Can this possibly work?

[earlthegoat2]

I am used to big stuff. So much so I generally never consider the small stuff. I acknowledge the small stuff kills game but I have always pondered if it killed it fast enough so the animal doesn’t make it to the property line.

Well, I have made this bed....so I also have to sleep in it.

Anyone who follows my posts knows I am a believer in keeping my gun collection small. So as a compromise I wheel and deal with different guns a lot trying out the next thing, seeing if I like it or not, and then moving on to the next. I have been blessed with owning some truly awesome guns in my life but the blessings were fleeting as I moved on to the next.

This practice has finally turned against me as I find myself in possession of a few inaccurate rifles and a hunting season looming. Granted for me, there is still over 6 months to go until firearms season. I don’t want to sell them and make them someone else’s problem. One is a Ruger that I bought new so I know I can send it back and they will fix it. It’s just not going to happen yet and that is not the point of this post.

There are limited options these days. Not for guns but ammo. Cost is not necessarily a problem but I wanted something different.

So I took my own advice. I located a large amount of hunting ammo....any ammo...and bought what I needed to shoot it. It just happens that this ammo and rifle is legal to use in my state. The bullet just happens to be less than half the diameter of the bullets I usually use.



So I ask, can this little thing possibly work? I hear the stories and I see the pictures of folks using 223 and 22-250 to shoot deer so it has to be effective. I am not a head or neck shooter though I have done it before....with a shotgun no less.

I would like to hear some tips, tricks, techniques, etc on using these smaller caliber cartridges for deer and piggies. I don’t care if the advice is ho hum. If you need to tell me that you use it no different than anything else then that is fine. I just need to hear it.

The rifle is an AR. The upper is 224 Valkyrie 20”. Scope will be a 1-4x20 for now but I hope to get a 1-6 or 2-10 in the future.

 

[Dibbs]

I'm not going to trot out the "shot placement" monologue, I use some 223 which is incredibly effective. I would say that under 250 yards that 224 should do a fine job. Given a choice, I would use something larger, on deer, but .224 Valkyrie 90 grain should get the job done.

 

[skeeterfogger]

Well, yes.

 

[jmorris]

I have killed lots of hogs, with .22lr, 9mm and other stuff I feel are inadequate for deer. Not that I don’t think it isn’t possible for them to kill smaller deer than some of the hogs I have killed with them but the stuff I do use on deer doesn’t kill them too dead and they are a game animal vs a varmint, to me. I would poison pigs if I knew without a doubt it wouldn’t hurt scavengers.

 

[LoonWulf]

Ive killed quite a few critters with .224 dia 50-55gr bullets Dont shoot them in the shoulder, and dont shoot them in the gut, otherwise they tend to be pretty effective.
Those 90s wouldn't be on my personal list because my experience with fusions is they dont expand as much as id like unless you smash them thru something hard. That isn't to say that THOSE bullets wont work fantastic, the .243s and 7mms hold together well and do expand, but don't anything super exciting on impact.

 

[Patocazador]

Dont shoot them in the shoulder, and dont shoot them in the gut

Lightweight, high speed bullets kill deer like a lightning strike IF you shoot them in the lungs. Make sure you don't hit bone or you'll see what LoonWulf means, a crippled deer leaving the county or worse, a gut-shot deer dying in a creek bottom somewhere.

 

[Highland Lofts]

Small caliber rifles are very effective on deer when placed in the right spot. I have killed plenty of whitetails with 222 Remington and 223.
I even killed a few with my Ruger 77/22 Hornet.all one shot/one kill. Never lost a deer.

When I shoot a deer it is either walking or standing still and I place my shot.
I don't fling lead like some people do, every year while out deer hunting I hear the jackasses empty thier semi autos, reload and shoot some more.
Shooting like that woild seam like they are shooting at running deer whick equats to gut shot animsls. I do not need a deer bad enough to shoot at running deer. I like to place my shot and have a dead deer with one shot.
I have right around twenty rifles for deer hunting, the past few years I have been useing a 243 single shot H&R Handi-Rifle and a 223 H&R single shot H&R Handi-Rifle.
I load my own ammo and with a rifle rest my bullets touch each other.
Where I hunt my average shot is right around 50 to 60 yards.
Once in a while i might shoot a deer out to 150 yards if I sit next to a field.

This is a target from my Remington 788 in 243.
All 100 grain soft point bullets with the same powder but differnt different types of bullets.
Just the type of bullet changes the whole dynamics of impact.
Factory ammo would be my last option for hunting.
I like rolling my own ammo.

