.223 for bear, mountain goat, deer, elk, and moose.

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Dec 20, 2019
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I have no reservations with the 77gr TMK and elk to 1,800fps or so. It’s extremely effective. You won’t get many exits with body shots, however they don’t go far and bone is no issue. Even with bad shots it is quite effective.
Can you give me a little more to help me understand the "bad shots" comment?
 

Formidilosus

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Shoot2HuntU
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Can you give me a little more to help me understand the "bad shots" comment?

Elk, especially when suppressed, don’t flat out run like a whitetail does when shot. With gut shots, they go 100’ish yards and lay down. Hits to the pelvis/femur and they drop. There is “no margin of error” on bigger guns. The same reactions are happening regardless of caliber, the only difference being the bullet and impact velocity.

What I meant by the first “bad shots” comment, is that this idea that “it’ll work when everything is perfect, but not when a bad shot happens”, is nonsense. With the couple of bad hits we’ve seen, the reaction of the animal has not been discernibly different from big calibers except that the elk tend not to move as far after the hit, regardless of placement.
 
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Remind me again of your load recipe for the Tikkas, please.



P

Take a 77gr TMK, put 23.7gr (or 23.5or 23.3gr) of 8208 in a case (any case), with any standard SR primer, seat it to 2.26” COAL, shoot. That’s it. That combo has shot well in every single 223/5.56 we’ve tried it in.


Okay, probably this, on page 51.




P
 

jermck

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Feb 24, 2020
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You any where close to S.W. Montana?
Unfortunately no. I have put together two of the Form specials in the last few weeks. I finally found a compact for my 11 yr old son yesterday. I have some loaded tmk's from the place in TX for now. Just need some 8208 so i can start loading.
 

jadkins223

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I’ve got a other statistic. 400 yards white tail doe. Entry just behind shoulder. Exit just behind front leg. She ran 40 yards and had a large foam nose full of lung blood. Exit hole was a 50 cent piece. I didn’t gut her during processing but based off the lung blood I’m sure they were destroyed. Same 20” AR 77 tmk.


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ShootOkHuntWorse

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May 23, 2020
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I shoot 24.5grn of TAC. 1 inch 10 shot group. 2.26. Didn’t do any development. It’s just easier to shoot than waste components.
 

Axlrod

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Unfortunately no. I have put together two of the Form specials in the last few weeks. I finally found a compact for my 11 yr old son yesterday. I have some loaded tmk's from the place in TX for now. Just need some 8208 so i can start loading.
This is an older article, but good stuff, on loading the 223 & 223 AI from Accurate Shooter:

 

Juan_ID

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Tac and varget jugs both in stock at powdervalley…
 
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The last 8 or so years I’ve been a fan of using rapid expanding bullets over more traditional hunting type bullets. This is due to the rapid of transfer of energy from bullet to animal resulting in quick kill. Mostly using 6.5 mm and 6mm cartridges. Until reading this thread and my experiences this fall I thought or assumed ft lbs of energy played a bigger role then it does and not even paying attention to the velocity thresholds for proper bullet performance.

Late last summer I bought a 300 PRC, because why not. We shot 7 deer with it this fall and I thought I’d share a few of the results to maybe dispel the thought of needing a certain amount of energy.

I’m shooting a 205 gr Berger elite hunter bullet leaving the barrel at 3003 fps. What I expected form this round was pass through shots with massive trauma. By massive trauma I’m talking large exit holes and lots of blood loss. What we experienced was not large exit holes with trauma not much different from what is pictured in this thread with a caliber on the opposite end of the spectrum.



This deer was unexpectedly close, 25-30 yards. Deer ran about 80 yards and died. No blood until he fell over. Basically zero meat loss.
Impact velocity : 2959 fps
Foot pounds of energy : 3987 ft lbs
00ba986cc12e661a9b85d3708313c277.jpg


Entrance Hole
0cd6bf00b8d24166edb159c59d02f66c.jpg


Exit Hole

9de1a06e130d1aafcf8affc293ee44b2.jpg


Bullet recovered under hide on exit side. Yes almost 4000 lbs of energy and no pass through.

ea4c51ca7adb60ef7cc267f1a22060fa.jpg




This deer was about 125 yards. CNS shot. Quartering away entrance through left shoulder (no pic of that.) Dropped in tracks. Zero external bleeding. Basically zero meat loss again.

Impact speed about 2825 fps
Energy about 3630 ft lbs

55b8ab33e932f01a80d971d4c66ea1dd.jpg


Exit Hole.

3aa981d13a8f2b97248b947cea3ae67a.jpg


Bullet again recovered just under hide. Again lots of energy and no exit.

b95e0fabeb9918b4a25b08293e69f91c.jpg



Again posting this for those who think mega foot pounds of energy is the golden ticket, which for a long time I also thought was the key.


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