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

[gbflyer]

One of my closest buddies in the world lost his battle with cancer back in January. His widow put their 15 yr old son on a plane Friday to send him up to the house to look for an elk. (Well, anything really, kid has a pocketful of tags.)

As he is under age he couldn’t fly with a rifle but I assured him it wasn’t a problem, I had one or two kicking around. He got off the plane at 2:30pm, and at 4:30 we were back at the house and gearing up.
Handed him my favoritest Montana 223AI and a handful of 88 ELD m’s and he looks at me and says “but these are so tiny. Are you sure this will work on an elk?!?!”
“Trust me. They’ll be fine.”
“So do I have to be super precise and wait for a perfect broadside shot?”
“Stick it in the front half, same as anything else you’ve used.”
He looked at me a bit funny, but accepted it. We got into elk Friday night, and Saturday morning but got messed up with the wind and other hunters. Sunday morning we had a poor wind for where I wanted to go, but I figured I could make it work. We busted the first herd walking in before daylight, but could see elk about where I figured they would be. Threw a couple lost cow calls in their direction as we cut distance from behind a finger of brush and a couple of seconds later an elk popped out looking for us.
“Can you see any bulls?”
“Nope. Just cows and calves from here. Might be bulls in behind, but they are still 700 yards and downwind.”
“Okay, I’m gonna shoot this one”
Set him up over a pair of crossed hiking poles and he settled in. He killed a bull moose 2 falls ago with his dad, and a couple of bears and a muley, so I figured he had a pretty good idea of what to do.
Cow was quartering in to us, at 202 yards.
At the shot she jumped forwards and allllllllMost went down, but got her feet back under and ran for 40 yards. Stopped, took a step backwards, and then leapt forward and crashed to the ground.

Fairly certain that the 88 saved the day and prevented a rodeo in this case (kid can shoot, but he’s taken to carrying his dads 300wsm/165 TSX now). He pulled the shot to the right a bit, and hit her square dead center of the chest, bullet entered the very front of the cavity and caught the front edge of the far lung before breaking a rib and exiting the front of the shoulder. Both lungs at the front were completely speckled black from bullet fragments and peppered with tiny holes. Bit of a blood trail for the last 10 yards, but a couple liters of blood blown out of her mouth and nose where she fell. Maybe 8 seconds from shot to flop. Not sure that would have been the same result with a mono.

I’ve watched this kid grow up from the day he was born. He’s as tough as woodpecker lips, and real likely to end up on the world stage downhill mountain biking. His parents have done a spectacular job with him and his sister, polite and nice kids to be around. Crushes me a little inside when I think about the time they’ll never have with their dad, but getting the opportunity to hunt with Adam, his mannerisms and facial expressions, it’s like I’m getting bonus time with his dad.
I’m awfully thankful that I got to be there when he killed his first elk.

Awesome story, thanks for sharing. There’s some dust in my eyes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[_MountainBum]

20” 22cm
88gr eldm

Antelope, 320 yards

3100 MV
2630 Impact Velocity

Bullet performed exceptionally, vaporizing internals and expanding without grenading. Antelope took 10 steps and died. Bullet buried in offside hide and was recovered as pictured.

Friend killed another at 200 (same rifle) with exact result later in the day. Bullet held together and was found, intact, between offside ribs and hide. Lope died within 15 steps.

2780 Impact velocity

Main takeaway for both kills was the ability to watch impact and have a follow up round chambered & ready to go with minimal effort and the efficacy of the 88gr eldm.

 

[woods89]

Awesome story, thanks for sharing. There’s some dust in my eyes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It got a little dusty here too when I read this story. Well done, @KHntr ........

 

[coy17]

I recall form's recommendation of 23.7 grains of 2808 in his 77 tmk load in this thread. Sierra lists the max load for that bullet as 22.0 grains of imr 8208 xbr.
I'm brand new to reloading, can you guys explain how/why you would go above max in this situation ?

 

[The Guide]

I recall form's recommendation of 23.7 grains of 2808 in his 77 tmk load in this thread. Sierra lists the max load for that bullet as 22.0 grains of imr 8208 xbr.
I'm brand new to reloading, can you guys explain how/why you would go above max in this situation ?

For 223 load data or 5.56 load data?

Jay

 

[coy17]

For 223 load data or 5.56 load data?

Jay

223

 

[Matt5266]

I recall form's recommendation of 23.7 grains of 2808 in his 77 tmk load in this thread. Sierra lists the max load for that bullet as 22.0 grains of imr 8208 xbr.
I'm brand new to reloading, can you guys explain how/why you would go above max in this situation ?

I shoot 23.5 out of my Tikka

 

[ericmcd]

I recall form's recommendation of 23.7 grains of 2808 in his 77 tmk load in this thread. Sierra lists the max load for that bullet as 22.0 grains of imr 8208 xbr.
I'm brand new to reloading, can you guys explain how/why you would go above max in this situation ?

If I understand correctly Tikkas are tested to European 223 CIP pressures which is higher than the US SAMMI 223 pressure. It is closer to the same pressure rate as our 5.56

 

[Eleven]

From hodgdon’s sight, their max load is more in tune with what I’ve found.

 

[z987k]

In a modern bolt gun there's no reason you can't run everything at 63kpsi... or the 4,350 bar that just about everything new seems to list for spec.
Just because something is made for a gas gun doesn't mean you can't load it for a bolt gun. They finally started listing both with the arc cartridges.