with a .22-250 at 250 yards will probably not make it into the lungs with much energy, while the same shot from a .30-06 will penetrate amply and kill quickly. As specialty rounds the .22s work, and they will kill.....but I'll not use them again.

Here's my .22 story.

I bought a .223 to train my kids with, and it's a heckuva rifle for that purpose.

Using the 64 grain PP, my son punched his first buck through the shoulders, which is exactly where he was aiming. Not through the ribs, through the shoulders.

The bullet, which I still have, retained between 60 and 70 percent of its weight. The buck plowed to the ground within 30 yards. I shot the deer also, not because he needed it, but because I did not want him to get to a hellious briar patch. The .223 broke the first shoulder and hurt the second, then stopped at the skin.

If a shooter can place his shots better with a .223, he's better off than with a bigger gun. The key is shot placement, as usual.

Too many folks whack bambi with .22s, and too many loose them with bigger rifles, to discount the caliber.

My rifle of choice is the .270, but I would not hesitate to field the .223 if needed.