Thread: 223 on deer

Originally Posted by Oldbloke

90 pages and not one failure. I might be just a bit sceptical.

https://sportingshooter.com.au/gun-l...enough-bullet/

If you look at the autopsy photos and images of entry/exit wounds, you’ll note that the shot placement is spot on. Most of the regular contributors to this thread are highly experienced deer shooters, with a detailed knowledge of anatomy. They have the conditions and ability to put the small, fast bullet right where it counts for a fast killing, unsurvivable wound.

In the article, the primary discussion is about pigs. Pigs on dams and in swamps. There’s some discussion about safari and thickets. The advice offered is to use large calibres with slow bullets (.45/70 and .30/30). Nothing wrong with those. However…. I’ll warrant that the author is shooting offhand 99% of the time. And oftentimes the animals will be running. This is because shooting prone is usually - almost all the time - simply not an option in typical flat outback conditions. Have you ever tried to shoot a full power .45/70 from a prone position with a face full of rocks and spikey grass? You can’t see bugger all and you’ll get a painful reminder why its a very bad idea.

(Having spent many weeks shooting pigs and other stuff in outback Aus I’m struggling to remember ever using a bipod and shooting prone. None of my photos have rifles with bipods. The contour and amount of brush and scrub meant even sitting was usually pointless. I shot close range offhand almost all the time or off the bonnet or quad seat for longer shots.)

The flipside is I’d suggest that 99% of the deer pictured in this thread were shot from a solid rest, either prone or sitting. The key is precision. These deer are shot unaware, with high precision rifles, off rock solid rests. Comparing shooting outback swamp pigs to prone shooting deer in our hill country isn’t a valid comparison. You wouldn’t pick a .223 bolt rifle to shoot at pigs on the run in the same way you wouldn’t pick a .45/70 to shoot prone at deer 250m away.

.223 Rem is all about precision. It’s very good at precision on still game where the anatomical target is easy to reach. It’s nowhere near as “controversial” as some writers will have you believe, once they drop the invalid comparisons.