Can a .223 kill a deer?
I've read all the post so far and I'll just repeat what has already been said. Any gun can kill a deer if bullet placement is right. A friend of mine swears to me that his .17 rem is the best deer gun he has ever had and he has kill quite afew deer, coyotes, and varmits with. Then again he is an ex-military man and has been trained and is a heck of a shot. So for him its ethical. Lets not forget that we are talking about deer. You don;t need a heck of a lot if the shot placement is right. My favorite deer centerfire cartridge is a .243 win. Alot of guys will go with the 30-30 or 30-06 because they have knock down power to bust through bones if shot placement is off. So it really depends on you.