Thread: 223 on deer

Originally Posted by zeropak

390 yard with a .223 is pretty impressive regardless of the projectile. the image shows plenty of tissue damage. this sort of performance certainly cast doubt over the old theory that a clean kill on Deer size targets requires a minimum of 1000 foot pounds of terminal energy. In this case there would have been around 700 foot pounds.

Lucky that deer can't count, I suppose.

Those numbers always seemed reeeeeeealy arbitrary to me. Why 1000 foot pounds and not 1050, or 970? What weighting was given to bullet construction, impact velocity...... yet for decades people have repeated it, and experience here and elsewhere has blown great big holes through the story. Sounds like the science might not be completely settled.

Originally Posted by Ross Nolan

Lucky that deer can't count, I suppose.

Those numbers always seemed reeeeeeealy arbitrary to me. Why 1000 foot pounds and not 1050, or 970? What weighting was given to bullet construction, impact velocity...... yet for decades people have repeated it, and experience here and elsewhere has blown great big holes through the story. Sounds like the science might not be completely settled.

Yep agreed. 10 years ago you wouldn't see me dead using a .223 on Deer. Now I do it regularly and although I sometime look at that tiny wee cartridge and wonder if it really will do the job, it hasn't failed me as long as I do my part and stick the Pill in the right place. Up until now I have limited my shots to 300m and in, but maybe I am being conservative.

Originally Posted by Ross Nolan

Lucky that deer can't count, I suppose.

Those numbers always seemed reeeeeeealy arbitrary to me. Why 1000 foot pounds and not 1050, or 970? What weighting was given to bullet construction, impact velocity...... yet for decades people have repeated it, and experience here and elsewhere has blown great big holes through the story. Sounds like the science might not be completely settled.

Think that is right on the button. The "heavy" brigade are doing some amazing things with those pills...Tikka, Tahr, Gimp.