Thread: 223 on deer

Not me but I was subjected to regular updates yesterday as my sister has just gone from a 6.5cm to a 223. She lives judt across the road from us now so we set it up last week and had her shooting the wee 4 inch gong at 325yds with boring regularity so she went for a scoot round dad's block yesterday and managed to knock over this nice spiker at 250yds. Neck shot right in the junction too and first cadaver job for her young choco lab.

Well done that lady.

Looks like good shooting runs in the familly,well done.Good to see the truck used properly.

A question on shot placement for you jokers using the heavies (70gr plus projectiles) where is your aiming point?

I don't have a 223, that's a sin in know i will fix one day soon, but a young guy at work does have a new ish 1:8 twist tikka. He's wanting to get more out of it, currently shooting cheap 55gr soft points. He's 100% of the time hunting goats and red deer on a large marlborough station, its his only rifle so even during the roar thats what he carries. He took a decent sized 3yr old stag at around 200m this year it just traveled a long ways. His 4 shots were all lethal it just took awhile. Can you shoulder shoot reds with faster results with these larger projectiles or do you stay behind the shoulder? I get that an extra 15-20grs of projectile doesn't turn it into magic just trying to get an idea of where is the most effective place to poke them through.

Originally Posted by Hook_Grass

I get that an extra 15-20grs of projectile doesn't turn it into magic

it actually kinda does



Through the middle of the shoulder is fine with 80s on reds

Originally Posted by Hook_Grass

A question on shot placement for you jokers using the heavies (70gr plus projectiles) where is your aiming point?

I don't have a 223, that's a sin in know i will fix one day soon, but a young guy at work does have a new ish 1:8 twist tikka. He's wanting to get more out of it, currently shooting cheap 55gr soft points. He's 100% of the time hunting goats and red deer on a large marlborough station, its his only rifle so even during the roar thats what he carries. He took a decent sized 3yr old stag at around 200m this year it just traveled a long ways. His 4 shots were all lethal it just took awhile. Can you shoulder shoot reds with faster results with these larger projectiles or do you stay behind the shoulder? I get that an extra 15-20grs of projectile doesn't turn it into magic just trying to get an idea of where is the most effective place to poke them through.

I lung shoot mainly but more by habit. Centre to break the shoulder or higher gives quicker kills. The heavier bullets make a disproportionate difference to shooting with 55 gn. You can get Hornady ELDM 73 grn factory ammo.

I found a noticeable difference between the 55gr projectiles and going up to 75+gr projectiles.
Sub 100m and if the deer is still I'll go a head/high neck shot.
Out beyond that, I'm aiming for the lungs/heart, gotta maximize that meat so I try to avoid shoulder shots.
Using something like 75ELDMs I wouldn't hesitate to use a shoulder shot.

Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

Not me but I was subjected to regular updates yesterday as my sister has just gone from a 6.5cm to a 223. She lives judt across the road from us now so we set it up last week and had her shooting the wee 4 inch gong at 325yds with boring regularity so she went for a scoot round dad's block yesterday and managed to knock over this nice spiker at 250yds. Neck shot right in the junction too and first cadaver job for her young choco lab.
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Good stuff. What ammo is she using Ryan?

Have been going down this rabbit hole a little bit after reading through this thread and have just yesterday picked up a 223 rifle, the first 223 I've had since the good old days when we were allowed the fun ones. I kind of planned on shooting the 73gr ELD match ammunition as I have not much motivation to reload anymore these days. One of the things I have noticed looking at a heap of different YouTube videos is that with ballistic gel testing the 73gr is pretty consistent at performing poorly (ie fragmenting and poor penetration) when pushed hard or up close when its still getting along reasonably quick, I guess its just soft and opens up rapidly at higher speeds. Makes me wonder if maybe there is a better option as an "allrounder" for the 223 if its just going to blow up at close range? Can anyone with real world experience using this projectile speak on its performance?

Originally Posted by Tahr

Good stuff. What ammo is she using Ryan?

She is just using factory Belmont 55gr SP as dad gets it in bulk for work

Fragmenting is good. That's what creates good wounds. It penetrates enough not to worry about it.

I've shot a few deer and pigs up close (less than 30m) with hand loaded 73gn ELD-Ms. Penetration hasn't been a problem. MV is about 2900fps.

Used 73gr ELDM’s on quite a few animals now. A heap of goats to get a feel how they perform, about a dozen pigs and a good number of reds. Up close I’ve found they have a tendency to be a bit explosive. Tend to use 55gr SP’s out to 200 metres anyway so not a problem. Haven’t lost an animal yet using ELDM’s and as I posted elsewhere, on a recent deer control shoot, I shot a hind at 492 metres. It turned around, took a few steps, fell over and expired. So they can still be effective at around 1480 fps. Stretching the barrel a bit but I regularly range shoot to 600 yards with this load so was comfortable taking the shot.

Had my first "oops" in a while this evening with 77 TMKs. Tried a quartering away shot on a red hind at about 60M, got the whump of a solid hit but couldn't find her in the dense fir trees. Made up for it later with three bang flops at 180M but the "one that got away" is poor form, shouldn't have risked the shot.

I've seen first lot of red fawns this week.....