foot answer to your ?
itmay pass through with very little damage therefor not even slowing it down.

The green tip 62 gr. SS 109 NATO rounds our troops currently are packing in the great sandbox have considerable penetration. Underneath the jacket is a hardened steel penetrator tip. I recently shot one through a fairly new railroad tie that had a piece of 3/8" mild steel bolted to the backside of it. The bulletpunched through this like an end mill. I don't think there is any animal in earth that couldn't be dropped with one of these rounds fired into theanimal's brain.

What I would expect to happen in the elk/moose scenario described in the original post is that the bullet would make a very small hole through the bones of the shoulder - not really shatter the bone structure, but leave a tiny hole that would not necessarily disable the animal.

B-S! bigmatty a 70 gr speer will cleanly penetrate a whitetail sideways but that's about all, and the barns isn't that much better. A 223 aint gona penetrate an engine block unless it's a Briggs & Stratton !

I once owned a 788 in .223 that I bought second hand from a guy ,who's wife purchased it from a slippery eel gun salesman as a moose rifle for her husband.I got the gun and a box [missing 3rds] of Rem 55gr FMJ.Now the story: not having much money and needing meat ,one round check the rifles zero,second round into a bull moose's hump @75yards and 3rd rnd into moose's forehead between the lookers.Gun for sale.Deer never require a second shot with a .222 or .223 with 55gr Hornady's and double lung hits.Usually a backwards cartwheel and slam the ground or the 25yard dash and a face plant into the dirt.If NATO thinks it's OK on 200lb humans why wouldn't it be on deer?Also know of 3 blackbears shot with my 55gr .222 loads no problem. Harold

I'm certainly glade for post like these. I need a good laugh now and then ,but I had to go get my waders on cuase some of it was gtting a bit deep.
A 22lr with kill anything on the planet if one is capable or lucky enough but that doesn't make it a big game round and niether is a 223. Penetration through a car? What both windows or side to side with all the guts removed in the doors? Penetration? I think not. I know soliders that have been complaining about the new variants of the weapon since Somolia and one in "the great sanbox" that have great concern of how lack of penetraion puts them at a disadvantage going house to house.

After seeing what the hip joint bone of a 120-pound deer will stop,I would not be willing to bet that the 5.56mm would penetrate as well as you think it would in a big animal like a moose or elk. Nor could you count on it to break either shoulder. It would be more likely to make a .224" hole in the bone, if that......

As hunters we have an obligation to ensure we humanely and quickly harvest game animals. That anyone is taking this suggestion seriously is a black mark on us all.

Using poachers as an example of effectiveness is horrible. We are not poachers, we are hunters; our ends are different. The poacher wants to take an animal with minimal chance of being caught by authorities. Wounding an animal is not even a thought, as they do not have a legal or moral obligation to retrieve wounded game. Wasting an animal is of no concern to them. It should be a concern to you.

You WILL wound a game animal of this size with the .223. You will likely lose all the wounded game. You will be responsible.

Don't waste our resources and ruin our reputation. Pick the right tool for the job.

That'swhat I thinkit would do too. I thinkit would put two very small holes in each shoulder. It would probably kill the moose but you would have one heck of a tracking job on your hands. Thisalso depends on what distance you shoot the moose at.

This of course this is ONLY with military 62gr(actually 61.5gr)SS109 projectile loaded M855ammo. This stuff is not just a FMJ bullet buthas a hardened steel core. Not quite like an actual a/p round but as close as you can get in such a small projectile. Remember hunting ammo is no way near as strong as this militaryammo and it's not designed as a multipurpose round like the GI stuff.

footballplaya, you are also correct in that it would not be legal to use this type ofround for hunting (at lease not in my state) so it's kind of a mute point, but I understand it's a hypothetical question.

As far as passing through a car.....I think it's possible but again it would have to be M855 ammo (M196 won't cut the mustard) andthe bullet would have to pretty muchmiss the engine to do so. Withallof the hardenedalloy componentsin the engine ie: heads, pistons, crank shaft, connecting rods,rod caps, crank caps, etc...there is no wayit wouldmake it through that stuff at all (even M855) and I cannot picture a path through an engine (lengthways) that doesn't have at least a fewof thosecomponents in theway.

Yeah, after shooting the .223 and seeing what the fmj bullet does I would have to say that it would more than likely just make small holes in the animal.The.223 rounds just doesnt have enough weight behind it to be a reliably effective game round. Itis meant to wound people, not kill large game.

I just have a hard time believing that a .223 FMJ could penetrate an engine block...a .50cal yes .223 nahhhhhh.