Deer hunting with a .223
 

i recently bought an ar15.....was thinking of taking it deer hunting. it is legal in alabama with "mushrooming" ammo. thoughts on this....??? if you feel its ok, recommendations on ammo and grain weight......thanks in advance. also, i currently deer hunt with a 270. im just searching for advice, not looking to upset anyone.

Use the 270. Keep the 223 for the varmints.

Thoughts on the matter are a little further down the page in the thread "223 HPBT Reliability"

I would summarize my experience with 223 again, but would run the risk of being called a troll by fellas with differing opinions, so I'll just let you read them there.

As far as ammo goes, I've been fine with 75 and 69 grain HP, in whichever brand you shoot tightest, but know guys who use 55 with no noticeable difference.

Use enough gun! If you want to play around punch paper, don't experiment on animals!

I'd never use a semi-automatic rifle on deer
 

With five shots in a deer, one of them surely would be in a bad place. The guts.

Since I butcher a deer myself, I take great pains to miss the guts with my one shot.

i shot a coues deer with a bolt action weatherby .223 a few years ago with 55 gr. barnes bullet and it piled that deer in a heap.and it didn't destroy any meat not that there is much to begin with. a 55 gr barnes bullet is plenty of gun for a whitetail or mule deer you have to put it in the boiler room as with any shot. i talked to the folks at barnes and they told me out to 300 yards you should be good!

they make several .224 bullets designed for deer hunting, the Winchester 64 gr power point, the 60 gr. nosler partition, and the 55 gr fed. trophy bonded, they will work for deer. all totaled I've taken over 100 with a 223, it works, not the best but it is adequate.
RR

I killed my first Deer, A 10 point, with a single shot .223

It killed him, dropped in his tracks. But it is not something I would suggest. I was real little was why I used it.

It turns out the bullet hit him in the shoulder & broke in two.
1 half stuck in the shoulder, the other broke through a Rib, punctured a lung, And lodged in his spine. Otherwise there might have been a different outcome.

Stick with the 270....

+1

Right tool for the right job !

MY ? would be why would you want to use a 223 when you have a 270 for deer. If the 223 were your only gun I could see your point. I hunted on a farmers land one time and his son used a 223. he was a good shot but one year I heard how he lost 2 bucks using the 223. even his father thought he should use a higher caliber rifle. I would use the 270 and be sure of a kill not experiment on a deer I want to harvest.

The thing about using something like a .223 for deer is that deer aren't the same everywhere. Take a whitetail for instance, a buck in TX or FL is a whole lot smaller than a buck in ME or VT. Both are whitetails but the northern deer will weigh twice what the southern deer weigh. So while a .223 would be good for the smaller buck it may not be a better choice on the bigger buck. Factor in muiles and you're talking the same sort of thing. A 2x2 mulie is a different beast than an old 4x4 since the body weight will be less.

That being said, if the .223 is legal (it isn't everywhere) and you can shoot it well, feel free to use it but be aware of the shot and be willing to pass on a shot that isn't perfect. But if I was you and I had a .270 in the rack I'd use it for deer and not the .223 since it is hands down the better round for larger game.

I would agree with this. Certainly better choices, but a well placed .223 will do the job. Alot less margin for error with the small cal bullets. Since you have a .270, I'd stick with that if it was me, and save the .223 for varmits/target.

guy's it's the same for any caliber if you make a bad shot your not going to recover your animal plain and simple there is no reason in the world you can come up with for not using a .223 to hunt deer it will kill a deer just as dead as a .270 or a 50 bmg if he wants to use a .223 i say go for it.

But, and this is a big but, in many areas the .223 is not legal to use for big game. So, it isn't just a reliability question it very well may be a legal question as well.

Besides, how much experience do you have with deer weighing in excess of 300 lbs? In many areas the deer often weigh that much or more. There is a world of difference between what is adequate for a 150 lb deer and what is adequate for a 300 lb deer. Different shot angles also come into play since not every deer can be expected to simply stand still perfectly broadside. I seriously doubt a .223 will be able to penetrate on a serious quartering away shot. I've seen men shot with it in combat and it isn't a really good round for deep penetration.

Such things must be factored in and common sense dictates he use the bigger round if he has it available.

the .223 was designed to mame not kill the enemy that way when his buddy's came out to get him you could get them as well. that aside you are correct but what i said was in a narrow scope of putting in the boiler room and quartering away behind the ribs that barnes will penetrate ribs all day long. i was not even thinking about the legality aspect because i don't think that was the original question it very well may be illegal i don't know. i do have experience with big bodied animals and i shoot big hunks of lead usually no smaller that 465 grains but that was not the persons question either. i'm not saying it's the greatest idea in the world but i guarantee if i was hunting with a .223 i would have no problem taking a deer !

Like Ridge Runner posted, "it works, not the best, but it is adequate."

Its kind of like a guy that has a 12 gauge shotgun but wants to hunt pheasants with a .410 shotgun. Put the bullet or shot in the right place and you will kill your deer or bird.

The problem is that as you go smaller in caliber or gauge, your chances of wounding instead of killing go up.

If you have to ask on an internet forum if a small caliber cartridge will kill an animal, you probably don't have enough hunting experience to know if it will work, and you probably should use something larger.

Like I said before why would you want to experiment with a smaller cal. gun when you have a 270. yes some say if shot in the boiler room a 223 will do the job like any gun. as far as the legal ? If it was considered for being legal or Illegal in any state there is a reason for it. they think the cal. may be a little weak for deer and should be used for smaller game. I would use the 270 and solve any legal problem and error from a not so perfect shot on a deer. If that is all I owned was a 223 then I would use it. If I also owned a 270 it would stay at home or be a back up gun only. just my 2 cents take it or leave it.