Thread: 223 on deer

Fat as butter yum

Greetings,
The number of deer being smoked by you chaps with the .223 leaves me wondering if there are any left for the other calibres. Perhaps we should be recommending the .223 as a starter rifle with .308 as a back up choice. Both would be ideal of course.
GPM.

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings,
The number of deer being smoked by you chaps with the .223 leaves me wondering if there are any left for the other calibres. Perhaps we should be recommending the .223 as a starter rifle with .308 as a back up choice. Both would be ideal of course.
GPM.

Kiwi Greg's post on the Creedmoor he made was very interesting. Certain death. The stats on the 22 Creedmoor are mind boggling.

I saw two very fat Sika velvetys on ihaka spur as the sun rose this morning, that fat one slip and I think they would roll all the way to Kaweka Flats bivvy

It’s a fantastic feed year for Sika

Originally Posted by 7mmsaum

I saw two very fat Sika velvetys on ihaka spur as the sun rose this morning, that fat one slip and I think they would roll all the way to Kaweka Flats bivvy

It’s a fantastic feed year for Sika

In the hut book at Maropea Forks in 1974 Chris Satherley was bemoaning an entry by Jim Warren about his river trip form Otukota to Maropea Forks as Warren had commented he had seen 9 deer and had taken some nice fotos of animals he had seen. . Warren had established a reputation of excellent photography skills. Satherley was compaining how many deer he had actually shot.Warren got some very high tallies. Met both Warren and Satherley at Mokai Base hut in december 1975.

Originally Posted by TeRei

In the hut book at Maropea Forks in 1974 Chris Satherley was bemoaning an entry by Jim Warren about his river trip form Otukota to Maropea Forks as Warren had commented he had seen 9 deer and had taken some nice fotos of animals he had seen. . Warren had established a reputation of excellent photography skills. Satherley was compaining how many deer he had actually shot.Warren got some very high tallies. Met both Warren and Satherley at Mokai Base hut in december 1975.

I had the pleasure of hunting with Jim in the Ruahines early in my hunting career maybe 15 years ago, at the time I didn't know of his reputation and of course he didn't say much about it either. After reading books about the old days it started to add up and I certainly learnt a thing or two that day. He certainly knew where to find the deer

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Has anyone had any experience with Hornady Black 75gr on deer I would be very interested in the results/ feedback.
Cheers

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Originally Posted by Bergara_bangstick

Has anyone had any experience with Hornady Black 75gr on deer I would be very interested in the results/ feedback.
Cheers

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I haven't used these pills in particular, but i have used other 77gr BTHP pills in .223. They will have inconsistent results expansion wise, they might 'pencil' through if you dont hit bone. You could drill the tips with a 1.5-2mm sized bit to improve the reliability to expand. Either way they'll be poor at bush ranges, exploding if they hit brush etc.
They will definitely kill deer , but there are better pills out there to use.

Originally Posted by Roarless20

I haven't used these pills in particular, but i have used other 77gr BTHP pills in .223. They will have inconsistent results expansion wise, they might 'pencil' through if you dont hit bone. You could drill the tips with a 1.5-2mm sized bit to improve the reliability to expand. Either way they'll be poor at bush ranges, exploding if they hit brush etc.
They will definitely kill deer , but there are better pills out there to use.

Dont tell me about it ...Berger 95gr. Straight thru stags.Opened the tip. Made no difference. Very accurate but dont expand.

Originally Posted by Roarless20

I haven't used these pills in particular, but i have used other 77gr BTHP pills in .223. They will have inconsistent results expansion wise, they might 'pencil' through if you dont hit bone. You could drill the tips with a 1.5-2mm sized bit to improve the reliability to expand. Either way they'll be poor at bush ranges, exploding if they hit brush etc.
They will definitely kill deer , but there are better pills out there to use.

Thanks mate duly noted

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77 grn Tipped Match King last evening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSr8yArHaFk

Originally Posted by Tahr

77 grn Tipped Match King last evening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSr8yArHaFk

Yep devastating . My ONLY regret with my .223 is having cut the barrel to short. I should have left a couple more inches on it to get more peed out of the heavier projectiles. Still I get the same results with the 69gn TMK. Im not sure a deer would notice the 8gns difference either

Originally Posted by Nathan F

Yep devastating . My ONLY regret with my .223 is having cut the barrel to short. I should have left a couple more inches on it to get more peed out of the heavier projectiles. Still I get the same results with the 69gn TMK. Im not sure a deer would notice the 8gns difference either

18 to 20" seems optimal. My Tikka is still standard and it doesn't bother me. Other 2 are 20".

Originally Posted by Tahr

18 to 20" seems optimal. My Tikka is still standard and it doesn't bother me. Other 2 are 20".

I have wondered, while reading this thread and learning, what the most common .223 barrel lengths in use are. There is always the trend/desire for a compact bush gun, but seems a lot of you blokes are regularly making shots in the 180-300+ range. Longer is always better, (so they say) but a man does ponder these things.

Originally Posted by Jt89

I have wondered, while reading this thread and learning, what the most common .223 barrel lengths in use are. There is always the trend/desire for a compact bush gun, but seems a lot of you blokes are regularly making shots in the 180-300+ range. Longer is always better, (so they say) but a man does ponder these things.

I'm not really sure if this is a question but I'm happy with 18" and would be equally happy with 16" I suspect, for the inside 300m sort of operation


I had a dud lot of 2208 where my load was something like 150fps slower than it should be, and I went and shot things with it to use the rounds up, and things died. Would have been similar to a 14" maybe.