Hunting Bullets for .223

B

Bottom Gun

New member
I would like to hunt whitetail with a .223 this year.
I have been hearing some good things about several different controlled expansion bullets:

64 gr Winchester Power Point
65 gr Sierra Gameking
62 & 64 gr Gold Dot

Has anyone had experience with these bullets for hunting? If so, will you please tell us how well they worked?

I’ve worked up some loads for the above bullets in the 2900 to 3000 fps range and have been pleased with the accuracy of each in my Sako Vixen. Now I have to find a way to evaluate the terminal performance of each. I am planning to try to recover some bullets in water jugs.
Meanwhile, I was curious to see of anyone had used these on medium game.

Thanks !!!!
 
.223 on deer

I have no experience with the projectiles mentioned on whitetails. I have been present when bamaboy, at a young age, killed two deer (his first) with a .223 bolt rifle, and I personally field dressed, and butchered same. Ammo used in this effort was Federal Tactical, a 62 and 55 gr bonded bullet. I cannot advise who's bullet Federal loads in their LE tactical line. Ten years later, I cannot say which slug was used on what shot, sorry.
both shots were of shoot house rails, with me coaching at his elbow. There was plenty of practice before with .22lr and .223. We went to a larger gun (7.62x39, then .243) the following season. Now I have to hide the .308 from him.

Shot #1 was at 75 yds, broadside, mid double lung and a complete pass thru. There was a heavy blood trail, the deer, a 100 lb or so doe, traveled about 75 yds. The wound channel at it's largest was about quarter size, and the exit wound about the size of a dime.

Shot #2 was at 30 yds, and a near copy of the above shot. The deer traveled about 30 yds immediately into thick cover. We did not get an exit wound on this deer, I suspect increased and more rapid expansion due to higher impact velocity at closer range. The bullet was recovered under the hide on the off side, about dime size, maybe a wee bit smaller. Wound channel at its peak was again about quarter size, perhaps a mite larger. There was absolutely no blood trail. We recovered the deer following deep tracks and plow marks.

Pick your shots and shoot well, and I'd consider limiting the distance of shots, say to 150 yds at most. No reason you can't have success with your choice of slugs too. I have loaded some 60 gr Nosler Partitions, but just cannot make myself take a .223 as I have better choices available.
 
Thanks for the good info. I appreciate it. Sounds like you can’t expect any better performance from those bullets. That’s encouraging. Those wound channels sound about as good as you can expect from a .22 diameter bullet.

I’m not certain but I think the Federal Fusion bullets are Gold Dots with a different name. I’ve compared the two and they appear to be visually identical.
My friend’s daughter took a nice buck at 250 yd using ammo issued to him by Border Patrol which he says are Gold Dot. He said the buck dropped in its tracks.

I considered the 60 gr Nosler Partitions because I’ve had great success with Partitions in .30 cal and .338 but in .223, they weren’t as accurate as the three I am presently considering. At least I haven’t found a tack-driving load for them yet.

I have more powerful rifles I can use but I just want to take my Sako .223 out this year. It will be a bit more of a challenge.
I have no problem limiting the distance. Most deer I’ve taken have been well under 200 yd.
 
Sierra 63grn. SMP; another consideration

I have a M700 in .223 rem., and the r.o.t. in it is 1 in 12." I have a buddy who has a M600 Mohawk in .222 rem. and I believe his rifle has a 1 in 14" r.o.t. As long as one uses a 60 grn. bullet (minimum weight) in either caliber, they're legal in Wyoming with which to hunt deer and antelope. We both use reloads in the rifles, and though I haven't killed a deer with my .223, my bud has killed three whitetails with his .222 using the Sierra 63 grn. SMP, with very good results. One just has to be fairly exacting with shot placement, and keeping a shot well within, say, 150 yds. (IMO). I believe beyond that, things could maybe get iffy, and that's nothing more than my opinion. The 63 grn. bullet, from what I've read, is maybe beyond the edge of a good accuracy weight in either caliber (because of the r.o.t.s of either caliber), but that bullet shoots quite well in my .223, and more than adequate in my buddy's .222. Just another bullet suggestion you may want to consider. Varget is what we use for propellant.

