Thread: 223 on deer

Love this thread,
An 88 gr 224 projectile has a SD of .251, middle of the road.
A 165 gr 30 cal is .248,
That's middle of the road.
There's going to be a vast horde of hunters switching from their 30 cal to the little 224, all for no gain.
So the secret is to learn to shoot effectively.
But it's just one of those day, ignore me.

Originally Posted by Roarless20

Next time ay granddad? You'll have to start a '.222 on deer' thread then.

oh yes please a great idea.

Originally Posted by SmokeyJason

Love this thread,
An 88 gr 224 projectile has a SD of .251, middle of the road.
A 165 gr 30 cal is .248,
That's middle of the road.
There's going to be a vast horde of hunters switching from their 30 cal to the little 224, all for no gain.
So the secret is to learn to shoot effectively.
But it's just one of those day, ignore me.

It's the BC, cost per round, and shootability, not the SD

I wonder if advances in bullet construction have sorta rendered SD a bit obsolete, I don't recall much discussion on DS in the last 20 years . . . .

The 75eldm's are pretty violent on high speed impact, would have been about 3000fps impact velocity

Originally Posted by SmokeyJason

Love this thread,
An 88 gr 224 projectile has a SD of .251, middle of the road.
A 165 gr 30 cal is .248,
That's middle of the road.
There's going to be a vast horde of hunters switching from their 30 cal to the little 224, all for no gain.
So the secret is to learn to shoot effectively.
But it's just one of those day, ignore me.

There’s a lot to be gained (well lost really) going from .308 to .224.
Just had a rifle re-barrelled to 22 creedmoor which with 88’s will drift 20% less than a 178gr .308 load, and recoil 50% less whilst doing it. My .223 drifts the same as the .308 load, with 80gr bullets.
If wanting to spot your own shots, and follow up, then there’s no argument. The right bullet in a .224 creates so much damage, that larger isn’t required. If you optimised your ‘anything bigger’ cartridge for killing by putting the same type of projectile in it, most people would complain about the excessive meat wastage.

Gain:
Easy (and better shooting)
Cheap, which means more practice, and therefore
Higher hit rates in the feild.

I have just seen a huge Tuai stag shot by a 12yr old boy using a 308.It is a monster. Huge well conditioned stag still with a very heavy skin. The father is a chopper shooter and mentioned to my mate who sent me the foto that it need a heavy pill to get it at 300m and stop it in its tracks.

Took out my .223 for it's first proper outing in the weekend.
Howa mini .223. 69gn Targex. Arken zulus scope. Wouldn't have mattered what calibre I used.

Originally Posted by Makros

Took out my .223 for it's first proper outing in the weekend.
Howa mini .223. 69gn Targex. Arken zulus scope. Wouldn't have mattered what calibre I used.

Good. No suppressor?

Originally Posted by Tahr

Good. No suppressor?

It has a suppressor, 18" barrel, Hardy suppressor. I think the ports at the end of the Hardy's create a lot more muzzle flash than the DPTs or similar. Just as quiet as my DPT suppressors. Wouldn't hunt without a suppressor.
Weighs just on 3.1kg as it sits there.

Originally Posted by Makros

It has a suppressor, 18" barrel, Hardy suppressor. I think the ports at the end of the Hardy's create a lot more muzzle flash than the DPTs or similar. Just as quiet as my DPT suppressors. Wouldn't hunt without a suppressor.
Weighs just on 3.1kg as it sits there.
Attachment 251861

Interesting. With my DPT and the standard length Tikka barrel the shot is lot quieter on my Zulus vids. My muzzle flash looks similar.

Originally Posted by Tahr

Interesting. With my DPT and the standard length Tikka barrel the shot is lot quieter on my Zulus vids. My muzzle flash looks similar.

Shorter barrel will produce quite a bit more noise. Can't see it in the video (20x magnification) but I was shooting through a pretty tight gap between several large trees. Like shooting into a closeby bank or close quarters in the bush you do tend to get much more sound bounced back at you.
Will be interesting to see once I film a shot shooting out into the open whether it's similar.

Sika vs 75gr eldm yesterday. Amazing the expansion even with a low muzzle velocity. At 20 odd yards no part of the bullet exited her head.

Still kicking by the looks….

This is what I’ve killed with


50gr NBT 53TSX 60NBT 62TSX 77TMK and the loaded round is factory 63gr SP that was part of a DHS contract in 2007 when I bought a case of it.

Just for comparison

75gr AAC SabreBlade black tip 77TMK 75Amax

The black tip is either made in-house at AAC or by Hornady. Either way, they are accurate in AAC factory loads and their jacket is .005” thicker than a TMK. I laid into a fair amount for reloading at 20 cents each.

I don’t take the gospel of that other 223 thread online. Not everyone needs to kill animals at 1000 yards. There’s a ton of bullets to choose that work at 400 yards and in. I’ve never been a cool kid. I do have over 500 TMK so I’ll never run out if all I do is use them for hunting but I’m going to give the 75 SBBT a run this year and see how they go. I have 5600 bullets to reload in .224 caliber so I’m set unless something groundbreaking comes out. Or I rebarrel to a 7 twist and use 80gr eldm exclusively and sell all the other bullets.

The 75amax/eldm and 77 TMK shoot well out of 9 twist Savages because their twist is more of 8.25-8.5 twist according to a cleaning rod.