Can a .223 work on deer? Yes, it can and it has. More importantly, though; is it a good choice to use on deer? No. Not in my opinion. I realize plenty of people have used it and had success with it time and again. I still don't believe it's a good choice. Even stepping up to a .220 Swift or a 22-250 gives you a lot more powder behind that little pill.

I really didn't have much of an issue with it until last year when my buddy lost two really nice bucks in a span of two days with his 223. He was using 60gr Nosler Partitions and he's a good shot. He did everything by the book, too; broadside shots, standing still, under 150 yards. Zero blood trail. We looked for hours on both deer.With the first one,our group kind of wrote it off as possibly being a bad hit or just bad luck.But the 2nd one he tookhis time, made surehe was putting them inthe vitals.It wasn't a heavily wooded area, but there were plenty of trees and cover.

He could probably go out and get the next 10 deer in arow withhis .223 and have absolutely no problems. But is it worth the risk? Whychance it when there are so many better tools (calibers) out there? IMO, you owe it to the deer to use something better, just as you owe it to them to be proficient enough with whatever tool you're using to make a quick, clean kill.