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

[rclouse79]

Might be worth sharing here once you’re done since you are going to the trouble but then again new people probably still wouldn’t read it and jump in the tread telling all the guys shooting it how wrong they are.

That would be a lot of pressure but would probably be a good idea. The word document might never be released, as I think this thread grows faster than I can read it.

 

[FredH]

Ok then just loaded up some 73 gr. ELD for my AR, 20 inch barrel. 2820 fps. Next few animals I shoot at will receive one of them.

 

[Big_wals]

Hey all, I haven’t been contributing on here for a couple months, life has been pretty busy. Filled my final tag last night so thought I would make a post about what I’ve been shooting this fall. I built a 18” 22 ARC AR a couple months ago and that’s what I have used for everything since. Shooting factory 88 ELDM ammo.

Deer #1: yearling whitetail buck, quartering towards me at about 120 yards. I didn’t realize he was quartering so hard and shot a little far back, hit one lung and destroyed the stomach, he ran around 60 yards. Not much of a blood trail, there was a large exit hole but it was full of stomach contents. No pics as I was in a hurry and didn’t have enough gloves to be taking them off to take pics.

Deer #2: whitetail deer at 95 yards, shot in the head. Dropped in her tracks as expected.

Shot four hogs at 40 to 50 yards, three were chest shot with two of them dropping where they stood, the other one ran around 15 yards. The fourth was shot in the hindquarters and finished of with a headshot. They were all big hogs, probably 225 plus pounds. All three chest shots exited, I didn’t cut into the chest to look at the lungs on any of them.

Exit on one of the hogs.

Deer #3: mule deer doe at 363 yards, broadside shot behind the shoulder. She traveled around 40 yards after the shot, left a very easy to follow blood trail.
Entrance side with shoulder removed, no meat loss on the shoulder.

Deer #4: mule deer buck at 130 yards, high shoulder broadside shot. He made it about 10 yards, very quick kill

Entrance


Entrance side under the shoulder. Broke a ribe on the exit side, found most of the bullet under the hide.

The 88s also seem to do the job on coyotes. As long as you don’t plan on saving hides

 

[Gettincloser]

View attachment 804497
The 88s also seem to do the job on coyotes. As long as you don’t plan on saving hides

You just need to use a needle and thread... If you shoot 2 coyotes, you could sew them together to make 1 complete hide!

 

[Thegman]

Hey all, I haven’t been contributing on here for a couple months, life has been pretty busy. Filled my final tag last night so thought I would make a post about what I’ve been shooting this fall. I built a 18” 22 ARC AR a couple months ago and that’s what I have used for everything since. Shooting factory 88 ELDM ammo.

Deer #1: yearling whitetail buck, quartering towards me at about 120 yards. I didn’t realize he was quartering so hard and shot a little far back, hit one lung and destroyed the stomach, he ran around 60 yards. Not much of a blood trail, there was a large exit hole but it was full of stomach contents. No pics as I was in a hurry and didn’t have enough gloves to be taking them off to take pics.

Deer #2: whitetail deer at 95 yards, shot in the head. Dropped in her tracks as expected.

Shot four hogs at 40 to 50 yards, three were chest shot with two of them dropping where they stood, the other one ran around 15 yards. The fourth was shot in the hindquarters and finished of with a headshot. They were all big hogs, probably 225 plus pounds. All three chest shots exited, I didn’t cut into the chest to look at the lungs on any of them. View attachment 804487
View attachment 804488
Exit on one of the hogs.

Deer #3: mule deer doe at 363 yards, broadside shot behind the shoulder. She traveled around 40 yards after the shot, left a very easy to follow blood trail. View attachment 804489
Entrance side with shoulder removed, no meat loss on the shoulder.

Deer #4: mule deer buck at 130 yards, high shoulder broadside shot. He made it about 10 yards, very quick kill
View attachment 804491
Entrance

View attachment 804493View attachment 804494View attachment 804495View attachment 804496
Entrance side under the shoulder. Broke a ribe on the exit side, found most of the bullet under the hide.
View attachment 804497
The 88s also seem to do the job on coyotes. As long as you don’t plan on saving hides

When you say "chest shot" on the hogs, what angle were the shots and where were entrance and exits?

Getting ready to try the 88s in my 223. Your results are encouraging

 

[gman82001]

77 tmk 500. Count in stock and seems to be a decent price

Tmk

 

[Packmansion]

Man I'm trying to listen to the JVB fudd, the guy is delusional and doesn't understand what he's talking about. And what's worse is he straight up preaches taking unethical shots and says that should be what you plan to do. I can't understand how anyone views him as an expert... I'm no expert but at least I don't lie about animal phisiology or others work.

He's a journalist, he writes articles and tells people what they want to here. He says things that make him money. If he went around telling everyone to hunt trophy bulls with a 6.5 creedmoor he'd be out of a job.

 

[Big_wals]

When you say "chest shot" on the hogs, what angle were the shots and where were entrance and exits?

Getting ready to try the 88s in my 223. Your results are encouraging

More or less broadside, thru the ribs. I don’t think any hit shoulder bone, but two of them were boars that I just left for the coyotes and didnt open up at all.

I’ve been very happy with these 88s so far, I’ll be interested to see how they work for you! Are you going to shoot them out of one of your ultralights?

 

[Thegman]

More or less broadside, thru the ribs. I don’t think any hit shoulder bone, but two of them were boars that I just left for the coyotes and didnt open up at all.

I’ve been very happy with these 88s so far, I’ll be interested to see how they work for you! Are you going to shoot them out of one of your ultralights?

