mini 14 vs. white tailed deer
 

Hi i'm new at this forum and live in Peru. I'm possibly buying a ruger mini 14 ranch rifle and this july im going to northern peru to hunt white tailed deer ant a dry forest i'm wonderring if i could kill a deer with a .223 bullet from my mini 14?

You sure can, it is a little lite for me but poachers seem to take a few every year with .22. Shot placement is the key, practice, and check the law to make sure it is legal, Doc

Pick the right bullet..Do not buy a varmint bullet/fragmenting type bullet. Federal 60gr nosler partitions, Winchester 64gr power point or Remington 55gr pointed soft point (psp) are all good deer bullets..and like doc said,shot placement and knowing your rifles range limitations..

This is "Shot Placement"



Brush some info on the rifle? Doc

Yes, you can. I have in the past, but if are asking if there are better deer rifles out there, yes there are. I usually start with a 243 and 100 gr bullets as the light end of deer rifles. Sure you can kill one with less, but everything has to be just right. If I were shooting a 55 gr bullet, the 25-06 would be the choice.

CVA kodiak 50cal topped off with a leupold 2-7x33 shooting 2 50gr (100grs) of triple 7 pushing 1 350gr hornady FPB bullet..

If you don't already have the rifle, why don't you upgrade the caliber from a borderline/light size to a larger/more appropriate caliber? Maybe a .270, 7mm-08, .243 or something else.

I am not sure what the gun laws are like in Peru, but I would recommend a Ruger Mini 30 instead of a Mini 14. It fires a 7.62x39 bullet, which would be better for deer than the .223 of the Mini 14.

There are dozens of good rifles in better calibers for deer hunting. Have you considered a bolt action rifle? I would recommend .243, .270, or .308 over a .223 or 7.62x39. If you insist on having a semi-auto, Saiga makes a good .308 semi-auto which I have heard is very accurate, and here in America sells for about the same price as a Mini 14.

With all that being said, you can get the job done with .223 if you know what you are doing. There is just a lot less room for error.

Or even a Mini 14/30 in 6.8 SPC...

A 7mm-08 or .270 isn't necessary for a Peruvian Whitetail deer. LOL!

Your use of the .223 will work just fine for those monster whitetails you have there in Peru. Won't mention a thing about proper bullet placement as I believe that will be covered extensively in the posts!

Good luck,

iSnipe

try getting a mosin nagant 7.62x54r packs a good punch and accurate and cheap bought mine at a gun show for 160 dollars makes a good deer gun

well in peru gun laws are really restrictive since there was a really big terrorism crisis between the 80s and 90s but you cant buy guns that stores dont have and since peru is not a big game hunting country you only get what gun stores have or used guns. But now ive changes my idea and thinking of changing to a marlin 3030 lever action

whoa my point exactly
 

I was wondering why you would want to have a "military" style weapon, and my guess camo, in the area of Ecuador and Columbia??? I would try to downsize that signature just a bit....more exposure than I would be looking for, for some veni.:kt:

Just make sure you're a good shot.

I figure Bill Ruger still owes me for the POS Mini 14 I bought from him years ago. The upside is you could shoot a barn full of ammo thru it and it'd never jam or misfire. The downside is you couldn't hit the walls of said barn if you were standing inside it.

the caliber may work but the gun SBT.

I wont use a 223 for deer if i have a choice but i know a few that do without any problem. Get a AR based rifle with a additional 6.8SPC upper and you have the best of both worlds. Ammo isnt hard to get either.

Shot placement and bullet selection are the key. The Barnes TSX (i think) or any solid copper expanding (non varmint) bullet should work but long for caliber 223smight not give the best accuracy in a Mini14.

Many of the heavy/longer 223s or the longer Barnes coppers need a 1-9 twist minimum for adequate accuracy and the better non varmint 223s shoot best in a 1-7 twist. Most of the 60-65ish grain copper and lead hunting bullets shoot ok in the Mini14.

I would also prefer the Mini 30 if i was possibly going to use it for deer. In 7.62x39 there are a few fairly good (not great) hunting bullets for it but opinions vary.

X2! I felt guilty about selling mine to the poor SOB who bought that turd, oh well. For ruger stick to rimfires or revolvers.

lol yes, but the 223 will still kill

The Mini 14 I had would be most effective killing deer if you happen to be riding on the back of that particular deer.

Sold it at a gunshow even after I gave up full disclosure about the accuracy issues I had. The same guy bought two of those huge case boxes of ammo. For what he lacked in precision he will have made up for in sheer volume of fire.

Watched my uncle take a 3 year old bull moose with his mini 14 last winter... My younger brother bagged a 250 pound black bear with mine.

I agree, there are accuracy issues with the mini 14. However, the .223 is an effective deer killer. My daughter, age six at the time, dropped two Texas whities in their tracks using a mini 14. This gun's low recoil and shorter stock were well suited for this small framed huntress. She used the gun's open sights, and I restricted her shots to 30 yards or less.

Funny I was just looking at a mini 14 for the first time in walmart today wondering what the heck it was. I guess I know some about it now.

A 223 will take down a whitetail down but I not a fan of the mini 14. The 2 I shot wasn't that accurate. Good luck if you try with it.

My stainless Mini-14 (circa 1989) is a blast to shoot and is fairly accurate for what it is. I put a barrel stabilizer on it (inexpensive fix) which keeps the barrel from misbehaving after it gets hot. Not sure I would go after deer with it but maybe small pigs will feel the sting at some point.

When I shot for the state match pistol and rifle team, we were limited to stock(basically;) rifles. They are greatly accurate if you find what makes it tick.
Accuracy out to 100yds is good if you use iron sights and take your time. I could put a full mag into, or next to, a pack of cigs at that distance in mt earlier days.