Thread: 223 on deer

Originally Posted by 260madman

Yep. 62s are where the good stuff starts with Barnes. Better have a 9” twist because they are long.

Ha ha yeah no, not even close to a 9" twist.
I kind of got lazy with my shooting as I used to use 130gr hollow points in my .308 and any misplaced shots still did enough damage and left enough of a blood trail to ensure very few animals ever got away.

Since Ive switched to .223, Ive had a Whitetail doe, a Red stag and a Sika spiker get away, which has left me with a 3 from 6 success rate, which is no where near good enough. All with 55gr Hornadys.
I'm not sure if they were hits or misses, as no blood was found and no animal, even after a lot of searching.
I like the idea of heavier weight projectiles for now.
Some time at the range will determine what I use as a hunting round moving forward.
1 inch groups at 50m will be good enough for what I want to do.
Long term a rebarrel could be on the cards.

Originally Posted by 9STAGS

Ha ha yeah no, not even close to a 9" twist.
I kind of got lazy with my shooting as I used to use 130gr hollow points in my .308 and any misplaced shots still did enough damage and left enough of a blood trail to ensure very few animals ever got away.

Since Ive switched to .223, Ive had a Whitetail doe, a Red stag and a Sika spiker get away, which has left me with a 3 from 6 success rate, which is no where near good enough. All with 55gr Hornadys.
I'm not sure if they were hits or misses, as no blood was found and no animal, even after a lot of searching.
I like the idea of heavier weight projectiles for now.
Some time at the range will determine what I use as a hunting round moving forward.
1 inch groups at 50m will be good enough for what I want to do.
Long term a rebarrel could be on the cards.

If you hand load you’d be amazed by the 52 grn Targex in a slow twist.

Originally Posted by Tahr

If you hand load you’d be amazed by the 52 grn Targex in a slow twist.

No I don't unfortunately, but thank you for the heads up.
If I can get some made up one day to try out I'll be sure to post any results.
Cheers.

Originally Posted by 9STAGS

Ha ha yeah no, not even close to a 9" twist.
I kind of got lazy with my shooting as I used to use 130gr hollow points in my .308 and any misplaced shots still did enough damage and left enough of a blood trail to ensure very few animals ever got away.

Since Ive switched to .223, Ive had a Whitetail doe, a Red stag and a Sika spiker get away, which has left me with a 3 from 6 success rate, which is no where near good enough. All with 55gr Hornadys.
I'm not sure if they were hits or misses, as no blood was found and no animal, even after a lot of searching.
I like the idea of heavier weight projectiles for now.
Some time at the range will determine what I use as a hunting round moving forward.
1 inch groups at 50m will be good enough for what I want to do.
Long term a rebarrel could be on the cards.

Load 55gr Hornady sp [no cannelure] with 25gr BM2 in Tikka 8T. No wounded animals. My mate loves the recipe. We out on thursday nite. Point, bang, gut.