Thread: 223 on deer

Originally Posted by zeropak

I got a chance over the last weekend to give the 223 a proper workout on some fallow. Using the Hornady 73gn ELDM at ranges from 170m out to 300m. The performance of these little pills was stunning, shot a total of 8 deer 3 stags a Hind, 2 Yearlings and 2 spikers. Shoulder shots were breaking both shoulders, shots behind the shoulder were causing massive internal damage and still dropping them almost on the spot, a few steps and down they went. The tissue damage was more extreme than my 6.5cm using 130gn Sierra TGK's. I know that this will be nothing new to those who already use the 223 with great success but this is my first serious outing with it and I was a little skeptical of using those tiny pills. I am now a convert, the 6.5cm might be getting left behind on future trips.
PS this was a culling operation on the back of a farm with large deer number which needed to be reduced, all the animals were recovered and no meat was wasted, it was all processed and passed out to friends and family.

@zeropak what speed are you running them at? Have just started loading them and getting good accuracy at 2680fps out of my 16". I have taken them to 2750, but accuracy goes to shit and pressure is obvious. I wanted to try the TMK's for deer but these are alot cheaper.