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.223 Whitetail bullet

My RAR standard barrel (22" pencil thin) shot the factory Winchester 64gr deer load pretty good, the best of any factory load to be honest. Might want to try those and see if your son's gun likes those.
 
I never imagined how well a .22 cal bullet could kill deer until I loaded up some 60g Nosler Partitions up for my son's 22-250 a few years back. I did not chrono the loads, but they were probabbly in the .223 Rem range. They were light loads out of a 20 inch barrel. Anyway, I was going to let him shoot a doe for his first deer. His first hunt, we had not been in the stand 20 min. and out stepped a 10 pt buck about 200 pounds, not more than 50 yards away. My son chest shot him. The buck reared up on his back legs and fell on his back-dead. Never seen that before or since. The bullet passed through both shoulders and stopped just under the skin of the opposite shoulder. Dressing the buck, I could not believe the damage and hydrostatic shock exibited to the tissue it passed through. My son has shot 4 does since with that bullet. All fell in their tracks. I am now hunting with the Nosler 60g Partition in my 22BR. Upon reading this post, I did not realize Nosler is making two more bullets that should be awesome for deer. A 64g Bonded Protected Point bullet and a 55g E-tip, which is a pure copper bullet with a pointed polymer tip and a hollow cavity to aid in expansion. Barnes makes several controlled expansion pure copper bullets that should be great to. Traditional jacket/ lead bullets will work also most every time. But, they can fail to penetrate if you shoot into the thick shoulder muscle then it hits the bone and does not hold together to penetrate the chest cavity. This equals wounded deer that runs off!. I know you were wanting to try a heavier bullet, but especially with a small bullet: speed kills. The heavies will probably not give as much hydrostatic shock as a lighter bullets, especially at .223 velocities. Samuel Hall
 
Looks like I'm going to try the noslers and the Barnes. After seeing what a 223 will do and my 25-06 I will most likely never hunt with anything bigger. I used to use a 300 win mag and traded it. I guess you do get wiser with age! Thanks so much for your testimonies!
 
As I said in another thread this is a group of elite. Proper shot placement with any bullet is paramount. Lot's of deer have fallen to a 223 - because it's what they had and ammo was affordable. Lot's of deer have dropped to the 22 Mag as well but you usually don't here much discussion about that.
 
bigngreen said:
We have younger hunters shoot elk with a 223 and 55 gr soft points, one round right behind the shoulder inside a couple hundred yards makes for easy elk killing, works just as well on big mule deer, I'd never go back to bonded or copper bullets again!!
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Dang, shouldn't be a problem for a grizzly bear either.
 
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The 55 gr Hornady's work well in 22-250's and Swifts (and 223.s). You may want to try the Hornady 60 gr hp. It has a heavier jacket and was designed for deer. My cuz and I use them in 220 Swift with excellent success. Barlow
 
long40shot said:
I found on Nosler's site they recommend a 1-12. Has anyone tried them in a 1-14?
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This has a better chance at working at higher elevations than at sea level.

If you're at 5000 ft, it will probably work. At sea level? No. You can run the numbers in the JBM stability calculator to see how much margin you have at your elevation and with your velocity, twist, and other conditions.

In a 1 in 14" twist at sea level, I would load a Hornady 55 grain spire point to 3000 ft/s and feel confident out to 200 yards.
 
HTSmith said:
Dang, shouldn't be a problem for a grizzly bear either.
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Don't know if you get to see a grizzly very often but the ones we run into I don't think I'd really want to tackle one with a 223.
They do however work well for other game, we shoot a pile of elk on cull hunts and we get kids all the time, we were having issues with them struggling with high power rifles and shot placement so we set up a 223 and that solved our shot placement issues with young people, many times this was their first big game animal so we want the experience to be awesome for them so their on a good track. My daughter shot her first mule deer buck last year with a 223 and it cleaned his clock at 302 yards, she got a couple inches forward and broke both shoulders and messed him up, very, very clean kill.
 
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