What’s the thoughts on the .223 on all plains game with a match bullet trend?

[Rafiki]

Have some res[ect for the animal.

 

[CBH Australia]

Thats a question that still hasnt been definitively answered...

The military is now moving to a 6.8x51 round... still trying to find a balance between 556 and 762 NATO I believe..

Yeah, because the 7mm-08 doesn’t exist. If only there was some like that.

I have read up on the 6.8x51 and the plan to use high pressure loads etc but yeah, I would like to see more support for the 7-08. Think of the support and options in the civilian market if the 7-08 was more common.

I'm personally not a fan of mono bullets, they do not kill as quickly from my experience. I'm not going to say they don't work. I'm just saying until I do not have a choice, I have no plans for using them on game.

I’m sometimes second guessing Mono bullets.
Good hits don’t always have great kills. Yes the damage is done and the animal dies but not sure it’s happening quick enough when I’ve seen bang flop from the same rifle and different projectiles.
In theory they possibly make smaller bores better on big game but I have not got enough sample data of my own.

 

[hoytcanon]

I’m not high on them. I just find there to be a compelling amount of evidence that suggests 223 isn’t entirely rubbish for anything bigger than a rabbit.

Additionally, I would be interested in seeing failed terminal ballistics (if the animal had to have a follow up from another weapons, etc.) for comparison. I don’t sell the things so I have no skin in the game, but I like seeing the data and examples from both sides. Unfortunately, as has been stated in multiple settings, most people don’t post pictures of their failures.

How do you post pictures of an unrecovered animal??? Also, who is out there bragging up all.of the animals that they wounded and lost? I have tracked several bears and deer shot with .223's and .22/250's and/or match bullets where the trail was long and the animal either not recovered or recovered after a long lingering death. We now have required minimums and equipment/marksmanship checking for all clients. I have had clients ask for input and then ignore that input to their own ultimate (and the animals) detriment. Another example of this are bowhunters who ask about mechanical broadheads for moose hunting, and here again, I strongly advise against it... and similarly have experienced much higher rates of failures and negative outcomes as with small bore and match bullets. Folks, just stop testing your latest pet theories on animals in the field and stick with the tried and true equipment... there is enough that can go wrong even when your equipment allows for the largest margins for success, why would you intentionally reduce those margins??? Ego.

 

[Josh P]

How do you post pictures of an unrecovered animal??? Also, who is out there bragging up all.of the animals that they wounded and lost? I have tracked several bears and deer shot with .223's and .22/250's and/or match bullets where the trail was long and the animal either not recovered or recovered after a long lingering death. We now have required minimums and equipment/marksmanship checking for all clients. I have had clients ask for input and then ignore that input to their own ultimate (and the animals) detriment. Another example of this are bowhunters who ask about mechanical broadheads for moose hunting, and here again, I strongly advise against it... and similarly have experienced much higher rates of failures and negative outcomes as with small bore and match bullets. Folks, just stop testing your latest pet theories on animals in the field and stick with the tried and true equipment... there is enough that can go wrong even when your equipment allows for the largest margins for success, why would you intentionally reduce those margins??? Ego.

I never mentioned unrecovered animals. I said I would be interested in seeing the failed terminal ballistics of an animal that may have needed a follow up shot from another weapon. This is not meant as an insult, but this is (partially, not the full brunt of what a stated earlier) what I meant by people getting emotional and not reading what someone actually says on the subject.

Also, the comparison with broadheads is spot on. Mechanical heads, when they actually work, do incredible things to an animal. When they don’t work, they’re not much better than field tips. Once I saw what a 300gr single bevel 2 blade did to bone out of my 64lb longbow, I refused to hunt with anything that could have a rolled tip on bone, even for whitetail.

 

[Josh P]

Have some res[ect for the animal.

Does this look disrespectful? I don’t mean to sound antagonistic, but…it looks like ethical results.

Yet again, I’m not advocating for “experimental” shooting on giant PG or DG. Just suggesting that there’s evidence to suggest that newer advances in construction and technique may have different results than 50 years ago.

 

[gbflyer]

That is an informative topic over there and I’ve learned a few things. I like my small rifles for shopping the beaches here in SE AK. Some are a little religious about it though, lol. The advocates lose me when it is suggested that a M4 with 20 rounds of 77TMK would be the ideal stopping rifle for brown bear. A hunted bear is not a wounded bear.