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

[doc holiday13]

Those noggin shots are great til you're off 2" and disable their jaw.

Still lethal, just takes a lot longer.


The volume of deer stacked with damage permits and 40-55 gr bullets in .223, there's no real reason to not be able to use them as far as I can tell.

But he'll, just everything I heard today alone has my head hurting. 270 minimum? Don't use match bullets, they are only for paper?

Our big deer are 230# on the hoof, but due to the years of road hunters using .22 cal, their hair/hide has evolved to Kevlar material.....
Genetic selection

Min .270... bwaaa.. ... clearly someone somewhere is a very poor shot. 6ARC isn't a barrel burner and its PLENTY bullet enough. I can't even wrap my head around thinking 270 is a min caliber

 

[ElPollo]

We're restricted to .23 caliber.....

That’s unfortunate and uninformed.

 

[Schmo]

It’s old hat here, but just another data point. First big game animal that I’ve taken with a .223. Hand loads with 77TMK. Whitetail doe, broadside at 353 yards. Upon impact, she folded like a $5 tent. She was dead before she hit the ground. Roughly 2100 fps impact velocity. Destroyed top of the lungs.

 

[MEwaters]

Pretty stoked, this is my first harvest of any kind and second year out hunting.
73 Eldm from 1-7 16”
20 yards and dropped

 

[Chris_in_Idaho]

Pretty stoked, this is my first harvest of any kind and second year out hunting.
73 Eldm from 1-7 16”
20 yards and dropped


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Nicely done!!

 

[BasicUtahrd95]

Pretty stoked, this is my first harvest of any kind and second year out hunting.
73 Eldm from 1-7 16”
20 yards and dropped


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First of many I hope! Way to go! First kill is a big deal!

 

[MEwaters]

First of many I hope! Way to go! First kill is a big deal!

God is good! Many 3am mornings before work and many a miles walked in 800 acre woods. Dragging 2.2 miles out now

 

[sierracharlie338]

Pretty stoked, this is my first harvest of any kind and second year out hunting.
73 Eldm from 1-7 16”
20 yards and dropped


View attachment 791797View attachment 791799

Awesome work dude. Big congrats!

 

[omicron1792]

First time to add some data to this thread.

My young boys shot two small bucks with 223 with 77TMK yesterday. Both were their first bucks and I’m proud of them both.

First was 110 yard shot with my 10 year old. Deer dropped on shot, got up and ran. Was found 30 yards away dead. Shot was a little low but the wound channel was massive all the way through. Minimal blood trail but again shot could have been several inches higher.




The second was 60 yard shot with my 8 year old. The deer jumped high on the shot, fell to ground, got up and ran off. I found no blood and brought in a dog. We found a blood trail starting 100 yards from shot. The dog jumped the deer alive about 200 yards from the shot, chased the deer about 600 yards into a large pond. We found the deer carcass this morning. The coyotes had gotten to it so couldn’t tell where the shot was.

Very happy with first deer. Hard to know with second but obviously not a boiler room hit. I don’t think a larger caliber would have made a difference. Bloodied my one son good, the other one will have to get bloodied on his second deer!

 

[buffybr]

There are MUCH better cartridge choices!

 

[Machingeaneer]

There are MUCH better cartridge choices!

Did someone ask?