Dropped doe #7 with 70grn TSX this AM. 225 yards at about a 23degree uphill angle. Bullet hit slightly behind the crease of the shoulder 2"inches below the spine, it traveled on it's upward angle and intersected the spine, severing it and her spinal cord. The deer was slightly angled away, so it hit the spine about mid point of the shoulder. She dropped straight down, her head smacked in between her shoulders as she went down. She was dead before she started to fall, never twitched, or even breathed after the shot.

This doe makes 7 1 shot kills with the 70 grn TSX.










Ok I finally got around to shooting a deer yesterday evening. 50 yards frontal shot bullet hit a little left of center chest, centered the heart. Deer ran 40 yards and fell over dead. I am unsure of penetration, did not recover bullet and did not find an exit. Trauma was severe, much bruising in both shoulders and the neck. Lot of splintered bone in the sternum and ribs. Heart and lungs were toast. I did not get a pic of the lungs, but I did recover and photograph the heart. Small doe, most of the deer here are very small this year due to drought. This one only weighed 69 lbs dressed, I think she was 1.5 years old, teeth wear said 3 yrs, but I am a tooth aging skeptic.
ETA this was a 70 grn TSX over 25 grns of BLC-2















11/20/11 Update

I shot 4 anterless this AM

Distance was about 135 yards 70 grn TSX full penetration and exit of the spine on one of them




Recovered this Bullet 28" into the deer. Retained 100% weight

11-27-11 update

Dropped another doe this AM. 175 yards I made a pretty poor shot, she was angled more than I thought. I hit 1 lung and the liver. She ran 125 yards, jumped a fence and died when she hit the ground. There was no blood trail I could find but she was laying in a large pool of blood. Photobucket is not happy with my bandwidth consumption and I am not really wanting to pay for Pro Service. 75 grn TSX fully exited the deer again.

70gr TSX

That's beautiful. Congrats

The deer's about as long as the rifle?? Hunh?

Drought, it makes a small deer. The teeth wear showed 3 yrs of age like I said, i do not think it was older than 1 yr. But it did not have its milk tooth. So i do not know. Small deer, there will be many more this season.

We have rabbits bigger than your deer...

How about this one from last year? You have rabbits over 200 lbs?

No shit, I guess not everything is 'bigger in Texas'. I'd like to see a .223 drop a REAL deer. Not saying it hasn't been done before, or couldn't, but it seems like every time I see a '223 vs deer' thread, its always these runty lil Texan things.

NOW THATS A DEER! Also taken with .223? I take back my previous comments and may even take a dinner pic of the crow I'm eating.

Nice dog

With some shot reservation and select loads the 223 is an adequate deer killer. I'm hesistant to sell it off as a great deer caliber even if it's small deer. In TX often these deer are baited into shooting lanes. Much different strains of deer and different hunting strategies throughout the country.....generally it is prudent to go with a bigger round.

I only hunt open farm fields of several hundred acres, I do not generally hunt over any bait other than what is planted in the field. A 223 will work 100% fine if you are not trying to shoot through a deers hind quarter into the vitals etc. A broad side shot with a good bullet out of a 223 will fully penetrate a deer as heavy as 235 lbs that is the heaviest I have seen killed with it. I am fairly certain it would do the same up to 300 lbs.
WesDesRat shot a Mule Deer in Ut this year with a 70 grn TSX and got 36" of penetration. YMMV

I laughed like hell the first time I heard it too! The OP is on a mission, and I'm only joking around at his expense. I greatly appreciate the hard work he is doing now (and has done in the past) to demonstrate using the AR15 in .223 Rem with a proper bullet as a humane whitetail hunting tool. He has put up with a bunch of hecklers for doing this.

Do you think this is indicative of Barnes TSX, or the calibre itself? Would the results be the same from a shorter barrel?

Hey congratulations on your kill. When I 1st came on Arfcom I talked about hunting deer with my AR-15 and having killed 7 deer with it. I was called all kinds of names by posters saying I was unethical for using .223 for deer. I'm glad things have changed around here.

I killed my first AR deer yesterday. The handloaded 55gr Barnes TSX completely passed through with a nickle sized exit wound. Deer went 20 yards, bounced off a cedar tree and was dead. While it didn't do the damage that one of my bigger rifles does it worked great.

It just goes to show its all about placement of the bullet.

I shot a medium sized doe with a .308 winchester soft point 168gns.

Tiny entry hole, about quarter sized exit hole. Entire chest cavity was toast.

Lungs, heart all hamburgerized.

But the damn thing still ran about 35 yards before it keeled over.

HUGE blood trail, like it was sprinkler.

The snow was just red about a 3 foot wide trail to the deer where it stopped about 10 feet from the deer when she bled out.

didn't read the whole post. Do you normally skin large rabbits with a chainsaw?

Nice kill! I never understood why they require a larger bullet here.

A few years back my dad got a buck during bow season. Found, two, count it... TWO rifle rounds in the thing.

I would have thought they would have deteriorated more over time(based on nothing but wild assumptions) but there they were, perfectly intact. One in the hip area and the other in the chest, in front of any vitals. He said the deer was walking through the field with quite a limp. Found out why after we skinned it.

Not sure where your at, but I'm in Kimble county and were seeing the same small deer.
My cousin Jacob killed his first yesterday, a small spike buck.

I am in the NorthWest Panhandle, our deer normally tend much larger than South Texas or the Hill Country, the drought has had an impact though.

I'm not a fan of .223 for deer, but threads like this definitely show the round will do it. If .223 works on 200 pound enemy combatants it will work on deer if the hole goes in the right place. If you want to use it, get a good zero, pick your shot, go home and eat. As for me, my ambition is to shoot a deer with my M1-sadly it's only legal in IA 3-4 hours south of me. Not sure if I want to drive that far when I can use a handgun on my father in law's farm 20 minutes from my house.

Shot was 50 yards, barrel length would not have changed anything

Random photos from hunting

Sorry, couldn't resist