Thread: 223 on deer

Originally Posted by 7.62

+1. The 223 is pretty effective when used sensibly, especially on fallow. But as soon as you run into a big red hind or spiker that’s spent most of its life gorging itself on good farm tucker, and it’s 250yd away and looking decidedly nervous, you’ll be feeling justifiably under gunned. Not so with a 243

I'd try and get a tad closer if possible,failing that,walk away.....guess it depends on the individual eh. Still...a large number of biggish animals have gone down over 200yds range...no worries. As mentioned,,,the 243 was favoured by a few cullers. Pretty sure ti say that the wee 22 calibers had a huge following.

Originally Posted by doinit

I'd try and get a tad closer if possible,failing that,walk away.....guess it depends on the individual eh. Still...a large number of biggish animals have gone down over 200yds range...no worries. As mentioned,,,the 243 was favoured by a few cullers. Pretty sure ti say that the wee 22 calibers had a huge following.

Yeah when I had a 223 I shot the odd deer at over 200. A mate also used my rifle to tip over a couple of small red yearlings at about 250; they both ran but expired pretty quickly with lung shots. But I suspect that bigger tougher animals would’ve run quite some distance before expiring, and possibly been lost. After losing a good sized fallow spiker, and then having a few “runners” despite being hit hard, I got fed up with the 223 and replaced it with a 243. Sometimes you don’t have time or adequate cover to stalk in closer and that’s when the 223’s limitations were exposed to me.
@vulcannz a slow 30 cal will definitely damage less meat than a fast 6mm. 300blk is a great bush cartridge but I need something that’s capable out to 300yd so that discounts it for me

Originally Posted by 7.62

@vulcannz a slow 30 cal will definitely damage less meat than a fast 6mm. 300blk is a great bush cartridge but I need something that’s capable out to 300yd so that discounts it for me

I'd be happy out to 300m or a bit more with it. Sure it has a bit more of a rainbow that the 243, but it's very predictable.