Thread: 223 on deer

Originally Posted by Flyblown

That's very interesting @Tahr.

What I am seeing is vitals damage that's significantly disproportionate to the calibre / weight of the bullet.

That's been my experience of using fast, frangible .223 bullets that have a decent lower jacket / shank. The damage is not really discernibly different to .243 Win / 100gr.

I've got a collection of gralloch photos here, you'd be hard pressed to spot the difference between your photo and one of mine with the .308 Win.

Yes. It was quite a big lump of a Fallow Spiker too. Here's a pic of the under the shoulder entry side. Ive sort of discarded the foot pounds of energy thing and look at the trauma and impact on function. The little ones like these 52 Targex behave out of proportion to their wight. I found this out many years ago with the .222 and Sierra 52 grain match - they were similar to the Targex - and I agree with you that the solid bit at the back that does the driving is important.

I still prefer heavy for caliber .223 projectiles for momentum, penetration and BC but they do need to be softish with a splat factor.