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

[Chris_in_Idaho]

Got my first RSS kill. Tiny button buck at 130 yards. He was quartering away to the left and was lower than me but facing uphill so that I could see the top of his back. That makes the shot placement look really high but the bullet traveled downward and diagonally through on a path that would have exited just in front of the off side shoulder, but didn't exit.

He dropped like a bag of rocks, kinda thrashed for 30 seconds and then was done. The way he went down I think a fragment must have hit his spine, but I couldn't feel any damage when I removed the backstraps (gutless method).

With you all shooting bears, moose and other gigantic critters this little guy doesn't really offer any new data for the thread, but I wanted to share it. I'm an adult onset hunter that usually gets skunked so I have no shame admitting I was stoked to get this little button buck.

 

[Gettincloser]

Got my first RSS kill. Tiny button buck at 130 yards. He was quartering away to the left and was lower than me but facing uphill so that I could see the top of his back. That makes the shot placement look really high but the bullet traveled downward and diagonally through on a path that would have exited just in front of the off side shoulder, but didn't exit.

He dropped like a bag of rocks, kinda thrashed for 30 seconds and then was done. The way he went down I think a fragment must have hit his spine, but I couldn't feel any damage when I removed the backstraps (gutless method).

With you all shooting bears, moose and other gigantic critters this little guy doesn't really offer any new data for the thread, but I wanted to share it. I'm an adult onset hunter that usually gets skunked so I have no shame admitting I was stoked to get this little button buck.

View attachment 782720View attachment 782721

There is never any shame as long as you are happy with the kill. I have been hunting 30+ years. If I get an opportunity at a spike or doe, I still get the shakes of excitement afterwords!

 

[Luke S]

Nice shooting. I always figured hunting is hunting, all fun and challenging. My adopted son was probably more exited about a spike buck he shot than a bear in Alaska. Growing up in Hungary and then Alaska I don't know how many deer he's even seen.
Sadly I probably won't get to try a .223 for a long time. But this thread did inspire me to try a 6.5 Grendal after never using anything smaller than a .308 in Alaska. Worked great.