 

[Aletheia]

It could very possibly work. I would ask, however, why would you deliberately choose to use something about which you felt the need to ask the question?

 

[stillquietvoice]

I used a 223 2 years ago with a factory round, fed premium 60 gr partition. Shot was quartering forward so the shot went in the front shoulder and exited the offside ribcage. Did massive damage including a broken shoulder joint. Deer went maybe 10 yds.

I was hunting with another thr member, @Highland Lofts on his son's property.

 

[horsey300]

I am used to big stuff. So much so I generally never consider the small stuff. I acknowledge the small stuff kills game but I have always pondered if it killed it fast enough so the animal doesn’t make it to the property line.

Well, I have made this bed....so I also have to sleep in it.

Anyone who follows my posts knows I am a believer in keeping my gun collection small. So as a compromise I wheel and deal with different guns a lot trying out the next thing, seeing if I like it or not, and then moving on to the next. I have been blessed with owning some truly awesome guns in my life but the blessings were fleeting as I moved on to the next.

This practice has finally turned against me as I find myself in possession of a few inaccurate rifles and a hunting season looming. Granted for me, there is still over 6 months to go until firearms season. I don’t want to sell them and make them someone else’s problem. One is a Ruger that I bought new so I know I can send it back and they will fix it. It’s just not going to happen yet and that is not the point of this post.

There are limited options these days. Not for guns but ammo. Cost is not necessarily a problem but I wanted something different.

So I took my own advice. I located a large amount of hunting ammo....any ammo...and bought what I needed to shoot it. It just happens that this ammo and rifle is legal to use in my state. The bullet just happens to be less than half the diameter of the bullets I usually use.

View attachment 991001

So I ask, can this little thing possibly work? I hear the stories and I see the pictures of folks using 223 and 22-250 to shoot deer so it has to be effective. I am not a head or neck shooter though I have done it before....with a shotgun no less.

I would like to hear some tips, tricks, techniques, etc on using these smaller caliber cartridges for deer and piggies. I don’t care if the advice is ho hum. If you need to tell me that you use it no different than anything else then that is fine. I just need to hear it.

The rifle is an AR. The upper is 224 Valkyrie 20”. Scope will be a 1-4x20 for now but I hope to get a 1-6 or 2-10 in the future.

Anything in 60-90 gr made for hunting will ABSOLUTELY work, my brother has the valkyrie, my boy the .22-250, the boy ran 62 gr scirocco 2, my brother runs the 75s, with this type of bullet we can either smash a bone, or just splode the boiler room. The 90 gr fusion is a shoulder wrecker bullet, use the bone to help the expansion out and you'll be fine. Keep an eye out for nosler accubonds, partitions and monometals, at under 100 yds, you'll wanna beef up construction, at 100-700 you'll want something a lil more violent. Sierra might just load a 62 factory ammo .224 some day soon, if so, that would be my violent round, I don't know if anyone is putting a scirocco 2 into factory fodder yet. And a Barnes/swift/nosler for shots up close.

 

[BigBore44]

I know I wouldn’t want to get shot by one. And I outweigh most white-tails. The “bigger is better” philosophy isn’t actually true. Especially for deer. But I still follow it just the same. It hasn’t failed me yet. Its nice not really having worry about bone or shot angles.

 

[Highland Lofts]

At my age the month I take off of work to go deer hunting all the way across the country and get to spend time with my family is priceless.
Shooting a deer is gives me pleasue but not necessary. The time with my family and the time in the woods where i grew up gives my happiness money can't buy.
I am seriously thinking about moving back to South/Central Upstate New York or North/Central Pennsylvania.
Personally I would feel comfortable hunting any whitetail deer with my Ruger 77/22 Hornet. I have killed deer with it before and still can.
Like I posted earlier, i only shoot deer that are standing still or walking. I place all my shots.
I do not shoot running deer like some azzwipes do.


I like watching yourtube, hunting, trapping, pigeon racings/loft design.
There is a youtube video of some kids in Maryland doing deer drives that shouldn't be allowed to hunt.
It is called
"2020 Deer Drive Compilation, Matyland Shotgun Season"

They put deer drives on over three three weekends. The deer break out into a good size hayfield. They are taking pot shots at these deer, they don't hit a damn thing. They say they do but that is total BS. Them deer are out of shotgun range, even with a rifle shooting at these running deer only equals gut shot deer.
But they get thier fifteen minutes of fame.