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

[Deere_Man]

View attachment 1076978
Standard .223 tikka 1:8 twist. 88 gr tmk. 2590 fps. 100yds. Shot was directly facing me. Centered first ribs on the sternum. Took out the heart, one lung and continued on into the stomach which was packed with grass. 40 yd death run, was stone dead when I got to it. Squared roughly 6.5 ft. Over 18 in skull. Pretty happy with these 88's. Like a 77gr, but more better..lol.

What magazine do you use to make room for 88gr? CTR?

 

[gman82001]

I’m with you. I like improving/maximizing my odds.

One more post and you can play in the classifieds buddy

 

[BLJ]

What magazine do you use to make room for 88gr? CTR?

@pods8 (Rugged Stitching) offers mags that will accommodate 2.5” for the .223 using factory bottom metal.

Mine have been great.

 

[Kaleb]

Mine have been great too.

 

[Deere_Man]

@pods8 (Rugged Stitching) offers mags that will accommodate 2.5” for the .223 using factory bottom metal.

Mine have been great.

These bad boys here?:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/397956334075

 

[Formidilosus]

Those 88 gr wounds through the bear look a bit bigger then what my young friend got using 77 gr TMKs through a grizzly. Maybe enough I'd prefer them.

Going off of a single instance is a surefire way to come to incorrect conclusions. There are hundreds of photos and data of results in this thread on animals. All bullets have a left and right side to the bell curve.

 

[BLJ]

These bad boys here?:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/397956334075

Those look the same but I’m not completely sure that the same guy.

Here’s his add on this site.

WTS Thread 'Complete Tikka magazines - Orange, flush, extended COAL, etc.'

Feb 9, 2026

Going to try out a new method, blow is a link to a google form to collect an order request which will allow me to accurately send out an invoice link from the payment processor (a firearm accessory friendly account, paypal/venmo are out). If all the details are provided and I have the inventory I'll send you an invoice. If I have questions I will email you, similarly if I need time to replenish inventory for your request I'll advise you on the timeline, I won't send an invoice until I have product ready to ship. If you have issues you can always email me at [email protected]...

• pods8 (Rugged Stitching)
• Replies: 20
• Forum: Gun & Gun Parts Classifieds

 

[Moose83]

What magazine do you use to make room for 88gr? CTR?

I'm in BC. 2.6" 3d printed mags from Mag3d.ca. They look a lot rougher than @pods8 (Rugged Stitching) mags but seem to be reliable so far. Load is 25gr of lever in LC brass. Rem 7 1/2 primers. 2.48"ish coal.

 

[Moose83]

@Formidilosus. For those of us playing with the 88gr tmk's in standard 8 twist .223's, at what point would you think we'll run into stability issues? Is it a hard point of "it works and then it didnt" or is it more of a sliding scale of effectiveness... if that makes sense.

 

[Thegman]

Lol, and it is always fun discerning differences in results of work from your own kills, and others. there’s a huge body of work in this forum alone to discern ~.2 to .26 sd tipped match examples launched/impacted at about any velocity so not sure how much more is needed? 73-88’s in .22, 103-108’s in 6mm, the 100-130 6.5’s, 155-168 30 cal. His report said everything that body of work has said already, no pictures or added detail required. He included just the right amount of data to tell the full story. Not trying to argue anything...the formula range is available although is discussed and focused on in various ways, boils down to as simple as he reported that one example.

Were you surprised at the result?

What pattern do you see in all that data? What formula do you like best? I like .25 sd at moderate velocities best, how bout you?

I find impacts from 2500-1700 are consistent in penetration which is shorter of course at 2500 but still plenty adequate and act more like a nice mushroom higher weight retention at 1700 end. So naturally I tuned right in to his result as that’s my favourite formula.

Clearly .2 and .22 sd formulas also work great...some 680 pages in one thread alone, so ~13-14% more sd is really all you need to know, if you don’t need it then no biggie, most here don’t, some want it, easy to overthink it though. I don’t find any surprises in the popularity or growing trend of the 88 though. And not because it’s 88, but because it’s .25 sd .

And all of these fall well under a 6.5 140....way overkill imo haha

Well hell, all we need to know is S.D. to know a bullet's terminal performance? So all this time, 88 ELD-M, Sierra 90 MK, Berger 90 VLD and now the 88 TMK are interchangeable with respect to terminal performance? Why didn't you tell us sooner?

Come on @Stinky Coyote, try not to be a buffoon...try hard.

 

[TBoschma]

Running these in my tikka 223 anyone guess barrel length? Really want to kill a bear this year with these high pressure rounds

 

[Big_wals]

@Formidilosus, first bear with an 88 TMK and 223?

I posted one a couple weeks ago, but didn’t do any necropsy on it. It was on a steep shale hill in full 80 degree sun, so I was focused on quartering it and getting the meat out ASAP.

 

[B_Reynolds_AK]

Running these in my tikka 223 anyone guess barrel length? Really want to kill a bear this year with these high pressure rounds
View attachment 1077288

16”, seeing how 88’s are only about 110 fps slower than that with normal brass in my 16” bbl.

 

[TBoschma]

16”, seeing how 88’s are only about 110 fps slower than that with normal brass in my 16” bbl.

Ya 16”

You are pushing 88 in normal brass that fast? Is that just new brass you throw away? You’re not trying to keep or you seeing any life out of that?

 

[omicron1792]

Running these in my tikka 223 anyone guess barrel length? Really want to kill a bear this year with these high pressure rounds
View attachment 1077288

16”?

 

[Luke S]

The data presented here would be my only reason for trying the 77 gr TMK again.

Basically if a bunch of guys on the internet weren't saying it was awesome and posting pictures I'd see no logical reason to keep experimenting after a 223 TMK made an unimpressive hole.

Maybe i got the one weird reasult. But I just helped a guy with another grizzly he shot with a 308 and a 178 gr ELDX. The wound channel was 19 inches then it exited. The wound was wider all the way through. That's typical for 308 and similar sized cartridges in my experience. Never had a 30 cal make a hole as small as the 77 TMK out of the 223 AR.

Now those 88 Gr TMK pics look promising. That black bear isn't hugely smaller than the grizzly my buddy got with the 223 but the damage looks more impressive.