.300 Weatherby Mag is adequate for white tail a mile away!

I have not hunted deer with a 223, don't currently own one, and would probably buy something a bit bigger.

I do think however that I would stay away from short barrels like the 16" somebody mentioned. You gotta get the bullet to the right spot, but it alsohas to be going fast enough to dogood damage. The shorter barrels hurt the velocity and energy on what is arguably a marginal cartridge for this task.

ditto

Headshots?

When we doe hunt in South Dakota we only take head shots on does. That is just a little rule we made a few years ago to make doe hunting a little more challenging (not really). But why would you want a 223 and go buck hunting an take a head shot, don't make much sense to me.

Marginal at best! I don't understand the reasoning for wanting to use one, except maybe in an extremely isolated case!
If its just for the "challenge" try a good hunting handgun, or a bow!

My cousin used a 223 for a while as his first deer rifle. He did kill deer with it but he lost some too. We took to calling it the rat gun. The deer he shot often rana long ways and left very little blood to follow. Maybe that's not a problem if you are hunting in Kansas but, speaking as someone who often helped him trail his wounded deer, here in the dense pine thickets of Alabama it sucked pretty hard.

We were all glad when hemoved up to a bigger caliber eventually.

Will it kill deer? Sure, but so will a 22 shortplaced in the right spot. I would not recommend either as a deer round however. Unless you are in a position of just absolutely having no other option, I say move up to at least a 243. I have 8 year old cousins who can comfortable shoot a 243 so I really don't see why anyone would need to use a less powerful round.