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

[SteveAndTheCrigBoys]

It's at a Scheels, good luck on the scavenger hunt folks! Stainless even!

Picked one up for ~$120 cheaper online including shipping recently.

 

[turbo406]

It's at a Scheels, good luck on the scavenger hunt folks! Stainless even!

Billings had several for 619 a month ago 8 twist stainless

 

[The Guide]

Billings had several for 619 a month ago 8 twist stainless

I looked when I was there last weekend and there were none at that price or I would have brought one home.

Jay

 

[ztc92]

Billings had several for 619 a month ago 8 twist stainless

I shared this deal with a friend who went to get one then but in the time from when I saw them to when he got there, they had changed it to only the blued version. I had a photo of the price tag at $619 but they wouldn’t honor it for my friend as that serial number had been sold. Hell of a deal while it was there!

 

[turbo406]

I shared this deal with a friend who went to get one then but in the time from when I saw them to when he got there, they had changed it to only the blued version. I had a photo of the price tag at $619 but they wouldn’t honor it for my friend as that serial number had been sold. Hell of a deal while it was there!

I snagged one of them, they said they had a few available I should have grabbed a couple of them. I traded in a shit 22 mag that I needed outta my safe and walked out for 419 bucks with a rail on it

 

[Big_wals]

Got another pig with the 75 gr AAC Sabre last night. First shot was at 100ish yards quartering away, knocked him down and then he got back up and started running at an angle toward me. Second shot hit guts, third was in the chest and stopped him.

First shot on the left, quartering away. Last shot on the right, quartering toward.




Both bullets hit a rib going in, neither one made it to the opposite rib cage. Maybe 7ish inches of penetration. I forgot my scale at home, but he was a good sized boar, just under five feet long from nose to butt. Abou a 3/4 inch thick shield. Been killing a few hogs with the Sabres, they kill stuff but I would like a little deeper penetration. Haven’t got a chance yet to shoot one at longer range and see how they perform at lower velocities, so far everything has been inside of 125 yards.

 

[Formidilosus]

The Sabres are a 75gr V-Max. So, expect heavy varmint bullet performance.

 

[9.3koolaid]

The Sabres are a 75gr V-Max. So, expect heavy varmint bullet performance.

Less penetration than a tmk or eld?

 

[Formidilosus]

Less penetration than a tmk or eld?

In general, so far. 10’ish inches of penetration if it hits major bone at high impact velocities.

 

[Big_wals]

Yeah, they definitely wouldn’t be my first choice for an elk bullet. They work all right for hogs, and the price is hard to beat. Might try one on a deer this fall.

In general, so far. 10’ish inches of penetration if it hits major bone at high impact velocities.

Have you seen anything with them at lower velocities yet?

 

[Formidilosus]

Yeah, they definitely wouldn’t be my first choice for an elk bullet. They work all right for hogs, and the price is hard to beat. Might try one on a deer this fall.

Shrug. An elk isn’t any different to get to the lungs than bigger sized pigs. I wouldn’t pick them as a first choice for elk, but I wouldn’t have an issue personally with them either.

Have you seen anything with them at lower velocities yet?

Nothing below normal impacts. I would be relatively confident down to 1,800’ish FPS for consistent upset.

 

[Big_wals]

Shrug. An elk isn’t any different to get to the lungs than bigger sized pigs. I wouldn’t pick them as a first choice for elk, but I wouldn’t have an issue personally with them either.

Oh I’m sure they would work, just wouldn’t be my choice when there’s better bullets out there. If it was all I had access to, I’d use em.

 

[bigeyedfish]

My kids will be using them during Missouri deer season this year. I probably will too just to mix things up. I like being able to practice with the same rounds we'll hunt with.

 

[S-3 ranch]