Just a few days ago, I was at the range with my .223, and shot a 5 shot group at 100 yds. that measured, center to center from the two widest shots, @ 7/8ths" with that bullet and my charge of Varget. The rifle will do that for me most every time at that range, if I do my part for the rifle. With a dead rest, and under 100 yds., I believe it would be more than adequate whitetail medicine.

I haven't tried the bullets you've mentioned, as I'm pretty much sold on the Sierra SMP. I've seen kill results using that bullet, and the accuracy is very good in both calibers.
 
Pick your shots and shoot well, and I'd consider limiting the distance of shots, say to 150 yds at most. No reason you can't have success with your choice of slugs too. I have loaded some 60 gr Nosler Partitions, but just cannot make myself take a .223 as I have better choices available.
Click to expand...
I'm comfortable with 223 on Yotes, but not deer or hogs. My last shot at a deer, (127 yards) with a 165 Grand Slam at a mild 2500fps from a 308, blew it completely over and left a half dollar exit. Twitched once.
 
I have a can of Varget here that I had forgotten about. I bought it to load .243 but haven’t tried it for .223 yet. I’ve been using H335 and Win 748 with the bullets I mentioned. I’ll have to give Varget a try once I determine which bullet performs best in my testing.

I’ll keep those Sierra 63 gr SMP bullets in mind in case the selection I have doesn’t work out. Thanks for the tip.

I won’t be able to test in water jugs for a month or so. The national forests here currently have fire restrictions in place that include target shooting of all things. I’ll have to wait until restrictions are lifted next month.
 
In the 80’s I used the 63 gr Sierra SMP on pigs and a few deer. It worked pretty well. These days I use the 65 gr Sierra Gameking on pigs, and it does a really fine job. Don’t shoot them in the butt though. You need to be selective with bullet placement. If I can kill pigs with it, I’m pretty darn sure it’ll do the job on deer (with selective bullet placement).

If you can get acceptable accuracy with the 60 gr Partition, that’s an even better bullet for pigs and deer. I just get better accuracy with that Gameking.
 
I've use 75 BTHP grainers from Hornady when I've culled some does and a couple of bucks, just remember that every caliber has their limitations regardless of what ballistic charts show especially if people decide that the energy down range is enough. All my kills were under a 100 yards which is my own self imposed restrictions for using an AR for deer.
 
Bottom Gun said:
I would like to hunt whitetail with a .223 this year.
I have been hearing some good things about several different controlled expansion bullets:

64 gr Winchester Power Point
65 gr Sierra Gameking
62 & 64 gr Gold Dot

Has anyone had experience with these bullets for hunting? If so, will you please tell us how well they worked?

I’ve worked up some loads for the above bullets in the 2900 to 3000 fps range and have been pleased with the accuracy of each in my Sako Vixen. Now I have to find a way to evaluate the terminal performance of each. I am planning to try to recover some bullets in water jugs.
Meanwhile, I was curious to see of anyone had used these on medium game.

Thanks !!!!
Click to expand...
The 62 Gold Dot has performed quite well on deer in both my sons .223. penetrates deep. Does a lot of damage for a .223. usually no exit and no blood trail. If you want an exit and a blood trail the TSX will be your bullet.
 
Barnes 55 grain TSX bullets have worked pretty well for us in Oklahoma. You might look at Noslers 64 grain Bonded Performance bullet.
 
I have shot 2 AZ deer, a couple of Javelinas, and a boatload of coyotes with the 64gr WW PP bullet. Never any problems, it expands well and does not go to pieces, It even stabilized in my 26 inch 22/250.
 
I’m not a .223 fan when it comes to deer but if I had to choose a bullet, Nosler are super hard to beat as long as it’s not one of the varmegeddons. I used those once on a armadillo at 100yds in my 700 and it didn’t penetrate at all.
 
