Going on a herd reduction hunt in Burnet county,Tx and am required to use a 22 centerfire so I am taking my 223 and 22-250. This is a country neighborhood crawling with deer and the place we are to hunt on is 300 acres or so. What bullets out there will get thru a set of ribs and stay under the hide on the far side most of the time? Shots will be at 60 yards or less so shot placement will be perfect. I have 55 gr Ballistic Tips, Hornady SXSP's, Speer cannelured SP's, 50 gr. Sierra Blitz, Hornady SXSP's, 52 gr. Sierra BTHP Match and Hornady BTHP match to choose from. I will be pushing them to 3600 fps out of my 22-250 and a bit over 3000fps from my 223. My pick would be one of the first two but any suggestions are welcome. Few of these deer will weigh more than 80 pounds, only does and spike bucks are to be taken.

I too go on a cull hunt periodically. (Thankfully we face no such restrictions. I used my .375H&H last year---had one run too! Shot was a touch high.) Two years ago one fellow brought a Rem 700 SPS Varmint in .22-250 that he was shooting 55 gr BTips in. Don't know the load but they absolutely purpleized the chest cavity of the deer and did not exit.

I think you are right to use the first two. I'd be concerned about the performance of the match bullets and the lighter ones may be too soft or too light to insure adequate penetration.

Good luck. Let us know how they work.

LWD

Rick,
At 60 yards or less I think the think all will work fine. I use HP bullets on my cull hunting both here and in africa. They work well and dont exit. I would stay away from the match stuff based on my experience. They seem to exit quite often even at close range.

My pick would be the HP bullets in the 223. Head/neck shots should be relatively easy at this range and end things quickly.

This may surprise you....I'd be using Speer 50 grain TNT bullets for this job.....especially in the .223

All you really have to do is break through the entrance rib cage area.....from there just let-er-blow

I decided to load the 55 gr. Ballistic Tips in the 22-250 and loaded 5 of each for the 223, the Sierra Blitz, the Sierra Match BTHP's, 55 gr. Speer. I decided I need no more than 4 deer and have limited time for this endeavor. John my partner is also limiting himself to 4 deer, we may kill a hog apiece but we are getting into just about a truck load of game meat. The nice thing is it will be pretty cold and the meat won't require any ice or other special treatment.

quote:

but we are getting into just about a truck load of game meat.

That has happened to me before. You have way more than you can use. This year I have a couple of people I can supply.

I've heard the 60 grain Hornady HP is a good bullet for this too.

LWD

I don't know what you or anyone else bases their assumptions on, but the Nosler Ballistic Tip will likely out-penetrate all of them. Its base of solid guilding metal burrows surprisingly deep, despite the explosive nature of the front 3/4 of the bullet.

Vapodog is correct that the Speer TNT is likely the most frangible available.

The target-type hollow points may blow up, or may pencil through -- you never know.

But it is certainly not guaranteed that any one of the bullets in question will stay inside a doe's chest, so pick your shots with caution.

as mentioned above, at the velocities you are speaking about, I'd use the 50 grain TNT.. but also remember Speer also makes a 55 grain TNT and a 52 grain HP for varmint shooting..

since you are speaking of a short distance, you really don't need to load the 223 or the 22.250 to there full velocity potential...

2500 fps would be more than adequate, plus with a fragile bullet such as the SPSX, will penetrate better, without still penetrating on the far side, and deflecting who knows where...

plenty of good bullet choices, I'd just throttle down the velocity to the 2500 fps range..

I thought I read on this forum somewhere that a .22 caliber bullet is not adequate for deer.

Sorry, just ...

I've used my 22-250 on plenty of deer using factory soft points but with pass throughs. Sorry I can't help with the bullet selection.

Good luck with the hunt and please post your results!

I've shot numerous deer with the .223 using the Hornady 55 gr SX over 26 gr of H335. When shot in the ribs behind the shoulder the bullet disintegrates in the lung cavity peepering the inside of the off rib cage with small fragments at most. No exit wound period. Shots were 50 -200 yards give or take.

Larry Gibson

Sounds like a job for the trusty ol' Hornet to me!

quote:

Originally posted by Larry Gibson:
I've shot numerous deer with the .223 using the Hornady 55 gr SX over 26 gr of H335. When shot in the ribs behind the shoulder the bullet disintegrates in the lung cavity peepering the inside of the off rib cage with small fragments at most. No exit wound period. Shots were 50 -200 yards give or take.

Larry Gibson

This is the thinking I had about the TNT bullets from Speer.

This can't really be termed a hunt....it's a shoot and the shooters will have the benefits of picking their shots and placing the bullets so it should be an interesting shoot.

I am surprised at the number of folks that suggested the SX and Blitz bullets as I did the TNTs.....guess we all have read too much internet posts

I once shot deer in Texas with a 16" barreled .222 and 50 grain SPs.....it worked quite well on the broadside chest shot....

The .223 with the longer barrel will probably push an additional 4-500 FPS....

I'd sure like to read a new thread about the results!

quote:

I'd sure like to read a new thread about the results!

OH....yea.....please don't start the new thread with the statement:
"We shot many thousands of deer...."

Some folks just might hoist the flag!!!!

You all must have deer the size of a large coyote!

quote:

Originally posted by rcamuglia:
You all must have deer the size of a large coyote!

Texas Hill Country whitetail does, particularly on an overpopulated pasture, will average well under 100 lbs on the hoof.

quote:

Originally posted by Stonecreek:
Texas Hill Country whitetail does, particularly on an overpopulated pasture, will average well under 100 lbs on the hoof.

Been there.....seen that.....everything ain't big in Texas......and it don't take much to drop a 85 pound bambi in it's tracks.

Thank you Stonecreek for that reminder.

I think I'd leave the 22-250 home.

Well under 100lbs on the hoof = about 85lbs?

Take off the guts and lungs - 10lbs or so? Head 3lbs and feet 2lbs => UK gamedealer weight of 60-70lb or so => 30kg or twice the weight of our little roe deer.

This leads me to say that I think you're being quite brave. I've used varmint bullets on what you would call 50lb deer and they work but need extreme care - no shoulder shots, perfect angle and even then the odd problem can occur.

I'd use the 223 and 55gr BTs at start load velocities. I'd avoid TNTs and Vmaxs like the plague. A 50gr Vmax at 3,100fps doesn't make it past the shoulder of a deer half the size (don't ask me how I know) Even a really good lung hit results in considerably longer runs.

BTW why the need not to exit? Seeing as you can't responsibly take a shot where another deer is behind (because there are no guarentees) exit or no should make no difference.

There is the requirement to be precise and understanding quite how precise that is! A varmint bullet on a deer looking at you straight on has the potential to not penetrate to the brain if it's fired below eye level - Hell even an 85gr 243 hunting bullet won't (again experience)

Have fun.

Loaded up 4 different bullets and got there at 3:30 pm. Shot one doe with a 55 gr. ballistic tip right behind the shoulder about 1/3rd the way up, 35 yards rim my 223. Bullet jacket made it to the other side past the ribs and slid down under the hide to the deers belly. Deer dropped and the damage was pretty impressive. Well a big cold wind came up, dropped temperatures way under what John was wanting to deal with so we decided to postpone til next week. So I shot a big racoon as we were leaving, we had standing orders never to let any raccons live no matter what. Only Liberals are as low a varmint as a raccon.

My favorite bullet on coyotes is the Nosler 60gr Partition. I would think this would be as good a 22 cal. bullet as you will find. Keep the loads below max to avoid complete penetration.

quote:

so we decided to postpone til next week.

wellllll...it's next week....lets here the final tally.