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

Where are you located? I’ll show you 3 guns that shoot them 1 MOA or better tomorrow.
Missouri.
I'd love to see it. This guy has a custom rifle with a thicc barrel (Lothar Walther) and a concrete bench and a benchrest leupy and still can't get moa out of the black hills tmk load.

I've literally shot better 10 round groups than this guy did using this swtup and 77tmk BH, using a 16" chf barrel gov profile and a 4x scope off a sandbag wrapped in duct tape using technique that some of you talk trash about with gold dot duty ammo, lol!

Speaking of, here is a 10 shot group using federal new duty ammo. Fired from my 11.5 kac by yours truly. Shitty technique and all. Not bad for a TBBC projectile cooked to 2650fps from this barrel. But I'm sure someone's shoots sub moa :p
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Are Tikka 223 unobtainable? I can't seem to to find factory mags anywhere. Are any aftermarket 223 mags reliable?
Waters rifleman mags are awesome but pricey, worth it though imo. Factory 223 mags are usually readily available though online, the 4 rounders seem to work the best none of my 6 rounders are even close to reliable.
 
I'm getting a Savage Mode; 110 hunter Light in .223 Rem. It has a 1/7" twist. Is that too fast for 55 grain bulllets?
No, 1:7" twist is fine for 55 grain bullets. I use 52 gr SMKs in a 1:7" and it's a bughole combo. With 1:7" twist pretty much anything you can get from 52 gr to 80 gr is going to be stable. And some outside that range are still fine too.

Will you be handloading?
 
Are any aftermarket 223 mags reliable?
My small sample size of 2 tikka 4-rounders were plagued with failures to feed. So far, my 3 Waters mags have roughly 200 rounds and 21 animals this season and not a single bobble. As mentioned above, they aren’t inexpensive, and the ordering process isn’t typical, but Waters was great to deal with and shipping was 7-10 days.
 
No, 1:7" twist is fine for 55 grain bullets. I use 52 gr SMKs in a 1:7" and it's a bughole combo. With 1:7" twist pretty much anything you can get from 52 gr to 80 gr is going to be stable. And some outside that range are still fine too.

Will you be handloading?
Yes, I reload. I have a lot of 55 gr. bullets.
 
The season here ends tomorrow, and I had one more buck tag to fill. I show no mercy to small bucks this late in the season, and thought he was neat since he lost one side of his rack.

300+ yards, AAC 77 TMK. He was in a shaded valley on a steep hillside. He bucked on impact, ran 25 yards, and then death-tumbled another 50 yards or so down to my neighbor's back yard.

No pictures while dressing, but broken shoulder, and partial lung blowout.
 

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Congrats on the kill! Was the shoulder the entry or the exit? What's the meat look like under the hide, thoughts on what kept it from taking out both lungs?

I'm still trying to wrap my mind and arms around the fragmenting smaller caliber bullets. I started using monos 30 years ago so I'm capable of bucking tradition when others say it can't work... Apologies for asking if it's too much.
 
Congrats on the kill! Was the shoulder the entry or the exit? What's the meat look like under the hide, thoughts on what kept it from taking out both lungs?

I'm still trying to wrap my mind and arms around the fragmenting smaller caliber bullets. I started using monos 30 years ago so I'm capable of bucking tradition when others say it can't work... Apologies for asking if it's too much.
That picture shows entry at shoulder. Sorry I was unclear, both lungs were hit, but by partial I just meant frontside of lungs. The bullet did punch through the opposing side of the rib cage, but I did not find the projectile (yet).

Currently he is hanging skin on, but I'll try to remember to take a photo of shoulder meat damage.
 
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