here we go again
We see the deer and .22 centerfire for deer theme alot, and here's another. My usual comments:
Bamaboy as a very young lad, killed his first two whitetails with a .223 MiniMauser and 6x scope, shooting bonded factory ammo from Federal, 62-55 grains, not sure which anymore. One deer was close, (30 yds) the other about 3 times that. We did not get an exit on the close deer, and recovered the slug. I suspect the velocity was high enough that the expansion was great enough to allow the bullet to be caught by the hide on the other side. The other deer was a pass through. Velocity had likely dropped enough to limit expansion and allow more penetration, or so I think anyhow. The hit on both was near identical, broadside through the ribs, double lung, though one was a tad farther back than I'd like. The pass through ran about 50-60 yds with ample blood. The non exit dropped within 35 yds or so, after bolting into thick cover, but there was no blood of which to speak. I knew he had hit her hard, , but had we been fools, that deer could have conceivably been lost. (evening shooting) So .223 on deer can be done, and is done more frequently as the AR craze is in full cry these days. . If the little cartridge is chosen, one must pay attention to the correct "big game" bullet. But because there are better options, that can be shot nearly as well by nearly everyone, I do not normally recommend the .223 as a deer rifle. And if chosen, the .223 shooter must be well prepared as a good shot, and disciplined enough to pick their shots and ranges.
The 22-250 is a bit more of the same. It's higher powder capacity allows driving the .22 cal big game slugs to higher velocity than the .223. If they will group (most 22-250's have slow twist rates that may not like the longer slugs) the alloy 64 gr TSX as a reload might be a good choice, so to the 60 gr Nosler Partition, which was designed a bit stubby to make it short enough to be stabilized in slow twist barrels. I think Winchester also makes a 64 gr Power Point for 22-250 that is billed as a deer load. I have a brother in law that states he has shot a number of PA whitetails with 22-250, as it was the only centerfire rifle he had for a while. I suspect that he was shooting the 64 gr load, and claimed his 22-250 kills were all ribcage/double lungs with pass throughs.
Again, I believe there are better choices. But the .223/22-250 will do the job, shot well, under say 200 yds, with the right slugs.