Lead free .223

[PLhunter]

People around here tend to prefer bullets that “blow stuff up”. I don’t get it, personally.

FWIW the bullet I’ve lost the most animals with is the sierra game king.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

FWIW the bullet I’ve lost the most animals with is the sierra game king.

How many animals? Which animals? And what caliber and weight?

 

[PLhunter]

How many animals? Which animals? And what caliber and weight?

1 elk, 2 deer, and a couple that weren't lost, but the bullet performance was very poor. Keep in mind that it has been a long time since I have used that bullet. I haven't hunted with that bullet in more than 15 years now. I know a lot more and have a lot more tools available now for determining velocity and distance. So they could be fine bullets that were misapplied.

Calibers were 30-06, 25-06, and 243. Elk was lost at an unknown distance hit location had bright foamy blood. Tracked 2.5 miles before losing the trail. Unknown if bullet or poor placement/too far. Probably early 00's.

Deer was 25-06 hit twice in shoulder. Must not have penetrated. Unknown distance. Early 00's.

Deer .243 quartering away. I was a kid so I was handed a gun so no idea on what grain. Unknown distance, late 90's. Hit, not recovered. Tracked for several hours.

Poor performance:

Elk 30-06 165 grain bullet hit the front shoulder and the jacket separated, didn't penetrate into the body cavity. HIt shoulder a couple more times and bull was still up. Finished up close. Bullets were splashing into the shoulder with poor penetration.

Deer 25-06 117 hit from above going up opposite steep canyon. Hit in the back, separated from jacket with poor penetration.

Deer 25-06 117 hit front shoulder twice. Found under the entrance side shoulder. Deer was recovered. Unknown distance, this one could have been a case of shooting that bullet too far. Early 00's.

 

[Gourmet]

I get wanting wide wound channels for quick kills and some forgiveness on shot placement. However, even with the hammer mono’s there have been a couple kills where I was like, “that’s too much..” but all hammers aren’t the same. My 25-06 with the 121’s seems to not result in bloodshot but killed well. The 6.5’s even in the old HH lineup definitely were more splashy. We’ve found fragments with a lot of the grooves in them meaning more than just the tip blew up. A couple deer and a couple pronghorn have had what I would call excessive damage. That’s out of a lot of animals though.

I’ve used Barnes as well. Much cleaner wounds and they all died. Wound channels were “narrow” but a 50 cent sized hole through the lungs or heart seems to kill things pretty quick.

Have you tried the DRT Terminal Shock? I'd like to strike a balance between too much and 50c piece in 6.5CM. Feeling around for answers on forums is tricky! I may just need to get out there and test.

 

[coyotekilla]

Put together a 50gr barnes ttsx load for my 223 this summer. Used it on several coyotes from 85 to 285 yards and a possum at 420 to good effect. The barnes are spendy little guys, but did their job. At the end of the day I'm back to my Ole 55gr softies.

 

[PLhunter]

Have you tried the DRT Terminal Shock? I'd like to strike a balance between too much and 50c piece in 6.5CM. Feeling around for answers on forums is tricky! I may just need to get out there and test.

I have not. All I really know of them is that they tend to run slow for weight class. I’m sure they are devastating. I think those will likely be more on the too much end of the spectrum than the hammers. The hammers are also remarkably easy to load for.

 

[PLhunter]

Put together a 50gr barnes ttsx load for my 223 this summer. Used it on several coyotes from 85 to 285 yards and a possum at 420 to good effect. The barnes are spendy little guys, but did their job. At the end of the day I'm back to my Ole 55gr softies.

Each time I pull the trigger with the hammers it’s more than a dollar just for the bullet. Definitely not a plinking bullet. Luckily load development tends to be quick. No seating depth sensitivity so it’s just about playing with powders until you get the speed you want. But after that you’ll want something else to plink with with that’s for dang sure. I use the 75 eldm as my target bullet and the 69.6 hbc as my hunting bullet. They have different values but smack the same softball sized target out to about 380. After that they start to meaningfully separate. I’ve been considering finding a bullet of the same bc and loading to the same speed for better practice.