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

[Billogna]

Good dog. Sit. Stay.

First critter from the left handed tikka 223!! Just the tip!!

 

[Hardly_Hangin]

5th and 6th data point, 75gr speer gold dots 75 yards. Both exited but no blood. No autopsies this time.

Group of 7 does ran into a field and I whistled to get them to stop. Shot one and she ran 10ft and fell at the field edge. The rest kinda stood there bewildered, and number 2 got the pill. ran 10ft and fell at the field edge.

Love fast follow up shots and the can.

 

[Thegman]

5th and 6th data point, 75gr speer gold dots 75 yards. Both exited but no blood. No autopsies this time.

Group of 7 does ran into a field and I whistled to get them to stop. Shot one and she ran 10ft and fell at the field edge. The rest kinda stood there bewildered, and number 2 got the pill. ran 10ft and fell at the field edge.

Love fast follow up shots and the can.

View attachment 968635

Are those the exits pictured? Looks like they'd bleed pretty good out of those holes if they managed to make it past 10 yards.

 

[horpensky]

Adding another data point. A lot of excitement this year as both the Mrs. and the daughter wanted to go out whitetail hunting for the first time, and at the same time 22 centerfire became legal for big game here in Alberta. Armed with all the evidence and great info from this forum, I had the perfect excuse to add to the gun collection and picked up a Tikka .223 for them to use.

Today wife shot her first deer, a doe broadside at 200 yards along a cutline, using the factory 73gr ELDM. Watched through the binos as she put the bullet in the boiler room, saw the doe fall down immediately, then get back up and appeared to scramble off to the side. Walked up to where we thought she shot it, didn't see any sign of corpse, hair, or blood trails, and wife became disappointed thinking she clear missed. While a little concerned I couldn't find evidence of a hit right away, I told her I was confident I saw the impact, so we started the search. Didn't take long as we stumbled on the doe lying 25 yards over.

We were surprised to find no apparent entrance or exit wound. It was like the deer had just absorbed the bullet and died. Gutting the doe confirmed (to the wife's relief) that she had indeed hit it in the boiler room, with about a 2 inch entrance hole in the ribs, with bottom half of heart and lungs destroyed, and opposite front leg broken. Not sure why there was no outward sign of damage. Anyone with any insight? Doe was super fatty, so not sure if that makes a difference in plugging up wounds.

Anyways, while I would have liked a clearer entrance wound/blood trail, the bullet was clearly effective, and everyone in the family finds the gun enjoyable to handle and shoot. Will be going out with the daughter this week and hoping to add another successful data point.