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

[omicron1792]

Went to a big hunt at a friends for deer youth weekend. Prob 20 kids and 12 dads at a big farm.

He had a steel target at 200 yards off the porch. Lots of kids sat down with calibers way too strong for them to shoot. I would say hit rate was 10-20%. Lots of talk about “I don’t know what’s going on, rifle was zeroed last season.”

My boys 9 and 11 sat down with my Blaser r8 in 223 suppressed. One went 5/5 and other 4/5 on the plate. My friends all got real quiet. Ha.

 

[Schmo]

Went to a big hunt at a friends for deer youth weekend. Prob 20 kids and 12 dads at a big farm.

He had a steel target at 200 yards off the porch. Lots of kids sat down with calibers way too strong for them to shoot. I would say hit rate was 10-20%. Lots of talk about “I don’t know what’s going on, rifle was zeroed last season.”

My boys 9 and 11 sat down with my Blaser r8 in 223 suppressed. One went 5/5 and other 4/5 on the plate. My friends all got real quiet. Ha.

The other guys forgot to tap their scopes and let them “settle in”.

 

[omicron1792]

The other guys forgot to tap their scopes and let them “settle in”.

Lots of gold rings for sure

 

[Nomosendero]

The other guys forgot to tap their scopes and let them “settle in”.

Revealing my age here but I do remember those Weaver K4 days!

 

[MountainSide]

Reading through the thread most are using heavy for caliber bullets which I’d definitely prefer.
As I live in CA where copper/monolithic is a requirement what would be the recommended manufactured ammo/bullet (I do not hand load) for the .223 Rem for deer sized game (seems Hornady and Barnes make them in the 50gr-55gr range)?

I've shot a three caribou with 62 grain TTSXs out of my Kimber Montana in 223 rem.

One was a follow-up shot on a caribou that was initially gut shot with a 300 win mag. The injured caribou was running straight away, and I took the only shot I had...the bullet was found near the neck, after traveling the length of the spine. The caribou dropped...

 

[Elk botherer]

I’ve collected a few data points this fall with the .223 so I’ll start writing them up. Here’s the first- my boy punched a doe with his .223 77 gr tmk at 189 yards with a 2,362 fps impact velocity and it ran 50 yards and tipped over. Quartering shot that punched through the shoulder and the bullet was recovered just under the hide in the false ribs. No blood trail but wasn’t necessary.

 

[Elk botherer]

Second data point this fall- nephew shot his buck at 79 yards in the neck (all he could see) with his .223 loaded with 73 eldm and an impact velocity of 2,379 fps. DRT.

 

[Elk botherer]

Third data point- .223 ai with 77 gr tmk and an impact velocity of 2,586 fps. Double lung behind the shoulders and bullet was under the hide on the offside. Went 25 yards and went down. No blood trail but lots of blood where he went down.
Entrance

Exit

 

[Elk botherer]

Fourth data point- my 12 year old got his cow elk at 158 yards with his .223 and 77 gr tmk. Upon the shot the cow jumped forward a step and the rest of the herd did nothing (suppressors are amazing). After about 4 seconds she reared up on her hind legs and flipped over. The herd then took off but ran right towards us, a pretty cool experience. Shot was high double lung and bullet shrapnel was in the off shoulder under the hide. No necropsy pics due to being in a hurry because of the long distance we had to hike out across a lava flow (didn’t want to cross that in the dark). Two years, two shots, 2 cow elk. He’s getting be a killer.