Tennessee just made it legal to hunt with a .223 round. What do you think about that?

Question

I personally love the .223, but I don't think that it is strong enough to take down a deer. I want to hear the thoughts of other hunters.

Answer 1

You are correct. Any .22 caliber round, centerfire or not, is simply too small to take deer-size game humanely.

Best.

H

ADDENDUM: People talk of skill and bullet placement as if that is going to overcome every obstacle every time. THAT is just… Talk. Now let’s talk about something that is truly important: A hunter’s responsibility.

When deliberately hunting a specific game one must always match his weapon and ammo to the game he is hunting. It is neither right nor fair to use a weapon of opportunity where only skill and bullet placement will save the day. Skill and bullet placement are required every single time a hunter shoots game, period. A hunter also has a moral responsibility to match his caliber to the game he is hunting. This decision becomes critical when a hunter is hunting dangerous game.

Deer are strong, fairly powerful animals with well-defined heavy muscle, bone and sinew. A .22 caliber bullet is simply too slim and too light to consistently plow through muscle, bone & tissue regardless of bullet placement.

People wrongly reason, “Well if the Army uses the .223 to kill people it can surely kill a deer!” Wake up and smell the coffee. The military replaced the old .30-06 Springfield when they learned that it really did kill which is not necessarily an advantage to the army. The purpose of military campaigns is to inflict as many loses as possible on the enemy. A soldier killed outright can be left to rot in the field. In the case of a wounded soldier, his comrades must care for the wounded soldier. This effectively removes not just the wounded soldier but also one, two or more of the enemy soldiers from the battlefield to care for the one wounded soldier. A Military funeral is cheap. It is far more costly to pay for a wounded, crippled, maimed solider than it is to bury him. So you see, military calibers and bullet types are not always the best choice for hunting, unless you’re hunting rhino and need full-metal-jacket bullets to penetrate the hide and reach the vitals. AND only an idiot would shoot at a rhino with a .223!!!

Why do you think we traditionally have: Elephants rifles; buffalo guns; deer rifles and dangerous game rifles?

The .223 is rightly a VARMINT caliber. It has no place in the field hunting deer-size game except possibly as a last ditch, weapon of opportunity in the case of a dire necessity. Say your plane crashed. You’re stranded and you have no other means of harvesting game for food. In this scenario you will really learn how critical skill and bullet placement are, but truthfully, skill and bullet placement are always critical as there is NO substitute for them.

H

Answer 2

I have shot around all together on our 640 acres farm about 65 deer just my self with a Ruger Mini 14, in 223 with a drop dead one kill shot on the spot where the deer was standing at 200 yards out, or more, plus I use the 22-250 winchester load on a few hunts too.

Answer 3

Personally I would never use the .223 to take a deer except in a survival situation.

I think it will open up the deer hunting to a lot of new people but unfortunately many of them will be inexperienced yahoos with more money than brains who bought an AR style rifle for home defense and it's "coolness factor."

Answer 4

The .223 is a fine caliber, but not powerful enough for anything larger than a coyote. I have watched people kill deer with this round, but they had precision shooting skills, and they know what they are doing. Though, if you wanted to varmint hunt in Tenn., this is, like I said, a great choice. For deer, go with a .270, 30-06, or 7mm Mag. Best of luck.

Answer 5

Same old discussion..Not Powerful enough...powerful enough..It's all open for debate either way. The fact is Tennesse made it legal. I consider it a small victory of sorts for gun ownership and hunting.........

Lets be painfully honest here. It's not about caliber, or the pro's and con's..It's about ones "individual" ability to make that humane, accurate..one shot.... clean kill...Nothing more , nothing less......

Personally, I'm not a big fan of shooting Deer with any 223 caliber.....Like everyone else, I don't want to see a bunch of wounded Deer in the forests. That doesn't benefit anyone......

Answer 6

They made .223 legal for deer?
Far out.
It doesn't really have the punch I feel like you need in a deer cartridge. I suppose it's borderline effective, but can't get away from the point that it was adopted by the military for it's wounding capibilities, being as, if you KILL a man outright, you remove ONE man from the battlefield, but if you WOUND a man, you tie up SEVERAL potential enemy combatants trying to deal with the wound.
Are you sure they didn't just make it legal for "varmit" and small predator hunting?

Answer 7

i disagree with TN for I feel the 223 is very underpowered for all but a few true marksmen to use on deer plus the bullet selection for the 223 doesn't include many bullets I would even think of shooting at a deer

Answer 8

Don't they make an 80 gr bullet for the .223? That weight with velocities from 2700-3200 fps, in't that plenty? Is diameter that big of a deal?

Answer 9

I don't know, do the Tennessee deer tend to run the same size as South Carolina deer? if they do, then a .223 might work for smaller deer.......I wouldn't count on it for Maine or Nebraska whitetails though

Answer 10

It is obvious that these people have never seen the damage a .223 or 5.56 can create. Fact is that is is NOT a .22lr. The damage it does is more than enough. And shot placement should always be a goal of any hunter. Personally the more I have to be a marksman the more I enjoy the sport.