Biggest Animal A .22-250 Can Take Down

Ethics

Why is it unethical to hunt deer with A 22-250 cal. if it is legal in your state? If A person follows the game laws in the State where he hunts, why would anyone say he is unethical just because he uses A certain Caliber that you don't use. I've seen Deer lost by hunters using just about every caliber I can think of including the 22-250. Is it more ethical to shoot A deer in the A-- with A 30-06 than it is A 22-250.? No, I don't think so. If anything is unethical its the Hunter not the Bullet and it has nothing to do with the caliber he is using.
 
Why is it unethical to hunt deer with A 22-250 cal. if it is legal in your state?
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Legal does NOT equal ethical. Ethical is a higher standard (usually). Just because you are allowed by the law to do something does not mean it's the right thing to do. How many corporate leaders did unethical but legal things that contributed to our current economic difficulties?

So just because the gov't says I can use a certain, small caliber doesn't relieve me of the responsibility of considering whether it will give the high probability of a clean kill that the ethical hunter strives for.
 
When I was in the AK ARNG I was the XO of A Co. 1/297th Inf which consisted of eskimos on St Lawrence Island in the Berring sea, SW of Nome.

I flew into the Airport which is a short distance from the village of gambell. The natives would come out on snow machines to pick up the passengers and cargo. While we were circling to land I saw a polar bear on the edge of the run way. When we landed I discovered one of the guys in my company had killed the Polar Bear with one shot from a 220 Swift. Not my ideal for a gun for hunting critters that eat you but these guys are a differant breed.

One time I went out whale hunting with them, they don't use harpoons anymore, they shoot whales. There are several guys in a whale boat. I've seen them with everything from a 458 Win to 222 Rem. We didnt get a whale then but the next day the same boat did. I asked the Boat Capt. how many times he shot the whale, he said "box and a half of 458 and 2 1/2 Boxes of 222." I concluded that eskimos dont shoot good, they just shoot lots.

Also in the Sears Mall in Anchorage they use to have a stuffed Brown Bear, with a plack about the hunters, Apparently the Bear was shot three times by the AF Col Hunter with a 375 H&H, it started chewing on him and was finely killed by his hunting partner with another 4 rounds from a 375. (Side note, the AF Col recovered and married Miss Alaska).

So basicly any gun will kill anything, or maybe it wont, wheather its a good ideal or not is something else.
 
if you know the laws on this caliber please tell me.
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That is part of your job as a hunter, to learn the laws of your state.

The way I read your post, your only options are the 22-250 or the 30-06? I have read (absolutely no personal experience) that the managed recoil 30-06 ammo does well. I would give that a try before I would hunt deer with a 22-250.

Anyone else you could barrow a rifle from? (Uncle, cousin, etc). I would be looking for at least a .243.

Everyone has a different situation, and I don't know yours.
 
sureshots, in this particular deal that we're talking about in this thread, ethics is tied to your own personal ability to achieve a higher level of perfection in shot placement than might be needed with something like the '06.

A skilled rifleman who can control his adrenalin can commonly make shots that a lesser shooter cannot.

Sure, guys have been crippling and losing deer for forty forevers, and that won't ever end. Sometimes it's from unethical shots; the old, "You just shouldn't have tried that shot; you already knew better." Sometimes it's just from plain old incompetence. What cartridge was used is irrelevant.
 
Art

I agree with you 100%. A hunter must use Disipline when taking his shots. if he dosn't the 30-06 is not going to be anymore forgiving than the 22-250. I have been hunting for fifty some years and do use A 22-250 sometimes. I also know the limits of this caliber and feel as confident as I do with other calibers that I use. This is just A guess but I bet you've got A 22-250 cal.somewhere close around.
 
Back in the day the Government here used professional hunters for deer culling. There were so many, and with no natural preadtors, deer numbers were massive. ( My Grandad once shot 60 deer in a morning with a Mark1 .303, but thats a story for another day). For the most part the professionals used BSA .222's, as they could carry more ammo. These were experinced professionals, but i dont think many amateurs should use a .222 on large feral boars, Thar and Elk. Even a .243 just gives you a better margin of error.
 
Ok, first of all the 22-250 is perfectly legal for deer in Arizona. It's also quite capable of taking them within reasonable range. Arizona law simply states "centerfire rifle", leaving the power level to the discression of the hunter. Strictly speaking, is also simply states "centerfire handgun", so a .25 auto would be considered legal. The law definitely leaves a lot to the knowledge of the hunter, and they expect you to use your brain.

What range then? Remember that Arizona's whitetails aren't as big as eastern whitetails. Coues deer top out at around 100-110 lbs field dressed, and I'd shoot one out to about 200 yards with a '250 as long as I was using good bullets designed for decent penetration and expansion.

No varmint bullets, so you'll likely have to handload.

I'd limit the range for mule deer some more; especially for the northern areas. Desert mulies can go 200+ lbs, but average less than that. Some of the northern mulies can get pretty big.

I have an uncle who killed a cow elk with a .223. He shot it through the neck, and was perfectly capable of making the shot.

A lot depends on the shooter's experience. In general, if someone has to ask this kind of question about their firearm, they probably haven't hunted with it enough to be confident yet. A lack of confidence can cost you, so do some shooting at animals with your rifle. Coyotes are great fun to call and shoot, and they'll build both your skill and confidence.

