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

[Hardly_Hangin]

75ish yards hard quartering away shot with 77tmk. Due to steep angle bullet did not exit. Poi shown in picture below. Deer tucked his tail and ran hard for 3-4 seconds max and fell. Got into the guts so i did not autopsy the pump house. There was no bloodshot meet on the shoulders, so i suspect i got just enough penetration to bust up some lung/heart tissue.

3rd data point for me with 223 and 2nd with 77tmk and my LW gasser build.

 

[Trackselk]

I haven't caught up on this thread for months, and don't have the time, but here's what i found with the 79gr DRT at 2650 muzzle velocity. 1 spike bull, forgot to lead him in the heat of the moment (herd scattering) and I detonated his liver and stomach (what a mess) at about 30 yards. He staggered for a few seconds and went maybe 20ft, and expired. No pics of that one.
2nd animal. Same load of 79gr DRT. 125 yards, large muley. He went maybe 30 yards after lung hit and expired, lasted maybe 10 seconds. Pics show what I think is pretty marginal damage to the lungs, and the bullets (powder) damage didn't extend beyond the lungs. I'm concerned that this is not enough medicine for elk period, although it did fine with the close shot on a large spike bull. Please let me know what you think. I'm not going to shoot any more elk with this bullet, unless yall tell me otherwise.
I'm going to add 100fps to my loads (was in a rush before the hunt to find a charge that printed well) and call them good for deer and blackbear out to about 350 yards.
I think this is pretty minor lung damage, right?

 

[sierracharlie338]

While I don't think there is anything wrong with the performance you saw, I think there is opportunity for better performance from any of the tipped projectiles. Personally I would look at those over the DRT but that's just me unless you have to shoot non lead, then thats a different story.