Originally Posted by
Ridge Runner
my thoughts
I've taken well over 100 deer with a 223, most of them were with standard soft points back in the day before there were deer bullets for them.
any bullet put into the lungs of a whitetail will kill it correct?
so the difference in using a 22 and a larger bullet comes down to having the patience and discipline to take the shot that will avoid the shoulder bone and hit the lungs, its not something the easily excitable hunter should do but it works, and works well.
If you can't hit a deers vitals with a 223, a bigger gun makes it easier? It would make up somewhat for poor shot placement, but who's gonna openly admit I don't shoot well under pressure so I carry the minimum of a 30 cal.
RR
The best shot is when the Deer is relaxed, head down feeding, mostly standing sideways to you. I would take that shot with most any center fire rifle, you don't always get that shot.
I've had them bolt from the slightest sound, your rifle touching a wooden rest or railing, a zipper rubbing together. If they bolt right when you shoot, bad things happen.
Twigs or a little grass between you and the Deer. That bullet hits an object, even a tiny one, between you and your target, bad things happen.
The Deer is looking at the rifle and sees the flash. There is something called a withdrawal reflex, it can put an animal in motion before the signal gets processed by the brain. In that fraction of a second it takes the bullet to get from the muzzle to the target, a Deer can be in motion. It only takes a small motion to make a good shot a bad shot.
What I'm saying is it isn't all on the marksman, some of it is just luck. If a shot does go slightly wrong, a larger caliber may be the difference between a quick kill and a lingering kill.
The last long shot I took was right through the ten ring (exactly where I wanted the bullet to go) shooting down hill at 350 yards. I consider myself a passable marksman. My first choice for large game wouldn't be a .223 if I had another option.
Maybe I'm just over sensitive to wounding an animal. The guys that own the lease next to mine shoot at anything that moves and aren't very good at it. Weekend warriors, who drink before they hunt, have somebody else gut their kill if they get lucky and leave a lot of wounded game to flee onto my lease. I've tracked down a lot of their mistakes. The guy next door always wants to argue with me about giving the Deer or hog back, I always laugh at him.
I always welcome their donations, it doesn't count on my limit, it counts on their limit (by law here). As a matter of fact, I was the go to guy for tracking wounded game on three leases (and crossovers form neighboring leases), so maybe my perspective is skewed and it seems to me it happens a lot more than it actually does. Say ten to twelve Deer or Hogs a year average, over a 35 year period, adds up to a lot of meat.