Thread: 223 on deer

Originally Posted by Sidetrack

Just back from 14 days on Stewart Island and after shooting a yearling buck with the wee Tikka 223, I have to say that the experience was less than satisfactory. Shot placement was the issue and that is on me. Walked in on it and a doe in waist high crown fern so only option was a frontal shot close in. Bullet (55gn) hit dead centre, travelling full length without hitting anything vital before exploding in the back wheels, decimating both hips joints. Wasn’t going anywhere so quietly finished off with a knife.
Not saying I’m done with the 223 but I think this has just reinforced that time and shot placement is more critical with the light weights, for me anyway. I think a caliber with a bit more mass like the 270, which I’m used to, would have gutted, skinned, and hung up the carcass with that shot.
I don’t want to make excuses, it is what it is and on the odd occasion you can’t allow for all the variables, it’s just that it created doubts and as we all know, doubt creates lack of confidence and that is the road to shooting hell.

The positive is that I’ve been mulling over a more purpose built bush gun for the past year, light, compact, slightly heavier caliber, but will still comfortably wack ‘em over out to 150-200yrds. Will progress that.

@Sidetrack funnily enough @Moa Hunter and I were discussing my shot on the deer we got the other day while having a breather on the way down the hill on the carry out
He suggested much the same thing as you just did but I think he was referring to a bigger calibre on red deer.
In that central area of the chest, things are split to the sides and if you are dead in the middle and miss the heart it is basically a gut shot from the front unless you have something big enough to wreck any of the back boney bits, which actually yours did
he reckoned it was worth aiming a little bit higher into the base of the neck I think.
I had the same thing with a hind years ago with the 243 as a young fella. Not a hard shot, little over maybe, but not good enough to shoot at anything more than big bits.
On a slight slope facing away and could see the whole backbone
Reasoned with myself that if I aim right at the spine about half way along the back it would work mint, should cover all bases with all that stuff in the front to hit. yeah nah.
Dropped like a stone but got up again. Did get the deer but the autopsy basically suggested that I had just missed the spine (hence it dropping but also getting up and buggering off) but it had also missed pretty much everything else. Little bit closer to one side and it would've been dead on the spot

Originally Posted by csmiffy

In that central area of the chest, things are split to the sides and if you are dead in the middle and miss the heart it is basically a gut shot from the front unless you have something big enough to wreck any of the back boney bits

I'd like to see an entirely un-injured set of lungs, heart, aorta, spine out of a deer that has been shot thus, to demonstrate that it's possible. I've got a high degree of scepticism that it is possible however happy to be convinced otherwise by concrete proof. I can provide as many damaged sets of vital organs from deer shot this way as you'd like. The chest cavity is packed pretty full and while you might not inflict immediately lethal damage, it is likely impossible to put a bullet actually through it without hitting something important.

The evidence would suggest generally that tales of deer magically shot in the chest cavity subsequently running away unharmed probably weren't actually shot in the chest cavity. probably due to bad shot placement with an excessively recoiling calibre in their rifle!