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

Anybody used the AAC 75 gr Black Tip Sabre extensively? Maybe it's been mentioned and I missed it.

We've tried it on one hog and a WT doe. Impressive performance on both. Cheap enough to shoot a lot of. Accurate enough in my Savage Trail Hunter, but not in my Cz600 Trail.
 
Anybody used the AAC 75 gr Black Tip Sabre extensively? Maybe it's been mentioned and I missed it.

We've tried it on one hog and a WT doe. Impressive performance on both. Cheap enough to shoot a lot of. Accurate enough in my Savage Trail Hunter, but not in my Cz600 Trail.
I'm gonna try that. The Grendel black tip is amazing on deer, and it's SD doesn't suck at all. If the 5.56 version is similar it's a winner.
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Anybody used the AAC 75 gr Black Tip Sabre extensively? Maybe it's been mentioned and I missed it.

We've tried it on one hog and a WT doe. Impressive performance on both. Cheap enough to shoot a lot of. Accurate enough in my Savage Trail Hunter, but not in my Cz600 Trail.
I’ve used it enough to be comfortable with it. I’ve posted about it here a couple times.

The only other .223 round I’ve used is a 64 grain Winchester round. It was fine too. I’m looking forward to trying out a few others in the future.
 
Anybody used the AAC 75 gr Black Tip Sabre extensively? Maybe it's been mentioned and I missed it.

We've tried it on one hog and a WT doe. Impressive performance on both. Cheap enough to shoot a lot of. Accurate enough in my Savage Trail Hunter, but not in my Cz600 Trail.
We’ve killed a handful of southern Alabama whitetail doe with them. All impact velocities have been >2200fps. They’ve functioned fine. We’re getting ~2660fps out of 16” AR’s. TMKs seem to be better, but the results have been the same.
 
9th data point, public land mountain buck with 223 gasser shooting 75gr Speer gold dots. 60-80 yard frontal shot. Poi was slightly right of center midway up

He reared back, mule kicked, ran about 20 yards, and crashed into a root ball so hard a root shaved off a patch of hair the size of my hands. Died within 3 seconds.

No autopsy pics but i did inspect. Top half of heart and the top half of both lungs were jellified. Chest cavity looked like vital tissue gulash.

My camp buddy commented how lucky i was he didn't end up in the next county over, and i really should hunt with at least get a 30 caliber. What do you guys think? Grin.

My tikka roughtech ember 30-06 is listed for sale now if anyone's interested!

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Daughter got another with her Lil T3X .223. Doe was bedded and she got on the tripod and let one rip.
77gr. TMK Black Hills factory ammo. Hit high lungs and clipped spine. Doe just did a little leg kicking like a dog getting its belly rubbed and it was done. The kid has never shot a bedded animal, and she was so quick to spot, set up and shoot. Proud Papa for sure. Bonus: the Scythe killed another and didnt blow up!
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Daughter got another with her Lil T3X .223. Doe was bedded and she got on the tripod and let one rip.
77gr. TMK Black Hills factory ammo. Hit high lungs and clipped spine. Doe just did a little leg kicking like a dog getting its belly rubbed and it was done. The kid has never shot a bedded animal, and she was so quick to spot, set up and shoot. Proud Papa for sure. Bonus: the Scythe killed another and didnt blow up!
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I mean look at the size of the holes through the ribs with that little bullet.
 
9th data point, public land mountain buck with 223 gasser shooting 75gr Speer gold dots. 60-80 yard frontal shot. Poi was slightly right of center midway up

He reared back, mule kicked, ran about 20 yards, and crashed into a root ball so hard a root shaved off a patch of hair the size of my hands. Died within 3 seconds.

No autopsy pics but i did inspect. Top half of heart and the top half of both lungs were jellified. Chest cavity looked like vital tissue gulash.

My camp buddy commented how lucky i was he didn't end up in the next county over, and i really should hunt with at least get a 30 caliber. What do you guys think? Grin.

My tikka roughtech ember 30-06 is listed for sale now if anyone's interested!

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Wow, so your buddy would think a 7mm is too light!!
 
I'm just here because:

1) I bought a tikka t3x in 223 yesterday 100% because of this thread, with the expectation my 270, 9.3, and 375 will never be fired again.

2) I wanted to be part of arguably the greatest thread in the history of the interweb.

Thank you

Hit us with the particulars….

What model T3X? Barrel length? Mounts/scope choice?

Details matter. 🧐
 
Just so it's clear, 7mm remington magnum, 300 winchester magnum, 30-06, 300 PRC, 300 RUM, 300 weatherby... Are all pea shooters. Those are all small bore rifles. You are not in the cool kids club, you aren't any more special that a guy shooting a 223, accept the fact that you have a small bore AND YOU LIKE IT!
 
My contribution to this thread is a Savage model 24 222 remington. 50gr softpoint @ 50 yards on a #200 white tail buck. Hit him in the vitals, he did a donkey kick, ran 30 yards and died.
 
Having read through this thread and the other kill threads I've came up with a question/idea.

So we know bullets matter vs head stamps. That each bullet has a velocity minimum to work as intended. It seems that as long as you hit the right spot at the minimum+ required velocity that animals die.

Seems like we don't even need the lbs of energy anymore? What's the minimum force to break the hide at 1 side with a .223 caliber projectile and a 77gr weight? Probably at a lot slower speeds than anyone even hits animals at.
 
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