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

[Shraggs]

12pt whitetail, just this afternoon. I don't have full autopsy pics yet because I let my deer hang for a day or two before butchering. I'll update once I get the skin off.
124yds, extreme downhill angle. I was 12 feet up a tree, the deer was at the bottom of a VERY steep hill.
2517fps impact velocity from an 18" T3x, 77gr TMK
He ploughed about 20yds with no front legs, dead in maybe 5 seconds.

Entrance:
View attachment 798166

Exit:
View attachment 798167

View attachment 798168View attachment 798169View attachment 798170

Love those unique bucks! Nice

 

[Matt5266]

12pt whitetail, just this afternoon. I don't have full autopsy pics yet because I let my deer hang for a day or two before butchering. I'll update once I get the skin off.
124yds, extreme downhill angle. I was 12 feet up a tree, the deer was at the bottom of a VERY steep hill.
2517fps impact velocity from an 18" T3x, 77gr TMK
He ploughed about 20yds with no front legs, dead in maybe 5 seconds.

Entrance:
View attachment 798166

Exit:
View attachment 798167

View attachment 798168View attachment 798169View attachment 798170

Sweet buck! Very unique

 

[McD18]

Joined the .223 club after reading this thread earlier this fall. I have the Rokslide special T3X Lite chopped to 18" with an OCL hydrogen k 6.5 mm. I meant to buy the SS but accidentally got the blued barrel from europtic so I rattle canned it.

I ordered some AAC 556 w/ Sierra TMKs but the rounds were not concentric and group size sucked (1.8 moa - 8 shots).

Hornady 73 gr ELD-M groups at .8 moa (8 shots) so I rolled with this.

Day 1
-Shot an aoudad ewe from about 80 yds, she did a 180 and died about 10 yds later.
-Shot a Jake at 20 yds (rio grande turkey)
-Shot a cull buck at 100 yds, DRT

Day 2
-2 x javelina at 100 yds, DRT
-Shot an 8 pt at 200 yds quartering to, ran about 30 yds and died

No autopsy pics. Deer and aoudad all the same, small entry and meat loss on the front shoulder, far shoulder good to go. No blood trail whatsoever.

 

[wesfromky]

Joined the .223 club after reading this thread earlier this fall. I have the Rokslide special T3X Lite chopped to 18" with an OCL hydrogen k 6.5 mm.

How does the 6.5 K sound? I have a 6.5 S on my RSS, but Andrew posted this last night...

 

[McD18]

How does the 6.5 K sound? I have a 6.5 S on my RSS, but Andrew posted this last night...

View attachment 798767

It sounds great to me but I haven't compared it to anything except an RC2 and RC2 mini on an AR. I shot a few of the animals without ear pro and it was fine.

I really like the overall size and weight of it on the 18" bbl, very easy to handle. I think Andrew will be better able to answer your question but I'm gonna guess the Ti polonium will be more optimized for 223 but it looks to be a bit bigger and heavier.

I threw this rig together very recently and the Hyd K was actually in stock at silencer shop so I grabbed it also anticipating I'll get into 6mm or 6.5mm in the future. But the polonium is cool because it can handle 6mm as well, not sure how it sounds with 6mm creed.

 

[np307]

Caught a knothead slipping through the pines this morning. No trouble tracking this one lol

 

[bcmntgoathunter.]

Caught a knothead slipping through the pines this morning. No trouble tracking this one lolView attachment 798785

Not making fun of you but is that a jack rabbit size deer? Or just the camera angle lol dose it still have milk on its lips?all good my man meats meat I'm sure you'll get at least a few hamburgers out of it.

 

[np307]

Not making fun of you but is that a jack rabbit size deer? Or just the camera angle lol dose it still have milk on its lips?all good my man meats meat I'm sure you'll get at least a few hamburgers out of it.

Southern riverbottom button buck. They don't get much smaller than this. Not much bigger than an average dog.

 

[bcmntgoathunter.]

Southern riverbottom button buck. They don't get much smaller than this. Not much bigger than an average dog.

Ahhh ok im used to deer like this one I got with my cross bow

 

[np307]

Ahhh ok im used to deer like this one I got with my cross bow

Cool. I hunt some other areas of the state where the deer are a little bigger but these river bottoms are fun to still hunt through. I like to brine and smoke the hams from a fawn like this.

 

[HighCascadeHunter]

I guess I converted. Took my 7mm rem mag tikka t3x and put a 16.5” McGowen lite 223 barrel 1/7 twist.
Federal premium 77grain smk has shot the best so far. 2580 fps.
Looking for a much cheaper option. Hopefully can score on the 77 tmk whenever they are back in stock.
Think this could be a marginal coyote round

 

[Hoosker Doo]

Up until yesterday, my only experience hunting big game with a .223 was when my wife shot an antelope buck 4 or 5 years ago with my AR at 200 yards using 62 gr Federal Fusion. Despite being a low/brisket shot the buck walked a few steps and bedded down. We moved in to about 80 yards and put one in the boiler room to finish him.

