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

[N2TRKYS]

I killed my second deer with my Rokslide Special this afternoon. I liked this one alot better. Although I didn’t get an exit, he bled like a stuck hog. Ran about 40-50 yards. Bled the last 30 yards of his run. Very good blood trail. 40 yards shot, slightly quartering away. Shot was low behind the shoulder. I’m sure it got his heart. Very good deer for my area. 8 point and weighed 220 pounds.

 

[N2TRKYS]

 

[Tahr]

View attachment 640362

A great friend of mine got another data point last night (he's not a member here)
89yd broadside shot, Henry Long Ranger 1:9 with a 62gr Federal Fusion. Hit a little farther back than ideal, but caught a rib on the way in with a maybe ½" entrance. Passed between 2 ribs on the way out but left a 2" tear through the flank & hide. Both lungs were completely obliterated (I'd guess around a 3" permanent cavity, if I jigsawed them back together)
30yd death run, but very little bloodtrail.

He said that he was shocked at how quickly it dropped with a not ideal shot.

I think he's a convert......

Can you guys still get the 62 Gold Dots in the US? Haven't seen any here for about a year but for some reason they have just turned up on our shelves. No 77TMK though and when they are on the shelves they are 107NZD/100. Ouch. Ive still got 380 so am ok. There are plenty of 80 ELDM here.

 

[Fartrell Cluggins]

"if it goes 50 yards or more without a blood trail...."

If stuff is that thick shots can't be very long. Why not just brain shoot it?

I've tracked bow shot elk several hundred yards on soft needle covered forest floors with little more than a droplet of blood here and there and I'm not the world's best tracker by far. Sure, bears are harder but it's not uncommon for their fat to plug the hole(s).

I'm not implying that you guys don't know there's an art to tracking, I just think you may be forgetting it for the sake of conversation.

Where I hunt, we most often carve food plots and shooting lanes out of pine plantations. In a lot of cases the animals are passing through and don't stay still for long at all. It's hard for people who have never hunted in some of what we have to comprehend how thick the vegetation is.

This is a shooting lane in plantation pine. That's a 223 stoked with 60 grain Partitions.




It's hard to tell, but the vegetation is impossibly thick. This gives a little idea of how thick vegetation is in a lot of the areas we hunt.



We also hunt a lot of green fields. Shots can be a bit long for head shots. The deer are constantly moving their heads too. These green fields are often surrounded by similarly thick stuff.





Now add in that we are often shooting after sunset, and tracking can be an absolute goat rope in the dark.

 

[robtattoo]

Can you guys still get the 62 Gold Dots in the US? Haven't seen any here for about a year but for some reason they have just turned up on our shelves. No 77TMK though and when they are on the shelves they are 107NZD/100. Ouch. Ive still got 380 so am ok. There are plenty of 80 ELDM here.

I just checked Speer's site & yeah. They're in stock for $35/100

 

[Drenalin]

I killed my second deer with my Rokslide Special this afternoon. I liked this one alot better. Although I didn’t get an exit, he bled like a stuck hog. Ran about 40-50 yards. Bled the last 30 yards of his run. Very good blood trail. 40 yards shot, slightly quartering away. Shot was low behind the shoulder. I’m sure it got his heart. Very good deer for my area. 8 point and weighed 220 pounds.

What bullet?

 

[SC HUNTER]

@Fartrell Cluggins that looks alot like the places I hunt in Sothwest Georgia. People that hunt out west will say "how can you not follow a blood trail?" I've tracked alot of deer and a good number of those I've been crawling through privet thickets and grown up clear cuts. Pretty places you have there!

 

[Chris_in_Idaho]

That's a 223 stoked with 60 grain Partitions.

I've been curious about these lightweight Savages. They are 1/9 twist, correct? Out of curiosity have you tried any 77 TMKs out of it?

 

[ID_Matt]

LRI/proof not disappointing so far, you know it’s going to be a shooter when it shoots like this for the first 10 shots.

The Magnus sounds real nice on there too.

View attachment 639337View attachment 639338

Proof?? Did you have LRI contour the whole barrel or do they make a thin profile barrel I didn't know about?

 

[Lawnboi]

Proof?? Did you have LRI contour the whole barrel or do they make a thin profile barrel I didn't know about?

Proof used to make tikka lite contour blanks, I picked one up cheap a few years ago before they discontinued. That tikka lite contour is thin!

 

[N2TRKYS]

What bullet?

77 grain TMK reloads

 

[Fartrell Cluggins]

I've been curious about these lightweight Savages. They are 1/9 twist, correct? Out of curiosity have you tried any 77 TMKs out of it?

