Thread: 223 on deer

Originally Posted by gimp

Couple of bush deer. 80 ELDM. Good effective kills on shoulder shots, hind ran 20m, spiker stumbled over on the spot. Exited hind with a good blood trail, bullet under the skin on the off side of spiker.

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Thats cool. Those deer are light, eh. High population area?
It's interesting how because of the effectiveness of the heavy for caliber .223's Ive drifted away from head and neck shots. Used to be my go to shots but hardly think of doing it now.

Originally Posted by Tahr

Thats cool. Those deer are light, eh. High population area?
It's interesting how because of the effectiveness of the heavy for caliber .223's Ive drifted away from head and neck shots. Used to be my go to shots but hardly think of doing it now.

They're not big for reds yeah. Lots of deer around if a crap bush hunter like me can stumble onto a few. I don’t think twice about just whacking it in the shoulder.

I actually lost a stag with the .223 on Thursday. He came in to a roar in the bush, and I took a headshot because i wanted to save the caul fat, hit a bit far forward and low, got a 2nd shot in that must have hit an antler or something - got target focused on the head rather than putting a good shoulder shot in. Blood tracked for a couple of hours but didn't find him in the end and the blood ran out. Didn't feel too happy about that one. Hard to imagine it going differently with any other cartridge.