what is your .223 hunting rig?

Weatherby Vanguard 2 with a Bausch & Lombe 4-12x40 up top. It is actually pretty light in .223rem. I hunt jack rabbit and wolves with it. It is just so damn accurate. With the 1:9" twist , I mainly use 55gr ammo.
 
Remington 700 BDL Varmint wearing a 4-16x42 Nikon Prostaff, It seems to particularly like 55 grain Hornady SP's and federal blue box if factory is being shot. Mostly varmint use, although I will use it on a deer if the conditions are right.
Tikka T3 1-8 twist, it will be carried at least some days for deer this fall. I'm doing a bit of load development, unfortunately the gun seems very compliant and shoots lots of bullets well enough to take out a deer's heart to around 200 yards. Either of the 55 grain gamekings, 60 grain Hornady SP, 64 grain Winchester Power points as well as 50 grain TTSX and I have some 75grain Swift Scirocco II's to try. If the swifts shoots they will be my deer load. It truly loves 60 grain NBT's and 69 grain matchkings, but I'm not inclined to use those two for anything larger than a coyote.
I had a stevens 200 with a 1-9 twist and it killed deer with federal fusion, 64 Winchester power point and nosler partition factory. Nosler Partition killed best but I couldn't get them to shoot less than 1 3/4" at 100 yards even handloaded. Still a 200 yard deer load.
 
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any particular reason you're not using the heaviest weight hunting bullets available?

62gr TTSX is a pretty heavy Barnes bullet. The 53gr TSX was the largest available at the time. The 55gr BT was a coyote load but it's what was in the magazine at the time.
and Gatehouse, how big are the deer and bear you've taken?

Deer I shot with the Tavor was an average size mule deer doe. Bear have been 5 foot, 6 foot and the big one was well over six feet and a big bodied brute. I would have preferred my 375 Ruger! :)
 
I know a guy that has shot several moose with the .223 I believe the shots were at pretty close range and he shot them in the neck. However I don't agree with this choice of caliber for moose, or deer. I would still like to get one though, just for target shooting purposes
 
I have a Browning X-Bolt Composite Stalker .223 topped with a Vortex Diamondback and I drag that rifle everywhere with me. Truck, tractor, quad, walking, she is seldom out of reach. After mounting the scope, and bore sighting, she literally "clover-leafed" her way down and across the paper to the bull and has never moved from there in years. Two kinds of Winchester ammo PSP and Polymer tip, Remington green box in 55 grain JHP used on porcupine, skunks, ravens, coyotes, fox and beef. Legally not allowed to use it on big game here, but if I had no choice, I would shoot anything that leaves tracks quite confidently. I have some Hornady Match in 75 grain BTHP to try next.

I wish they were available in Micro Midas or the new X-Bolt Micro Composite.
 
I hunt small blacktail deer and occasionally reach for a Rem model 7 or Ruger mini14 .223. I have also had a Tikka T3 in .223 and have taken deer with it as well.
Factory bullets : Winchester 65 gr (I think) and Fed fusion 63 gr.
Homespun: Nosler Part. 60 gr and TSX and TTSX 50 or 53 gr.

My preferred 22 cal for blacktail deer would be my Tikka T3 22-250 with 60 gr partitions.
That being said I mostly hunt with a 7-08 these days.
 
Savage axis with bedded and weighted stock. I load 60 gr Hornady soft points over 24 gr 4895. Good for coyotes, crows, a grouse or two and gophers.978F1FB9-44BE-4341-831D-74F38D8567E1.jpg
 

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weight stock? for a .223? I know it's recoil is legendary, but was that really a necessity? ribbing aside, did you weight it for better resting stability or something else?

Lol, this was my test rifle for altering the stock; take an el-cheapo and turn it into a great shooting rig. It is pretty cool to watch your bullet hit the target! In all honesty I did it to see how well I could do it and it was pretty fun.
 
TC Contender with a Vortex 4-12 shooting factory Hornady 62gr BTHP
I use those because I got 240 rounds for free and the gun loves them but I only have about 20 left.
Never used on anything bigger than coyotes but it has taken well over 100 of those.
Not perfectly between the eyes but as you can see, very good energy dump.
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