They are 1-9 and pleasantly accurate too. I have not tried the 77s, and I probably won't. I have tried 69 TMKs at the range they group great. As you can see from the pics, the distances at which we shoot don't demand much for accuracy or BC. I'll probably stick with 60 grain Partitions, 64 grain Nosler Bonded. I also load 62 grain Swift Scirocco and 70 grain Accubonds. I have had such great results with Partitions and Bondeds, that I don't see a need to change. My grandkids have land that abuts a wildlife management area in Mississippi. I load those two bullets for them and they have a high percentage of DRT. None have ever run more than 30-40 yards. These two bullets shrug off bone contact very well too.

 

[BLJ]

They are 1-9 and pleasantly accurate too. I have not tried the 77s, and I probably won't. I have tried 69 TMKs at the range they group great. As you can see from the pics, the distances at which we shoot don't demand much for accuracy or BC. I'll probably stick with 60 grain Partitions, 64 grain Nosler Bonded. I also load 62 grain Swift Scirocco and 70 grain Accubonds. I have had such great results with Partitions and Bondeds, that I don't see a need to change. My grandkids have land that abuts a wildlife management area in Mississippi. I load those two bullets for them and they have a high percentage of DRT. None have ever run more than 30-40 yards. These two bullets shrug off bone contact very well too.

What’s your experience with the Nosler bonded base in animals?
These have caught my eye before for slower twist rifles. Thanks.

 

[Smenning]

Black Hills 77gr TMK’s Tikka T3x 18” Suppressed @2734FPS Very pleased with this, same POI as 73gr ELD-M

 

[Fartrell Cluggins]

What’s your experience with the Nosler bonded base in animals?
These have caught my eye before for slower twist rifles. Thanks.

No problem in a 12 twist 223. From my experience and the experience of my grandkids, they are VERY destructive. Lungs and heart are soup when you hit them. Pass throughs on most broadside shots. They crush bone.

If you Google Nosler Bonded for Deer, you'll see a lot of experiences similar to mine.

They are not likely to be your accuracy load in any rifle, but they are accurate enough to get the job done.

 

[fwafwow]

For those who have have access to a chronograph; with Stand1 77tmk, I've been getting about 2900fps out of a factory length tikka 223, and 2750 from a 16 inch tikka. How does the Blackhills 5.56 tmk or 223 tmk factory loads compare?

If I wanted to handload the tmk, will I be able to match the stand1 velocity, or do they use a special unicorn powder to get that velocity?

What brass/powder/primer/seating depth combo works best in a 16 inch cut tikka barrel to get into that 2750fps range (or even more)?

What accuracy can be expected from the several factory 77tmk options out there? Any better than others? With the stand1 stuff, when I do a 10 round group, I usually get 8 inside an inch with 1 or 2 that bring the total group to 1.2-1.4moa. Is that a common theme for other brands, does the handloading tighten that up? Or is that just my shooting ability?

Today with Stand 1 I got 2830 out of my 16.5" Tikka and with Black Hills I got 2717. More info here - https://rokslide.com/forums/threads/223-barrel-length-speed.325173/post-3391495

 

[fwafwow]

Well damn, thats amazing. I tried multiple times and kept having error messages. Then I tried to call multiple times with no replies. Stuck buying Black hills. $

Edit: Just tried again to buy two more boxes . Same error issues at checkout. Not sure what it is, but im done trying with them. Glad you got it to work. I have my BH at least. Will take me a while to shoot thru all fiddy anyway. I wont be just random target shooting with 77 TMK.

I traded messages with Stand 1 the other day via IG and they explained that they had to put up a firewall due to some sort of (what sounds like a DNOS) attack. I just checked and it looks like the website is working again - although I didn't try to buy any ammo. The performance today (100 fps over BH) does, however, have me thinking about doing so - except I loaded up on BH!

 

[swavescatter]

I traded messages with Stand 1 the other day via IG and they explained that they had to put up a firewall due to some sort of (what sounds like a DNOS) attack. I just checked and it looks like the website is working again - although I didn't try to buy any ammo. The performance today (100 fps over BH) does, however, have me thinking about doing so - except I loaded up on BH!

What brass does Stand 1 use?

 

[fwafwow]

What brass does Stand 1 use?

 

[Moosehunter]

Technical question
It's probably been answered lots here...but I've never seen this scenario come up.
2600-2700 fps impact on an elk humerus. Quartered toward...I don't doubt the 77 tmk has what it takes to penetrate that, just wonder what kind of penetration beyond the humerus one could expect?
Like everyone else I claim to have special needs.lol.
However I do hunt North Idaho where I prefer timber hunting, and I'm used to shooting quartered toward or really whatever as long as I can see the vitals. I don't own a 223 but it's my next rifle.
I'm not doubting it's abilities...I've seen what those 77's do
Have killed bulls here with the bow. And packed out some monster bodied elk. The "shoulders" don't scare me in the slightest. Just a close range high impact velocity humerus hit.
@Formidilosis