you guys are going to love this

“”
PROPOSAL 11
5 AAC 92.085. Unlawful methods of taking big game; exceptions.
Establish a minimum caliber rifle to be used to harvest moose in Unit 18 as follows:
Restrict the use of centerfire and rimfire rifles .224 caliber and smaller and require a minimum of
.243 or 6 mm caliber centerfire rifles for the harvest of moose in Unit 18.
What is the issue you would like the board to address and why? Many moose are killed every
year and not harvested as a result of a lack of regulation requiring a minimum caliber rifle to be
allowed for harvest of moose in Unit 18. Moose and the number of moose killed need to be
accurately communicated, especially in areas that close upon a predetermined quota.
Unfortunately, moose are shot with rifles and ammo that are inadequate to kill them.
Moose are one of the largest North American big game species. A common rifle to hunt moose in
Unit 18 is the .223 Remington. It is true that centerfire 22 caliber rifles like the .223 and even
smaller can effectively kill moose depending on shot placement. Unfortunately, with the high
number of variables, perfect shot placement is not a guarantee every time a trigger is pulled, and
often can end in a dead and unharvested moose. Because of this, the true number of moose killed
is higher than what is reported at harvest, thus negatively impacting the number of moose that can
be harvested for subsistence purposes. In addition, this is an ethical problem too. Many times, if a
moose is shot with a .223 or smaller rifle, the moose will not fall where it was shot, but rather run
off. It is not unusual to harvest moose that have been previously shot with .223 caliber rifles. These
moose often cannot be harvested, since large portions are infected and abscessed. Another common
situation is moose shot in the jaw by hunters attempting head shots with .223. Moose hit in the jaw
by smaller caliber centerfire rifles can appear unharmed leaving the hunter to think they simply
missed, when in reality, the moose travels a great distance shot in the jaw, left to starve, unable to
chew its food. Finally, one of the most common uses of the .223 and other centerfire 22 caliber
rifles and smaller in North America is predator/varmint hunting. As a result, a majority of the
ammo loaded commercially for .223 and sold in Unit 18 use hollow point or other fragmenting
ballistic tip bullets, none of which are made for the deep bone breaking penetration needed to
effectively kill moose. Rather, ballistic tip and hollow point bullets so commonly loaded for the
.223 are designed to penetrate and explode inside the body of the coyote, fox or other
predator/varmint targeted. Frequently, when these types of bullets are used for big game, especially
moose, the targeted animal is maimed by a bullet that comes apart before getting adequate
penetration to effectively kill the moose.


Did this pass or get postponed?

 

[3one5]

I'm always late to the party. Spent some time up in the San Juans and when I finally took a minute to look at my phone I see all the in stock notifications that are all already out of stock.

 

[E.Shell]

Well...I've finally finished this here entire thread. Holy cow, what a huge amount of information!

I'm surprised at the ability of the 77 TMKs to penetrate relatively large bone and still provide enough penetration and wound channel to effect clean kills. I'm not at all surprised at the overall lethality of the smaller cartridges, having used a .22-250 to take a large number of eastern whitetails. Most shots were selected to be broadside and the bullet carefully placed, but there have been some quartering on, dead on and head shots taken as well. I've taken deer with a wide variety of cartridges from .22 Hornet to 6.5-300Wby to .35Whelen, .50 muzzleloader and 12/20 gauge slugs and have seen similar results with similar hits no matter what the cartridge.

I had never really considered how the heavier bullets that almost always produced an exit wound and blood trail did so by reducing ("controlling") expansion and trauma. Now I'm seeing it as a tradeoff, that yes, it should leave a trail, but yes, you'll probably want one. I've always counted on a heart shot deer to run 50 yards, whatever I shot it with and with a simple broadside heart shot almost anything goes on through a whitetail, including a sharp stick.

I think the only time I ever got a deer I would have lost to a smaller rifle was when I shot at one running by with the .35 Whelen. It hit and penetrated a small (4") tree in front of the deer that I didn't see when the shot broke. Used a Hornady 200 grain spire point. The entry and exit wounds both were around 3/4" and it broke both (front ;-) ) shoulders.

I bought a Ruger American Ranch rifle (5.56 16-1/2" 1:8") a while back, mainly due to it taking Stanag mags like my ARs, being threaded so it can host one of my suppressors and almost unused at $400. I also have a few ARs with varying levels of precision, but even the carbine-length guns run heavier for similar capability as the bolt guns.

I'm very familiar with the Tikka .308 rifles and never really thought of the .223s as deer rifles, but now I want one. Trying to keep the weight down, need threads, stainless and synthetic stock... I keep looking at the .22-250, but I have one already, albeit a very slow twist rate and useless for the heavy bullets I'd like to use.

Back to the .223s, I did find a local guy selling some Speer LE .223 64gr GDSPs for a very reasonable price and got 280 of them. I'm going to zero my working guns for that load until I can get some 77 TMKs to load up. I've got all the second choice powders (H4350, Varget, etc.) on hand, but no TAC, 8208 or similar.

 

[MEdude]

Second shot hit guts

Where do you find pigs with packages of premade sausage?????

 

[PNWGATOR]

Can NOT wait to see ‘24 experiences!

 

[Big_wals]

View attachment 753097

Where do you find pigs with packages of premade sausage?????

Lol. Next time I’ll save ya some.

 

[MEdude]

Has anyone worked up a load for the 80 grain ELDX and planning to use them this year?