Originally Posted by
d80hunter
I do hunt coyotes with a .223 so I am not here to debate the .223 ability to kill varmits. Killing whitetail deer out to 300 yards is the part of your post that I am having problems with. .223 isn't legal everywhere plus the bullets are pretty light therefore will not have much energy at long range. You need to separate the parts of your posts that I disagree with. You can do whatever you want but giving that kind of advice to new hunters is worth challenging.
To all new hunters there is plenty of caliber offerings in the AR platform better suited to hunt medium to large sized game. As far as being afraid I am not afraid but too smart to push a caliber behind its limits, like a .223 out to 300 yards on medium sized game.
the poster did not ask what calibers were legal in his state so i did not address that aspect that is for him to find out as he should know the laws in his state. i haven't seen one post showing me that a .223 bullet is not able to kill a deer at 300 yards just peoples opinion that it's a marginal cartridge. there are plenty of heavy .223 bullets nowadays if that's what you think it takes for the .223 to be effective? i have shot three deer with my .223 with a 55 gr barnes x bullet and guess what they all died with one shot all lung shots but hitting rib bone and had great expansion and did a lot of damage to the lungs and vital areas.