For the record I'm no troll...I just recently found and joined this forum. I may have been suckered, but was just trying to give a reasonable response to someone who I assumed was new to hunting and didn't understand that a HP match bullet is NOT suitable for ethical hunting use.
I wasn't even going to go into the .223 being a suitable deer round, as I've seen every one of those types of threads blow up.
I will say that a small wound channel = little blood trail to follow if it doesn't go down right away.

I prefer my deer to lay where it once stood.

I have several .2-23's. Bolt and AR. I would use one in bow range or so. But I love my 30/30 for woods hunting.

Well, welcome to the board! As you can see, we don't always agree here! But, we'll muddle through it anyway!
By far, the best answer to using a .223, is: "because I can!" (where legal!) Which is a poor excuse or an answer!
Why use a marginal at best, caliber on a game animal that deserves better respect!!!????
If it's a "challenge," you want, punch paper!

VM sent... I didn't intend to lump you in, as the "3rd new guy", with the other two fellas swirling their $hit sticks in the stew...

Welcome to the board!!

Guess it's easier to label people as trolls than it is to listen to experience and reason, and argue those points. The guy asked for advice. I offered my experience with the round. If you disagree with that, for whatever reason, no matter how ill-informed your opinion or how outdated your information, that's fine. But resorting to name calling in lieu of making any kind of argument outside of "it's smaller!" or "It bounces off deer!" hardly lends any credence to your opinion.

Credit to Oldtimr for offering his insight. Not sure how long ago you saw 223 rounds failing to penetrate the front shoulder, but all I can offer is that I've seen at least 3 do just that. One of those hit the opposite shoulder and stopped there. The others passed through the other side. All 3 deer died. None of them slowly or any more painfully than if they had been shot by a slightly larger chunk of metal.

I don't think some folks understand the velocity behind modern 223 rounds given the comments. A 223 is not akin to throwing rocks or popping a pellet gun. I understand the hyperbole, but without addressing the fact that 95% of shots that will kill a deer with a 30-06 will also kill with a 223, the exaggeration fails in it's intent to diminish the caliber's effectiveness.

You don't need to be a sniper or be perfect to kill deer humanely with a .223, you simply have to hit it where you're supposed to with any other caliber. If you can't do that, you probably shouldn't be taking the shot, no matter what rifle is in your hands. My point to the original poster was I recommend using whatever he feels most confident in, and that in my experience covering at least a couple dozen deer taken with 222 and 223, I have never seen a deer lost due to the round be insufficient in either penetration or damage inflicted to the vitals. He can take that for what he surmises it's worth, and I would hope anyone could share their experience here without a mob of folks dismissing it out of hand with because they don't agree with it.