I started reloading this year and have gained some good knowledge on here and other places on the web. One of the reasons I was getting into it was to make lighter recoil loads for my son who wanted to shoot a deer this year. He is 8 years old and weighs about 60lbs. Originally I was going to tone down some 260 remington but he didn't go for that. He didn't mind shooting my 223 at all so I figured that was where I needed to be caliber wise. I look online for the most effective bullets for deer even though alot of people frown upon using the 223 on deer. I decided on Nosler 64gr Bonded Solid base as I found numerous photos of good expansion and the bullet holding together. I did a load work up and found one that shot great over Varget - .75 MOA on 5 shots in a Howa Mini Action. The last day of youth doe he got to put them to the test. 85yd shot at a small doe quarter toward us. I told him to aim right at the shoulder to put it through the vitals. He did exactly that, it was a BANG-FLOP - DRT!!! The doe flipped right over on her side and didn't go anywhere. After skinning it out that night, the bullet past through the the shoulder, through a rib across the top of the heart and out between 2 ribs on the other side. No meat was wasted or blown up so the bullet did exactly what it was advertised to do.

First year reloading my own ammo,
First year of rifle hunting for my son
First deer for him,
and first animal killed with one of my reloads.

It feels good when things go as planned.

Good on your Son's first.

And yours as well.

Life is GOOD!

Outstanding!

Cool story!

Under an inch with Varget and the 64rg BSB?
Hmm....I'll have to try that.

What's the rest of your load?
How much Varget with what primers and brass?

Definitely life is good. And that plan come together nicely.


I will get my load info tonight. I didn't want to post the grains without looking at my notes.
Rifle was a Howa Mini action lightweight.
CCI 450 small rifle magnum primers.
Winchester once fired brass.

I will get COAL and charge weight tonight.


This gun also likes 55gr SIerra Varminters over 25.5gr of Reloader 15 as well. That was my first load work up ever.
I just got a chronograph so I don't have speeds on these loads but I know they weren't near listed max in the books I used.

I’m interested in the load also. I’ve only tried Benchmark with them and the results are just a hair over 1”. Good enough to kill deer but always. Looking for the better load.

I've tried half a dozen powder with them and the only I've had to average 1" 5 shot groups was IMR-4895. I didn't try Varget at the time, but I've picked some up since that round of experimentation.

Antelope Sniper, have you tried CFE223 with the 64?

Not Nosler, but used WW 64 with H4895.. Accuracy was excellent... Use it for my turkey load for years..

I have. It was one of the very first I tried behind them.

I haven't found any ball powders they seem to like. The only thing I've seen anyone have any real luck with is old stick powders.

Congratulations to your son and you.

Interesting, it worked OK for me with Federal primers. Don't recall the exact group size, but good enough to satisfy me.

I like the 62 gr Barnes and varget. It works well with the 64 gr Winchester’s too. I have a 1000 62 gr Bear Claws I’m going to try. I mostly shoot pigs with my AR’s. The 62 Barnes rip pigs up.

I looked at my notes.

It was 23.0 grains of Varget.
COAL - 2.20
CC450 Small rifle magnum primers
Winchester once fire brass

This is at the lowest side of charge weight on Nosler's website. Definitely not a barn burner as far as speed goes but I was after accuracy.

A couple of years ago my Sister gave me her late husband's .223 Rock River AR. So I started picking up .223 range brass and bought a box of 500 Hornady 55 gr FMJ bullets. I tried a variety of powders and settled on a below max load of CFE223 powder that gave me 100 yd moa accuracy.

Last month I ordered a Stainless Weatherby Vanguard in .223. I rebuilt the stock to the same dimensions as my other hunting rifles and put a Leupold VX Freedom 3-9x40 scope on it.

My Vanguard also shoots that same load moa, and I really enjoy laying down prone, and with just a turn of the dial, ringing the 200, 300, and 430 yard gongs at our local range.

I haven't worked up a load with them yet, but I bought a couple of boxes of Hornady 55 gr SP bullets that I'm sure will work fine for coyotes, other varmints, and whitetail does.

Excellent, congrats!

I have a couple bags of these that I need to load up for my 223. I was going to start with CFE223 but I might start with Varget now.

Cool. Good job all around😊

My son took his 1st deer on the last day of the Pa youth hunt using the .223 and 64 bsb also. Mature doe at 145 yards broadside, shot through both shoulders and exited. Deer went straight down and never got back up. My son later asked me why I bother with any other cartridge since the .223 with the nosler solid base is more than enough?


FWIW I've taken 2 buck with this bullet also. One heart shot and ran 20 yards. The other was quartering away at a hard angle and hit at the last rib going in and exited out the front, deer ran about 50 yards.

Good job dad!

Seems like this bullet is a proven PA deer killer then!
Thanks to everyone for the pats on the back. Rifle season is up next and we have 3 tags to fill yet (a buck tag for each of us, and 1 more doe) so the best could be yet to come.

Pa Probe,

Thank you for sharing your load data.

I'll have to experiment and see how it works out for my rifles.

I killed a couple deer with the Nosler 64 BSB.....it for sure does enough damage...I just couldnt get it to shoot to my satisfaction though thats a looney thing, cause it would get close to 1 moa.

congrats! Some of of us have been reloading over 40 years.

I have a 8" twist tikka 223 and with the 69 gr. STMK it shot .75 with a max. load of varget and .5 inch with a max. load of R15.