Thread: 223 on deer

Originally Posted by Nathan F

Yep devastating . My ONLY regret with my .223 is having cut the barrel to short. I should have left a couple more inches on it to get more peed out of the heavier projectiles. Still I get the same results with the 69gn TMK. Im not sure a deer would notice the 8gns difference either

18 to 20" seems optimal. My Tikka is still standard and it doesn't bother me. Other 2 are 20".

Originally Posted by Tahr

18 to 20" seems optimal. My Tikka is still standard and it doesn't bother me. Other 2 are 20".

I have wondered, while reading this thread and learning, what the most common .223 barrel lengths in use are. There is always the trend/desire for a compact bush gun, but seems a lot of you blokes are regularly making shots in the 180-300+ range. Longer is always better, (so they say) but a man does ponder these things.

Originally Posted by Jt89

I have wondered, while reading this thread and learning, what the most common .223 barrel lengths in use are. There is always the trend/desire for a compact bush gun, but seems a lot of you blokes are regularly making shots in the 180-300+ range. Longer is always better, (so they say) but a man does ponder these things.

I'm not really sure if this is a question but I'm happy with 18" and would be equally happy with 16" I suspect, for the inside 300m sort of operation


I had a dud lot of 2208 where my load was something like 150fps slower than it should be, and I went and shot things with it to use the rounds up, and things died. Would have been similar to a 14" maybe.

Originally Posted by gimp

I'm not really sure if this is a question but I'm happy with 18" and would be equally happy with 16" I suspect, for the inside 300m sort of operation


I had a dud lot of 2208 where my load was something like 150fps slower than it should be, and I went and shot things with it to use the rounds up, and things died. Would have been similar to a 14" maybe.

Talking about rifle lenghts not a Harold Robbins book. LOL.