is a .223 enough for a deer?

[Gatehouse]

Holy crap guys!

There was nothing wrong with the bullet in K98's 6.5x55. That is one of the best penetrating bullet/weight combos of all time.

The problem was that the was that no part of the bullet hit the vitals. The one that did hit the vitals did its job, very well by the sounds of it. It wouldn't have mattered if the bullet that went through the shoulder was a 55 grain hollow point from a .223 rem, or a 500 grain round nose from a .458 Win Mag. It was a flesh wound simple as that.

Not a bullet problem? Looks to me as if the bullet blew up on a deer shoulder, and did not penetrate much at all. Be interesting to hear form K98 where the bullet ended up.

 

[K98ACTION]

Gatehouse your absolutly correct, that bullet DID not penetrate past the shoulder, or through the shoulder as I suspect after exploding on and completely shattering the upper shoulder bone into MANY pieces there was not much left of a bullet to do any thing more... Kinda like the recently found metor,, a tonne of material survived before exploding into several tiny fragments.

I fully agreed with a couple of factors which will make a 6.5 a very lethal caliber.. 1. Bullet placement, even the late John Taylor says the biggest caliber rifle don't mean squat if bullet placement is not ideal.

2. BETTER QUALITY bullets.. Barnes, Noslers etc..

 

[canadaman30]

223 worked good on VC, sure it'd kill deer

 

[Gatehouse]

Gatehouse your absolutly correct, that bullet DID not penetrate past the shoulder, or through the shoulder as I suspect after exploding on and completely shattering the upper shoulder bone into MANY pieces there was not much left of a bullet to do any thing more... Kinda like the recently found metor,, a tonne of material survived before exploding into several tiny fragments.

I fully agreed with a couple of factors which will make a 6.5 a very lethal caliber.. 1. Bullet placement, even the late John Taylor says the biggest caliber rifle don't mean squat if bullet placement is not ideal.

2. BETTER QUALITY bullets.. Barnes, Noslers etc..

Interlocks are often touted as excellent bullets (and in my opinion they are good cup and core bullets) but WOW...I'd say that looks like a bullet failure.

 

[JasonYuke]

Sometimes for unseen reasons and no real explanation.

S.H.I.T happens.

99xs out of 100 that shot would have saled through likely broke major bone and dropped him.

I like the interlock bullet, still have a pile of them I use in the mid ranges velocity cartridges, lik ethe x55 and 308, and never seen one do that myself and anchored whitetail on high shoulder shots

Did the bullet hit something before it hit the deer.