I don't shoot .223 but I find your research very interesting and commendable! I wish every hunter put as much effort and research into selecting the proper bullet. I do not find your results surprising, as it pretty much met my expectations based on bullet performance in larger calibers. All the more important on smaller calibers! Kudos for some great testing. Would be interesting to compare results through shoulder bone, where I think there would be an even great contrast.
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.223 hunting bullets
- Thread starter snuffy
- Start date
Thanks Tim, as for the shoulder bone, I think the bullets with exposed lead cores like the game king, Hornady sp, Speer, and even the Nosler bonded would suffer a lot of early expansion, possibly even failure to penetrate to the vitals. If I were to hunt where the deer are scarce or moving and I would be forced to either take an iffy shot or go home hungry, I'd go with the GMX or Barnes all-copper. I heard rumors that Hornady was going to offer their interbond in .223, I do not think they ever did.
To those that think this was a fool's errand, then explain to me why are these bullets even made? Tooling up a bullet press is enormously expensive. The dies alone cost a bunch. Then that machine is tasked to do that "specialty" bullet instead of a more popular bullet like a 165 .308. Kudos to Nosler, Hornady, Sierra, and Barnes for their excellent bullets!
I am jealous of those that have long seasons where they can hunt many days where they can observe deer in a natural, undisturbed setting. Not the case in good ol" Wisconsin. Our 9 day season results in a mentality of take your shot or go home, often at running deer. There's been attempts to change it to something else but those that hunt with sharp sticks resist anything that would take a bite out of their 3 months.
Even attempts by primitive black powder hunters to have an early season in late October have failed, the BP season starts the day AFTER the rifle nine day season! By that time the deer have gone nocturnal and it's full on winter!
To those that think this was a fool's errand, then explain to me why are these bullets even made? Tooling up a bullet press is enormously expensive. The dies alone cost a bunch. Then that machine is tasked to do that "specialty" bullet instead of a more popular bullet like a 165 .308. Kudos to Nosler, Hornady, Sierra, and Barnes for their excellent bullets!
I am jealous of those that have long seasons where they can hunt many days where they can observe deer in a natural, undisturbed setting. Not the case in good ol" Wisconsin. Our 9 day season results in a mentality of take your shot or go home, often at running deer. There's been attempts to change it to something else but those that hunt with sharp sticks resist anything that would take a bite out of their 3 months.
Even attempts by primitive black powder hunters to have an early season in late October have failed, the BP season starts the day AFTER the rifle nine day season! By that time the deer have gone nocturnal and it's full on winter!
Snuffy, I agree with you 100% about taking a shoulder shot with a .224 bullet.
I have hunted in Central Wisconsin for close to 30 years and you don't want to know how many Deer I've seen wounded in the shoulder with much larger bullets that have got away.
Here in Central Wisconsin you either learn to shoot at running Deer or you may not get a shot. I will not take a shot at a running Deer with my AR-15. That's what the 30.06 and 12 guage are for.
P.S. Good luck opening weekend!
I have hunted in Central Wisconsin for close to 30 years and you don't want to know how many Deer I've seen wounded in the shoulder with much larger bullets that have got away.
Here in Central Wisconsin you either learn to shoot at running Deer or you may not get a shot. I will not take a shot at a running Deer with my AR-15. That's what the 30.06 and 12 guage are for.
P.S. Good luck opening weekend!