That all said, this post was about the cartridge, and not about the shooter. The '250 is perfectly capable of killing Arizona deer, as long as the hunter/shooter is skilled enough to make the shot, and disciplined enough tp pass up a mediocre shot when the rifle isn't sufficient to make a clean kill.

And only experience can teach you these aspects of hunting.

Daryl
 
there hasn't been a documented evidence of it causing disease in humans
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I am under the impression that:
CWD takes about ten years to show up after infection(infection not being the correct term in this case I believe). It also can be carried through all nervous tissue, so no meat is going to be without risk. One of the big concerns with mad cow disease is that with w/ McDonald's processing a single hamburger could contain meat from a million cows. Almost guaranteed a few thousand.

I'll take my chances on the head shot deer.

More on topic, look at a deer up close. The brain cavity is tiny. I thought the same thing at first.
 
Do not confuse CWD with BSE (mad cow disease). They are not the same and have significantly different symptoms. BSE is cause by a bad protein that eats away the brain. CWD causes the animal to waste away like they are starved.
 
Zombie, Do let them talk you out of the 22-250 if it's legal where you hunt. There are a couple of bullets that work very well on deer and bigger game. I think Hornady is loading the Nosler Partitioned 60 grain bullet for the 22-250. If you are a handloader or know a handloader the 70 grain Speer bullet works great on deer and hogs.

I have a Remington 700 with a 1-14 twist barrel that gets sub 1" 3 shot groups at 100 with the 70 grain Speer "Big Game" bullet. :)

I had rather someone hunt with a 22-250 they can shoot well, than to hunt with a 30-06 they are afraid of. Don't get me wrong there's nothing wrong with disliking the recoil of a 30-06. Being truthful more than one in here would agree with you.

As far as large goes. I guess the largest thing I've killed with the 22-250 was a boar hog that weighed in the neighborhood of 300 pounds.
HogBigBorwn22-250.jpg
 
.22-250 is a bit different than a .22 Buzzcock, its not a rimfire its a centerfire and it releases 1.7k pounds per square inch of energy with a 65gr load, compared to the 150 pounds per square inch of a .22LR. Big differnce my friend.
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Really?
 
I have a Remington 700 with a 1-14 twist barrel that gets sub 1" 3 shot groups at 100 with the 70 grain Speer "Big Game" bullet.
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There is a man that knows what he is doing.

If a persons .22-250, 220 Swift, etc will stabilize the 70 grain Speer, you can kill deer just as good as you can with a .243.

There is nothing unethical about using a .22-250 on deer with properly structured bullets.

I'm also going to go out on a limb and speculate that the vast majority of the time a deer is shot in the heart lung area with the 55 grain bullet it is cleanly killed.

Some people who have never actually used a .22 caliber high powered rifle on deer are merely assuming what the result would be.

100_0601.jpg


I've owned or shot a rifle for every one of these rifle cartridges and several not pictured, I've killed deer and hogs with most of them too. I know exactly what the will do. The .22-250 will kill deer just as well as a .243, 6 mm, etc with proper shot placement. You don't need to shoot them behind the ear or be right on top of them. All you have to do is make a normal heart lung shot and the 70 grain Speer or 60 grain Nosler will do the rest.
 
After all thats been said in this thread so far I will only add one thing. Check out Barnes solid copper bullets. They will have a near 100% weight retention and Varmint weight bullets wont come apart on contact. That said the 22-250 will kill deer like the hammer of Thor.
Ken
 
Since I live where .22 cal is not legal for deer, it isn't a question of whether I would use it or not here. Is the .22-250 ideal for deer? Not really... Will it kill a deer just as dead as a 30-06? Of course but your odds are better with heavy bullets and precise shot placement.

Ethics... I don't think any state has banned .22 cal for deer because using a .22-250 is unethical. I believe that the states that have restrictions made a choice to minimize the quantity of crippling shots on deer that get away. It isn't a matter of ethics. That said, my personal choice would be .243 as a minumum for a bolt gun and .30-30 for a lever action for deer. Would I complain about someone using a .22-250 in a state that allows it? Nope, but I might whine some if the person wasn't very careful about when to take a shot.

Would I take a shot if all I had was my .22-250 with me in a state where it was legal? I might if I had heavy bullets not designed for varmints and the perfect shot was possible.
 
A friend of mine took a 17 point non-typical (which scored 193) using a 22-250.

The buck weighed 225 lbs. and a neck shot took him right down.
 
Remember that most regulations about caliber date back to when the only loadings for the centerfire .22s were designed for varmints. 40-grain, 50-grain which were designed to blow up in small critters.

The wildlife folks also considered, SFAIK, that a lot of deer hunters tend to shoot somewhere in the brown, not at a particular small place on Bambi.
 
hell i know you guys dont want to hear this but over here 22-250 is popular with game harvesters.up to gemsbuck!!! what can i say shot placement and penatration! ie all head shots. having said that i opt for the bigger the better. i wont hunt gemsbuck with less than a 308.
 
I wish people would stop trying to make a cartridge do more than what it was designed to do. Yes, I suppose that a 22-250 could kill and Elephant but success in not very likely. The 22-250 was never designed to take deer. It was designed to be used on smaller game. Coyote being the largest. It is very capable of doing so and at suprisingly long range.

Please do the game you are hunting the respect that it deserves and hunt with a cartridge that was designed to take him.
 
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