Thread: 223 on deer

Originally Posted by csmiffy

Silly question, what is a good compromise barrel for the 223? Dependant on bullet weight required?

There are alot of different opinions on that one and could be a whole thread on it's own, probably is already at least one haha.

A .223 is not a long range deer rifle no matter the barrel length. My idea of a .223 is for it to be lightweight, accurate and versatile otherwise I might as well take something with a bit more grunt. So mine sits at 15" and I wouldn't hesitate to shoot a deer in the right conditions at 300 yards. Projectile choice does come into it though, that would be with 75gr eldm or 77gr tmks.
For varmint shooting you can still load up lighter weight projectiles going quickly.
Plenty of the professional deer and goat cullers run theirs at 12" to 14" and they shoot more animals than most.