Thread: 223 on deer

60 grain partition, 63 grain Speer, 64 grain Winchester, can you give these a run please, will work in a slower twist barrel at 22/250 speeds which is similar to your 223 speeds.

i use 64g winchester soft points and have never had a problem

Originally Posted by Timmay

I agree, slightly, If I only could have one rifle it would be a 6.5mm Fact is you can run 100gr pills easy as which will do everything a .243 will do but you can run 147s to shoot shit wayyyy out there. Plus how many people do you know that want to run heavy .243 rounds????

IMO the 6.5 (.260) is what the .243 should have been.

Agree 100%. 6.5 is the sweet spot for great ballistics, low recoil, and moderate barrel wear. A 6.5x55, 260, Creedmoor, or 6.5x47 would all be very high on my list if I had to own just one rifle.

In regard to the 223 debate, many of us begin our hunting careers with reasonably hard hitting cartridges like a 7mm08, 308, 270 etc. And we soon come to realise that they are a bit overkill for shooting yearlings or spikers at shorter ranges. We start thinking about another rifle to add to the safe for our meat hunting endeavours; something that’s accurate, fun to shoot, with no recoil and a flat trajectory. So low and behold, a 223 finds it’s way into the safe. But I believe this is a mistake and most of us would be better served by a 243 for that role. Well that’s been my experience anyway

Love my 22.250 as it falls somewhere between the .223 and .243 and shoots flat too

I would not be using a Vmax on deer or goats. I have shot thousands of rabbits with them and a few goats...they explode. I have shot a plenty of goats and deer with a 55gr Sierra gamekings.

Last night. .223...363 yards
77 grn Sierra TMK. Exit pic.

Originally Posted by berg243

@Tahr do you find the 77gr better than the 69gr and how do they go on chest shots . just wondering as going to try one or other in my 16inch ruger. cheers

Better penetration and trauma with the 77 grn, but the 69 grn is pretty good too.
You will need a 1:8 twist for the 77grn. 1:9 is ok for the 69. Both will kill well with careful shoulder shots but the 77grn certainly penetrates a bit better. The beauty of the 77TMK is that they are designed for short AR15 type magazines so shoot very well at 2.3" from a Tika mag, whereas the 75 and 80 grn ELDM gobble up a lot of powder space. @gimp uses the .223 ELDM and knows a bit about them on deer.

I would have been quite happy shooting last night's hind in the shoulder - but had to be a smarty pants

Has anyone tried Hornady GMX projectiles in .223 or .243 on deer?

Originally Posted by BlaserMac

Has anyone tried Hornady GMX projectiles in .223 or .243 on deer?

Yep they work great at close range, usually zip right through with good entry & exits, definitely steps the .223 up at bush ranges out to 150m. I've shot animals as big as sambar in the shoulder/engine room.

Originally Posted by Tahr

Better penetration and trauma with the 77 grn, but the 69 grn is pretty good too.
You will need a 1:8 twist for the 77grn. 1:9 is ok for the 69. Both will kill well with careful shoulder shots but the 77grn certainly penetrates a bit better. The beauty of the 77TMK is that they are designed for short AR15 type magazines so shoot very well at 2.3" from a Tika mag, whereas the 75 and 80 grn ELDM gobble up a lot of powder space. @gimp uses the .223 ELDM and knows a bit about them on deer.

I would have been quite happy shooting last night's hind in the shoulder - but had to be a smarty pants

Another one for the 80 ELDM, 190m heart shot, wobbled a few metres then dropped. Hit a bit lower than I'd like, but just soup on the inside

Originally Posted by gimp

Another one for the 80 ELDM, 190m heart shot, wobbled a few metres then dropped. Hit a bit lower than I'd like, but just soup on the inside

Is your barrel 8 twist, or faster?

Originally Posted by GWH

Is your barrel 8 twist, or faster?

Yeah I'm pretty sure he had it replaced with a 1:8... I'm very jealous.

1:8, with modified mags that allow a longer OAL (Something like 65mm)

Originally Posted by Seventenths

Go the "Mighty Mouse" as i love the .223!

I won't shoot deer over 250 with the .223 but most of my deer have all been bush hunting but my son who was 12 yrs at the time dropped a nice Fallow stag at 230 mtrs one day to a clean heart shot with 55 gr Sierras

I ran 55 gr V-max for a while with great results on Sika just shooting them in the chest where the chest cavity was mush and then switched to 55 gr Sierras but at least with them they mushroomed and most of the time i'd find them on the other side under the skin (chest shots)

Both types of projectiles killed well and it was a toss up of whether i stick with the vmax or Sierras and i think from memory i just went with the Sierras because i like a good lead tip.

Alot of people like to mention with .222/.223 to head/neck shoot deer where as with the sika and fallow i just shot them in the chest and down they'd go every single time but with reds and lets face it their a bigger bodied animal so with them you need to place the shot in the neck though I have heard of guys using barnes who just shoot the boiler room.

For what your wanting to do which is shooting goats/fallow and the ocassional red then get 55 / 63 / 65 gr Sierras or 55 gr Hornady's which are cheap but have also been very effective on Goats / Fallow for me.

Hot barrels

Here we have they key issue with .223.
Ive seen seventenths shoot on paper and he is a phenomenal shot.
“Competent” and “good” dont even start to describe it.
It sounds as if he can also shoot enough animals that he can let them walk any time.
The later posts here are mostly from older forum members and past masters.
This is not a calibre for the beginner or youth.

65gr SGK ,Fallow @247m ,hillar shot, broke both onside and offside legs took out both lungs and top of heart.
Expected to find it under the skin as couldn't find an exit on the hill but on skinning a few days later found it had just managed to exit.
Bit messy but it didn't argue the point at all.
It did well to exit after breaking both leg bones.
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