Originally Posted by
carldonova84
Hi,
I think .223 is enough for whitetail. That's really as big as you want to push it though. If you have 30-30 is still more powerful and therefore you don't have less room for mistakes.
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South carolina hunting
.223 (or the 5.56 mm) has a lot of energy, and has killed a lot of people in wars who were mostly men weighing upwards of 150 pounds. I don't see any reason why it would not be sufficient to kill small to medium deer. Most of the common deer killed in the US are below 150 pounds. I think if you are using a 223 for big deer in the 150 and up class, then you would be coming in a little on the light side for a quick clean knock down and be generally better off with a little more weight and energy. Placement is still the primary issue, but loads with greater diameter and weight will give you a little more collateral trauma which is an advantage that you need when talking about larger deer, but I think the 223 is good enough for the small and medium deer. JMO.
PS: Personaly my minimum choice for deer is a .243, but not given the choice I think a .223 could do the job.