223 for Deer?

muzzleloaderman writes on 24HourCampfire:
.223 on deer
#425666 - 02/06/05 07:02 PM

Hey guys. I have been thinkin about getting a .223 for squirrels an other varments. Now I havnt checked the regulations but if its legal, what are your guys opinions on hunting blacktail with a .223? Ranges would ussually be up to a 100 yards occasionally out to 200. I know shot placement is the key, but still what are your guys's opinions?

________________________________________________________________________I had a similar project in mind a few years ago. However, I could never find a load that satisfied me. 223 Rem on deer is a finesse round. Everyone I've talked to or read that had good things to say about the round in regards to deer always stress good shot placement. To me, that says something. Of course, shot placement is important with any round. However, the net effect always seems to be damning the 223 with faint praise, at least to my ears.

That being said, here's what got me on my quest for a .223 Deerslayer. It's a posting from the old AllOutdoors forum from back in 2000:

(I don't have the header, but it came from the Texas Hill Country)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I used a Ruger Mini-14 Ranch rifle (.223) with a 1-7" twist, loaded with Hornady 75 grain A-Max bullets over a minimum charge of W748. The long, heavy bullets were seated much deeper than recommended to comply with the 2.25" OAL to allow feeding from the magazine. Best guess at velocity would be about 2400 f.p.s. I hit the deer in the center of the left shoulder blade and the bullet
exited in the center of the right blade.

The deer ran about 40 yards before falling over. Strange thing, though, the right-side frontal lobe of the lungs was hanging outside the body, through the small exit wound. Upon field dressing, I found that the left-side front lobe of the lungs was pulp. The right lobe, in it's entirety, was outside the body, intact and seemingly undamaged, connected through a little-finger size hole. I guess that the bullet must have not expanded, but tumbled through the left-side lung and pushed the right-side lung out of the way and then sucked it along in it's wake out of the small exit hole.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That sounded like a ripping good deer load, and I had a brand new Mini-14 to play with. Truck loads of deer falling to a 223 bullet couldn't be a fluke. A year later I gave up-- could not get the bullet to stabilize out of my Mini-14. I could keep it from keyholing when I when I shot it out of a Savage 325, but there wasn't enough twist in the Ruger. I also knew if I dropped back down to a more conventional bullet weight, I could make it work. However, the final decision to end the project came as I started harvesting deer off our new property in Kentucky. The size of the deer dictated some heavier medicine. While I am sure I could nail a yearling doe with a .223 Rem, I've tagged 200lb + bucks and 160lb+ does. The neighbors have tagged 300-pounders occasionally. The more I scouted, the less this project looked like a good idea.
As Brody said to Quint: "We'll need a bigger boat."

If you are starting from scratch looking for a deer round, I would suggest .243 over the 223 Rem as a good comfortable bottom end for starting your search. If I was going to start over again on a Mini-14-for-deer project, I think I would save time and money buying a Mini-30 or 44Mag Deerfield.


. . . but that's just my opinion.