Thread: 223 on deer

With my limited experience, if I had to pick one projectile from all the .223 bullets I've used, I'd choose the 70 grain Speer. However, none of the other soft pointed bullets I've used have disappointed me. It may not be apparent in the photo, but the MPG projectiles have a small hollow point.



Sighting Distance.
Many folks here will already have this sussed, but in case there are followers who have never really thought about it, here is my thinking on the subject...

For big game hunting I've been a fan of sighting for 'maximum point blank range'..... to me this means zeroing a rifle so that the bullet will theoretically always land within a certain sized circle out to a maximum range. Some people might pick a bigger circle, but for argument's sake let's use a 100mm circle. For a theoretical example, say I have a 55 grain bullet travelling at 900 meters per second and the centre axis of my scope is 38mm above the centre of my bore. According to one ballistic calculation, I will always be able to aim directly at the centre of a boiler-room shot out to 207 metres and the bullet should never be more than 50mm higher or lower than the cross-hairs. A the end of the muzzle, the bullet will be 38 mm low. It will rise to the line of sight and hit where the crosshairs are placed at around 27 metres. The trajectory will peak around 100 metres where the point of impact will be 50mm high. The rifle will be zeroed for 180 metres. At 207 metres the bullet will hit 50mm low.

A maximum point blank range type of sighting will work for all circumstances if the shooter is very familiar where the bullet will be at various ranges. But of course, to be accurate, one needs to know how far away the target is. Without a range finder, even an expert can find it hard to judge distance accurately in unfamiliar territory.

My current thinking tells me it is best to zero my all-purpose, farm-hunting .223 rifle at 100 metres. A .223 is a precision tool well suited to 'varmint' sized targets and meat-saving shots on larger animals. It is good not to have to go through the mental gymnastics of figuring out where to aim if attempting a brain shot at the typical maximum range I'd shoot which is maybe 120 metres.

Theoretically.... if I am using the same rifle and ammo used for the first calculation, but I zero the rifle for 100 metres, I should see results close to the following:
At the muzzle: impact 38mm below the cross-hairs
At 25 metres: 16mm below point of aim
At 50 metres: point of aim more or less matches point of impact
Between 70 and 85 metres the trajectory is at its peak and will hit 4mm high
At 100 metres: spot on
At 120 metres: 11mm low

150 metres: 41mm low
200 metres: 134mm low
250 metres: 283mm low
300 metres: over half a metre low

So using this rifle, I can shoot at anything between 30 and 120 metres without having to worry about compensating for the trajectory. And in my current world most of my shots would be presented within these distances. If my rifle was mostly used for culling goats in open country, then I might zero it closer to 200 metres.

The figures above are just a theoretical example. With different bullet weights, bullet types, powders and barrels, the figures and performance will differ.

And I've found that I am not the expert I thought I was when I was as a teenager. There is a heap I don't know.... or which I could improve on. Always open to ideas and different view points.