Yes, the Little Big Gun will hopefully add a hog or two to its list. I have a load doing 2560 with the 88s and seems to shoot pretty well.

Not to derail the thread, but what kind of velocity are you getting out of your ARC? With the combination of these heavy 224 bullets becoming available, I think the 22 ARC is one of the more interesting cartridges to appear in a while.

 

[Hardly_Hangin]

That would be a lot of pressure but would probably be a good idea. The word document might never be released, as I think this thread grows faster than I can read it.

I can't beleive rokslide hasnt got Form to write up an article about the topic to post on the main website, or compiled the highlights from the thread themselves to post. This thread is a pretty good case study. There could be an appendix linking pictures from the thread and links to the forensic papers mentioned.

As interesting to me as a word doc would be a filterable excel database logging the info, so we can look at analytics and really count some beans. We have 5 years of data, should be plenty enough.

 

[Big_wals]

Yes, the Little Big Gun will hopefully add a hog or two to its list. I have a load doing 2560 with the 88s and seems to shoot pretty well.

Not to derail the thread, but what kind of velocity are you getting out of your ARC? With the combination of these heavy 224 bullets becoming available, I think the 22 ARC is one of the more interesting cartridges to appear in a while.

I haven’t shot it over a chrono, but I’ve shot out to 550 with it and the Shooter app puts my velocity around 2670 for the drop I’m getting at that range.

 

[FredH]

I haven’t shot it over a chrono, but I’ve shot out to 550 with it and the Shooter app puts my velocity around 2670 for the drop I’m getting at that range.

I'm putting together a 16 inch barreled upper in 22 ARC , when my upper receiver finally gets here. Seems I may get close to 2600 fps with it if your getting 2670 fps. I was guessing 2550 fps. Will chrony when I get it together. Bought three boxes of the 88's for brass but may shoot something with them. Some guy did a gel test with the 88 ELDM and he showed slow expansion and tumbling. Your pictures seem to prove otherwise.

 

[WestTN2288]

Yes, the Little Big Gun will hopefully add a hog or two to its list. I have a load doing 2560 with the 88s and seems to shoot pretty well.

Not to derail the thread, but what kind of velocity are you getting out of your ARC? With the combination of these heavy 224 bullets becoming available, I think the 22 ARC is one of the more interesting cartridges to appear in a while.

I’ve got an 18in barrel 22ARC and it’s shooting ~2600 with the 88s and ~2900 with the 75s. They both shoot good, but I’ve been sticking with the 75elds since they give me a little more range and they’re a little flatter

 

[rclouse79]

No heartburn there. I would ask how many animals you've taken with Barnes bullets that have given a narrow wound channel? Everything (elk, muley's, pronghorn) with a .270 Win, '06 or 35 Whelen AI I've shot in the last 12 years with a TTSX is anything but narrow. Not pulp soup like the fast expanding bullets that destroy meat but a dead animal that had its vitals destroyed in a way no reasonable person would say was narrow. To each his own based on experience.

Seriously, I feel bullets don't contaminate meat to any large extent however I don't know a person that knowingly eats lead... sounds like more than a perceived narrow wound channel is at play here. Regardless of whether a mono or lead bullet is the best for the job at hand you show Utah as your location, why reference California and give a crap about what goes on there? I don't.

I also shoot a 130 gr Barnes ttsx out of my Tikka 270. This thread had me thinking about maybe trying out a 145 gr eld x. I have never lost an animal using the Barnes bullet, but some have taken longer than I would prefer to expire. The thing that gives me pause is the Barnes shoot so dang good out of my gun.

 

[sierracharlie338]

As interesting to me as a word doc would be a filterable excel database logging the info, so we can look at analytics and really count some beans. We have 5 years of data, should be plenty enough.

Someone would have to pay me for that kinda data logging lol

 

[Dorian Gray]

For any Canadians reading this, Western Metal just re-stocked 77gr TMK's. Get 'em while you can!

 

[Camv]

Western metal shows out of stock on the 77s.
They were on sale though

 

[35WhelenAI]

I also shoot a 130 gr Barnes ttsx out of my Tikka 270. This thread had me thinking about maybe trying out a 145 gr eld x. I have never lost an animal using the Barnes bullet, but some have taken longer than I would prefer to expire. The thing that gives me pause is the Barnes shoot so dang good out of my gun.

Glad they shoot well! Been my experience as well. How does the way they expire give you pause in that sense? Do they go further than you desire after being shot, they are moving longer on the ground, that type of thing. Putting the bullet where you need it is job one and sounds like you have confidence in that gun/bullet combo. If you were asking a question to yourself, you've answered it with respect to what you should be shooting given the info you shared.

I can't say I've put that much thought in it, with respect to how quick they need to expire. Some of them drop where they stand, some of them take a couple steps, some of them have gone 20 or 30 yards. That's with a sample size of over 40 big game animals from pronghorn to Whitetail to muley's to elk. To me it's all the same. Splitting hairs, taking pictures and burning the midnight oil about it doesn't fill the freezer any better.

 

[fwafwow]

Doe at ~80 yards. Black Hills 77gr TMK out of 16.5" Tikka w/ Maven and RokStok. Estimated velocity of ~2550. She went maybe 15 yards. Pics of doe below, along with interior of a buck shot (by someone else) at ~50 yards with 6.5-300 Weatherby for comparison.

Entry:

Exit:

Entry on left - exit on right


What remains of the heart:


Inside of buck shot with 6.5-300 - entry on right. No exit.

 

[Dorian Gray]

Western metal shows out of stock on the 77s.
They were on sale though

It's still showing as in-stock for me. Packs of 100 at 55.99$ is what I was looking at.