All three of my kids killed their first several deer with a 222 Rem and the 60 gr. Hornady HP...My grandchildren are now using the same rifle and load..100% success..

I have shot many many deer with this gun and the 22-250 over the years...I restrict shooting to 200 yards max, prefer 100 yard shots. I get full penitration on all broadside shots, but not if they angle much..I have recovered more than a few perfectly expanded bullets from slightly angleing shots..We have never lost a deer and 99% one shot instant or near instant kills, thats a pretty hard record to beat..We do not take just any shot and adjust our hunting techniques to the caliber....

If it does not work for some then thats because they used either the wrong bullet or used it without proper descretion...Under adverse conditions I would not recommend it..

The same applies to my 6x45, and old 25-35 Win which also works well on deer, when used with discretion.

I have done a bit of deer hunting including with a .223.

I was wondering if anyelse here has hunted deer with a .223 and how they found it.

I've shot a few with .223. I don't think it's a very effective.

I have found the 223 to be very effective on deer using what I consider usable shot placement with light calibers. Having never made a hit on a deer outside those limitations and so far never needing a second shot to take one, then for me it is a very effective cartridge as would practically any accurate rifle/ cartridge combination.

I will probably be flamed for this but here it goes. Both of my kids started hunting with the .223 caliber when they were 6-7 years old. James has used this caliber to take 3 hogs, 4 whitetail does, 3 whitetail bucks, a blackbuck, 4 exotic rams and goats as well as 5 exotic deer does. He is now 18 and moved up to a .308 when he was 12. Beth has used this caliber to harvest a whitetail buck, 3 whitetail does, a blackbuck, 6 exotic does, 4 hogs and a very nice feral ram. She moved up to the .7mm-08 caliber when she was 13. I have also used the .223 caiber in my youth hunting program for over 15 years. Many times the smaller kids can not handle the recoil of anything heavier so they are taught about shot placement and have used the .223 quite effectively. In using it for 80+ kids there has only been 3 times that an animal had to be shot more than once. So I think that when loaded with the proper hunting load, Trophy Bonded Bear Claws being my favorite, that the .223 is a very effective round on deer sized game.As a side note, I help a friend of mine harvest his exotic does for venison for the resturant market. We will shoot over 200 animals over a weekend. We use the .223 exclusively for this duty as there is little to no meat loss.

One of my hunting partners has hunted with his Bushmaster AR 15. First deer was with a full sized model, this year was with his new shorty.

The first one was hit by two rifles, nearly at the same time, as two were shooting at the one doe. My kid's 7-08 with 139 SST's, he hit her high in the back just forward of the back legs. The .223 hit her jugulars at the base of the neck,(she was running full speed). The 55 grain power point made complete penetration through the neck, causing a 2" wound channel. It alone would have eventually brought her down. The SST had enough shock to paralyse her back legs, so she tried to get away with just her front legs.

This year with the shorty, he bought some factory 45 grain hollow points for it. He shot a nubbin buck at about 30 yards, hitting it just behind the last rib, angling forward in the chest cavity. No exit and no large peices of the bullet were found. The deer dropped in his tracks and never wiggled. The mess inside was incredible!

Using the right bullet, choosing the best shot placement and not trying long angles or shoulder shots will result in dead deer. I personally won't hunt with one. Shot opportunities are few and far between, I don't want to go without because I had to let one walk because he wasn't perfectly broadside.

Nozler makes a 60 grain partition that should stabilize in most all twists. Use of this bullet would give some margin for error.

I've used it and have found it effective when perfect shot placement is available. For culling does, hogs, etc. I think that it is an acceptable cartridge but for trophy hunting I leave it at home so when the less-than-perfect shot appears on a big buck I don't have to cry as I pass on the shot and he walks away, or even worse if he runs away wounded because I've tried a questionable shot. That being said I'd rather hit a deer in the vitals with a properly constructed .223 bullet that in the guts with anything else.

All I can say is, the .223 has been proven many thousands of time to be an effective deer cartridge at least within 150 to 200 yards which is what any person should keep his max shots to with it. Kids should always be setup for short to moderate range shots anyway. One thing.....the grandad may have had that .223 loaded with FMJ bullets which is not unusual do to shear supidity over the .223. My very own grand-nephew's maternal grandad(no kin to me) just last week bought two boxes of FMJ .223 for my nephew's .223. His dad said, "He doesn't know ah@t about hunting bullets." But what did they do? They tried to sight the gun in for the 55 grain FMJs which of course didn't hit the target where the 64 grain power-points would have in which the gun was properly sighted for. So before any hunting was done the boy's dad confiscated the FMJs and took the boy hunting with the .243 instead. Leave it to stupid in-laws to screw things up. That boy has killed a dozen deer with that .223 without any problems.

I found the .223 to be a capable cartridge in capable hands. Not an all around choice but it will do the job if the hunter does thiers.

I have shot one deer with it and reloaded some ammo for a buddy of mine who has shot a couple of dozen deer with it.

We ended up settling on a fmj flat nose. I can't remember who makes it. Either federal, winchester or remington. Two of them have pointy fmj's and one has a flat nose version. The flat nose did a lot more damage than the pointy bullets.

He shot deer with 55 grain soft points and 60 grain solid base noslers also. These would work fine but not exit. My buddy prefered an exit. He shot deer from 10-300 yards and only lost one to a marginal hit at @ 50 yards.

I would use a barnes x or partition or trophy bonded if I were to use it for deer again. Same goes for 22-250 which I have used on four deer with 70 speers at around 3100 fps.

My buddy uses a 340 weaterby for all of his hunting now. With 210 barnes X's for deer.
I asked him what he thought was a good minimum for deer and he said 25-06 ....... go figure.