About 20 years ago I took a scoped CAR-15 (16" barrel) to Kodiak Island for Sitka blacktails - just to satisfy my curiosity. I loaded the Nosler 60-grain SolidBase to around 2900 fps. With six shots I took five deer (none were head shots, that is a flawed shooting method IME and IMO). The first deer didn't react to the shot so I fired again. He fell over five seconds later. The two shots were within 2" of each other in the lungs, both fatal. The next four I just fired once and waited. They all fell over within about ten seconds, usually without much reaction to the hit. From my experience newbie hunters might think "hey, the .223 is a fine deer cartridge." They would be wrong.

At that time deer were so plentiful on Kodiak that the limit was seven deer. I saw dozens of bucks each day and could afford to wait until I saw a perfect broadside presentation. All shots were within 150 yards. Only one bullet was recovered, all the rest passed completely through the deers' chests. The single recovered bullet looked like the advertising photos we are so familiar with.

For my conditions that year the .223 worked, but that does not make it a good deer cartridge. I passed up quartering shots, moving shots, shots over 150 yards. In many other areas I have hunted, passing up those shots means you will never fill your tag. The hunter with the .223 would be needlessly handicapping himself. There are better choices than the .223 for a low recoiling handgun, even a .357 Magnum would be superior out to 100 yards. Using a .223 displays questionable logic IMO, regardless of the results of a few shots. I gave up stunt hunting years ago.


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