After seeing that and reading this thread, I wasn't very hesitant about getting a .223 set up for my kids to start shooting in the next few years, and so that I could try it out on some deer. I'm using 73 gr. ELD-M due to a 1-9 twist. (I went with a Savage 110 for a lefty compact off the shelf. 20" barrel. I know it's a Savage. But I won't really care when my teenager in 5 or 6 years drops it, lays it in the mud/rocks, or falls on it hiking in the snow.)

Deer #1 - Mature doe @ 420 yards. Quartering sightly away. Impact velocity 1970ish fps. Entrance was in the last couple ribs. Mule kicked and ran about 80 yards and crashed.


The bullet exited the ribs leaving a nickel to quarter sized hole, but didn't exit the offside front shoulder. I couldn't feel a bullet under the hide. The front shoulder had a lot of gooey bloodshot. I'm interested to see what kind of meat damage and bullet fragments I find when I butcher it.


Deer #2 - Mature buck @ 281 yards. Impact velocity around 2,220 fps. Low chest/heart shot. Entrance was touching the point of the elbow joint with a finger diameter sized entrance through the ribs. Took a chunk out of the side of the heart, and had a dime sized exit through the ribs, and broke the opposite front shoulder. I didn't break down the buck, so I don't really have autopsy pictures, but I could feel a piece of bullet under the hide on the broken offside shoulder so I cut it out and found a deformed chunk of lead about the size of a pencil eraser. Once again, interested to see what that opposite shoulder looks like.


At the shot he fell to his face but plowed forward for 10 yards before getting his feet under him. Trotted another 30 yards or so, stopped and looked up, then dropped.



My wife also took 2 deer. A 2 1/2 year old buck at 123 yds and a button buck at 270 yds using a 6.5 CM with 143 gr ELD-X. All 4 deer were hit in the vitals. All 4 deer were only shot 1 time. All 4 deer ran between 40 and 80 yards and all 4 deer were dead within 20 seconds of being shot. The 6.5 CM did leave bigger holes, but damage between the ribs was indistinguishable. I'm actually wondering if the 6.5 would have done less damage to opposite shoulders (she did not ruin any meat with her shots) because the smaller 73 ELD-M probably entered the opposite shoulder having fragmented to a point similar to buckshot rather than a larger bullet having more mass which would still have a larger mass/shank as it pushed into the shoulder? Or maybe it would just punch a bigger hole along with smaller fragments moving outward.

I couldn't ask for more lethal performance with my shot placement. Only difference is what size/shape of holes do you like in your carcasses.

Edit to fix wrong numbers.

 

[AlpineCarpetbagger]

I don’t have anything novel to report after my first PA buck killed with the little green bullet -just another “yep, that’s what they said would happen”.

A hunter did come over from the neighboring property to see who I was after I had flayed the deer. He thought my gun was weird (it’s hideous) and that the wound looked ghastly.

 

[ElPollo]

Public land doe opening day, -90 yards
Tikka roughtech ranch 16” 223
Swfa 6x w/ holosun 407a3 , nf rings
Krg echo
Yhm t3 w/ Cole tac cover
Factory Hornady 73gr eld
Found jacket opposite shoulder,
It winced, tried twice to take a step, but couldn’t then fell over.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Do you find the red dot to be helpful? I shot a white tailed doe with a SWFA 6x at 30 yards this fall. Did not have an issue getting on target quickly in thick timber.

 

[knale87]

Just got home from opening weekend for Pa rifle season at my family property. Brought my tikka 223 as my primary rifle using factory 73gr eldm’s. Killed a nice red fox, a doe, and a buck. Didn’t get any good pics since the deer went to a processor due to CWD regs. Very pleased with the outcome of this combination.

The fox was roughly 30 yds facing me on a log. Bullet entered the lower jaw, tore out the throat area, and ended up somewhere in the chest cavity. The fox tipped over and was dead before he hit the ground.



During a push I had a large doe group come past me at about 65 yards. I tried stopping the biggest one but she kept going. As I continued to scan the woods I noticed another doe had stopped and was facing me. One round to the front of the chest at the base of the neck dropped her in her tracks and she didn’t even flinch. Her lungs were shredded but I’m guessing either a bullet or bone fragment hit her spine. Didn’t get any pictures of her.

Shot this buck this morning from my saddle at just over 30 yards. It was an awkward angle as it was extremely still out and I didn’t want to move my feet and spook him. Hit him a little far back and shredded his liver. He bounded maybe 20 yards and stopped. He looked like he was about to go down but since he was still up on his feet, I sent another square in his shoulder. He took a couple bounds and crashed dead.



Blood trails and exits were nonexistent, but that’s ok when they drop dead in sight.

 

[SIR_34:16]

Yet another data point with the 77 gr. tmk. Shot a large whitetail doe yesterday quartering to. Bullet went through ball joint in front shoulder, through the heart, and stopped just under the hide on the off side. No in field pictures of the heart because it was getting dark and she died at the bottom of a steep ravine, but there was about a thumb sized hole through it.

Entrance


Entrance with shoulder removed


Hole through shoulder


Bone fragments




Entrance inside cavity


Exit


Recovered bullet