.223 for deer hunting.

[gunmunky]

Any caliber is fine for deer as long as the shooter knows the limits of his and the cartridges ability. As far as 10 or more rounds in a clip, I like having a 30 rounder with me. Just in case a few coyotes happen by!

[Loose]

plus as you can buy a few 30 round mags for what a 5 or 10 round mag cost!!

[musky5555]

I've shot/hit 6 deer with a 30-06 150 gr ballistic tip ranging from 100-250 yards. Each deer required one shot, and all but one dropped right in it's track. The other was shot through the heart and ran 100 yards on pure adrenaline and folded over dead.

I really wanted to shoot a deer with my 22-250, so I gave that a try. This would be the only deer I ever lost. I was using 60 gr nosler partition rounds. I put the cross hairs right behind the shoulder at 100 yards and shot. The deer ran off a couple hundred yards and dissapeared in the woods. My brother watched me shoot at the deer and was convinced I missed it. Confident in my gun and shooting skills, I couldn't believe I missed it, so we walked up to the woods only to kick up the deer. I found a pool of blood the size of a dinner plate. We left the deer for about two hours and came came to track it. While tracking this deer we only found small drops of blood. We tracked it for about three hours, kicking it up another three times without getting a shot, and finally lost it when it crossed a river.

I certainly know that a 22-250 has the capability of killing a deer, and I can't be certain where I actually hit this deer, but I will never use that small of a caliber again. Losing this deer made me sick to my stomach, and it was only an average size doe.

[Svinekotelett]

You lost the deer because you were using a 22 caliber cartridge!!!! Plain and simple. i dont know if you were using a semi auto or not but you should have poped off like 5 rounds.

[Steve Foss]

I shot a Ruger M77 .22-250 for fox and coyote in ND lo those many years ago. Phenomenal cartridge. Loved every single shot I took with that gun/cartridge.

I knew a couple guys on a reservation who used to shoot moose with a .22 long cartridge in a semi-auto. They'd stalk within bow range and put three quick rounds through the ear. Dead moose.

In the right hands, and under the right conditions, there's no doubt at all that a .22 caliber center fire like the .22-250, .220 Swift, .222 or .223 will kill deer all day long.

In the hands of an average shot and average deer hunter, those cartridges are a big mistake, IMO. For a single reason. If you miss slightly with a big bullet, your odds of dropping/killing the deer are better than if you are six inches off with the little .22 bullets, especially if you miss the boiler room in the direction of one of the big shoulder bones. Can you say disintegration?

The .223 was pretty popular with a certain group of guys I knew out in central ND. They killed a lot of deer with them. I've also watched one of those guys put a .223 into a deer on a spine shot and the deer was getting away when someone else put it down with a heart shot. When they butchered it, they found the .223 bullet had broken apart when hitting one of the spine bones and did no damage to the spinal chord. An ought-six would have put that deer down for good with that shot.

And again we're talking the average shot/hunter, not someone well versed in .22 centerfire performance, but I've seen a number of guys with semiauto .223 "assault" style rifles lose their wits and go all rock and roll, emptying clips by scattering shots all over the place in the general direction of the deer.

And lastly, I have shot two deer with .30 caliber rounds out in ND that had .22 caliber bullets in them. One was in a shoulder and the deer wasn't even limping. The other was in a rear haunch/buttock, and that deer wasn't limping either.

If I had that old Ruger .22-250 or another varmint caliber that I was familiar with, and a rifle/scope combo I knew well, and excellent shooting conditions, I'd not hesitate to use that combo for an instant.

But the smaller the cartridge is, the less that has to go wrong before what should be a killing shot simply becomes another regrettable wounding.

IMO.

[Svinekotelett]

.223 caliber was designed for military pourposes and makes a good varmit round, thats the way it should stay

[musky5555]

Svinekotelett- I was using a bolt action. I didn't even think of taking another shot, because I was confident I put it right in the vitals. I watched it run and figured it was going to fold over any second. While tracking this deer, I found a small bone chip in the blood. I figure this piece of bone was a part of the rib cage, and the 60 gr bullet hitting a rib bone was probably enough to greatly reduce the effectiveness of the shot.

"In the right hands, and under the right conditions, there's no doubt at all that a .22 caliber center fire like the .22-250, .220 Swift, .222 or .223 will kill deer all day long."

Steve... While sighting in my 22-250, I was nearly putting rounds on top of each other. When I shot this deer I was proned out with the gun rested on my back pack... conditions don't get much better than that in the field. I'm simply saying, yes it is very possible to kill a deer with a .223 or a 22-250, but I don't think either is a good choice for a good clean effictive kill.

[Svinekotelett]

Yea i here ya, .22 rimfires or .410 birdshot could kill a deer in the righthands but most would agree that it would be wrong. If u would have hit the deer with a larger caliber in the ribs the deer would likley be dead. Theres are reason these cartridges were illegal for so long, the dnr even admitts the only reason they legalized such caliber weapons is so they could SIMPLFY THE REGS. WHAT? anyway i feel people have the right to hunt with any weapon that they want as long as it legal!! Im just stating some facts, No deer is a sure kill but bigger cartridges are defenitally a big help. I really wish they would make the .410 slug illegal (except for youth) and the bird barrel illegal for deer hunting but thats a whole other argument. Also a .223 might be okay except a large percentage of people are using ILLEGAL MILITARY AMMO in these weapons and not soft point hunting cartridges, infact hunting cartridges for this caliber a hard to come by because it is a military designed weapon used to make small puncture wounds. Oh well maybe someday i will see the buety behind these small caliber weapons but for now i lump them in the varmit caliber pile with the .17 hmr and the what nots!!!