Wow. I'm a bit jealous of you all being able to hunt deer with 223. Here in Ohio up until recently, only shotgun was allowed, or muzzle loader and I just haven't had the best of luck with my muzzle loader. Plus, trouble shooting a black powder gun takes a little more patience in between shots. Now we can have certain straight wall cartridges, but no bottleneck ones. It is nice to hear that a 223 is *capable* of bringing down deer if it came down to it. I thought it was only good for varminting in the hunting world.
 
DYL, if it came down to survival, a .22lr will kill a deer with proper shot placement obviously. Since you’re in Ohio, have you looked into the .350Legend yet? It’s no 45-70 but it would open the door to a lot more hunters.
 
.223 SUCKS for deer.

federal fusion, barns solid copper, it just sucks..

fusion expanded but stayed inside, no blood trail.

barnes solid copper, hit, expanded, but the exit and entrance hole were both .223 in diameter, not a good sign. minimal internal damage. thing ran 200 yards
 
60 gr Hornady V-Max. Broke right front shoulder and turned lungs to jelly, no exit. Deer dropped in it's tracks, and tried to get up for maybe 10 seconds before dying. Range 50 yards. I've seen them run 100+ yards with 165 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip 30-06 loads though both lungs and a 3" exit on the off side.

Some deer are just tougher than others and don't want to die. It ain't always about what you hit 'em with.
 
I hunted deer one year with a 223. Carried nice, accurate, and it did the job nicely. Would I do it again? Mmmmaybee, if I was hunting in OR again (WA requires .24 caliber minimum). The deer on the coast here in the Pacific NW are pretty small, but inland they get pretty chunky. This year is the trial run for my new lightweight 308, anyway, so not this year.
 
Here in Va, we have to use ≥ .23. No 22s in so many words. But just a few miles down the road in West VA....

I have a special place in my heart for whitetail hunting with .223. Not too many years back, I had one of those seasons that maxed out my tags without spending very much time at all in the field. I just couldn't help but find deer and find them close. My longest shot that season was 87 yards. So bear in mind, long range is not your friend with .223. You don't start with enough energy to lose what you do past 300 yards (That's going to be my absolute max with .223 going forward). That season, 4 of 5 deer harvested were head shots. I was giving the meat away that year. I have a friend who knew a large family that was in a rough spot. I did the hunting and gutting, he did the processing, and we put meat in the freezers of an older man and his sons' families. I really enjoyed that season.

But in mountainous area this far south, there aren't too many deer too big for .223, neither are there too many distances > 300 yards. I like the Nosler bonded solid base 60 grains. They're a good sight cheaper than the Accubonds and the Partitions, and they hold together a lot better than Sierras. There are several Hornadys I'd like to try, but my current load works great. (I will also say that the Federal Fusion are excellent as well, but I have found that they are either very accurate, or not at all. I had a .223 that loved them and shot barely over 1 MOA, but I impulsively sold it, and I don't have anything right now that will shoot them at less than 3".)

It's hard to find too many solid bullets in .224 compared to the vast number of varmint/predator and target bullets. But I say stay away from anything with a this jacket. I would also say go for bonded when possible. Again, this narrows the options. But I believe it's flirting with disaster to hunt anything medium to large game with fragile bullets.

It's been said 10,000 times if it's been said once, but I'll say it again... The suitability of any game cartridge is defined by knowing its limitations, the limitations of the shooter, and the understanding that any of a vast number of factors can fluctuate at any point. I enjoy the challenge of finding and taking the shots that fit inside those limitations. To me, that is the finesse of hunting with center-fire rifles.
 
I’ve hunted pigs with a 220 and 223 and several bullets. The one bullet I have not actually used on pigs may be the best one of all. That’s the Nosler 64 gr Bonded Solid Base. A fellow I know and respect says he gets exits on deer and pigs with that bullet. The bad news is that Nosler may have quit making that bullet.

I doubt I’ll hunt deer this year with a 223, since I have better options, but if I decide to, I’ll be using the 65 gr Sierra GK. It’s very accurate in my 223’s, and inexpensive. And if I can kill pigs with it, it’ll sure kill deer.
 
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