Thread: 223 on deer

Took this fallow with a 223 yesterday evening

229 yds 69 grn Targex. Lung shot. Wobbled around for 20 seconds and then came bowling down the slip.

Hornady 55 SP on a fallow at around 100 yards found under the skin on the opposite side.
Massive bruising.

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Originally Posted by 25 /08 IMP

Hornady 55 SP on a fallow at around 100 yards found under the skin on the opposite side.
Massive bruising.

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Ouch

Originally Posted by Tahr

223 at 30 yards tonight. 69 grn targex.
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holy hecka!

Originally Posted by 25 /08 IMP

Hornady 55 SP on a fallow at around 100 yards found under the skin on the opposite side.
Massive bruising.

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Bugger, you lost a bit there. How far did it wobble off?

Originally Posted by charliehorse

Bugger, you lost a bit there. How far did it wobble off?

It dropped on the spot I've shit a lot of animals with them and they are very impressive, but do alot of damage.

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Sika shot yesterday at 100m with a 64gr Speer gold dot, animal quartering towards, plenty of damage taking out the heart, some lung and liver coming to rest in the gut and expanded very well.

Originally Posted by mawzer308

Sika shot at 100m with a 64gr Speer gold dot, animal quartering towards, plenty of damage and expanded very well.

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Good. I haven't been able to get them to shoot that well. What is your load I wonder?

@Tahr, just a box of factory ammo Giles had left. Grouped just under an inch in the howa. Have some 60gr TMK and 68gr bthp to try next.

I've had a really good run with the Buffalo River 55gr Sierra Game Kings. The Federal 223 Power-Shok 64gr shoot exactly 1" lower than the buffalo at 100m which is handy!

This is one from the opposite shoulder of a fallow yearling at 346m (used a rangefinder). it held together really well Usually I wouldn't shoot that far with the 223 but had a perfect rest (used a red deer spiker on the front of the bike as a rest !). it was at the same elevation as I was shooting, no wind and a yearling.

Shot this tonight with a 55 grn Sierra Game King. 230 yards.



This is the entry side. Found the mushroomed projectile in the off shoulder under the skin.

55 Sierra from above Fallow.

All about shot placement and choosing when to take the shot or let them go... just like any cartridge really...
My tikka .223 is a 1/2moa shooter

I've shot a couple of deer with the .223 77gr lapua scenars hpbt and a heap of goats.
I only head/neck shoot fallow to not waste meat, I carry them out whole and it also makes skinning clean as.



Different story when public land hunting though. Higher chance body shots and boning out. Below is chest shot sika @ 60m. Not a drop of blood at entry and no exit . Luckily he died in 14meters and i didn't have to look far. Will definitely go back to carrying the 6.5 in the bush to guarantee exits and blood...




Dad has shot a heap of deer (fallow, sika, reds, sambar) with the .222 vixen and hornady 55gr sp @3180fps over the years.
90% neck or headshots as we were selling the deer (higher price for neck/head shot animals) and also because the 55gr SP bruise the whole front end with crease shots!
Just a tiny sample of some more recently shot.



The below was shot the other day with the new .222 barrel and 50gr vmax (fiocchi factory- just getting more cases to load in the new barrel).

Shot placement with the 80s is more or less whack it anywhere in the shoulder, anywhere out to 300m+

One of 4 the other weekend 200-300m