.22 Caliber Deer Hunting Bullet

bperdue21

I am looking for a .22 caliber bullet for small whitetails. Was looking at the barnes x and the nosler partitiions. looking for something in the 50-60 gr weight. any suggestions? will be used in a 22-250 or 223.

I'm not an expert, but i did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night.

richbug

The nosler 60 grain would be a fair choice if you must use a 223. I have used the 70 grain speer also. I can get a little over 3000 fps with it.

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GaBob

I really don't favor the .22 s for deer but have used them on occasion. I shot a big doe with 22-250 and 50 gr Speer TNT in the neck(my favorite shot). She was looking straight at me from 75 yards. Did a complete back flip and landed on her back. Took out 5 vertebra in neck. Another with same bullet in .223 broke neck and paralyzed the deer. Took another shot behind ear to finish it.

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mrbruce

The 60 gr Nosler partition is a excellent bullet for small whitetails in the .223
Sierra has a 65gr bullet that should also work very well.
I would steer away from the TNT's as they are a rapidly expanding bullet made for varmints.
If you have the twist for it the excellant 75gr Hornady A-max is a super deer bullet, but you do need at least a 1 in 9 twist for it to work as planned.

Gun control is hitting what your aiming at.

bperdue21

i thought that the tnt was a varmint round. i figured the noslers or the barnes would hold together a lot better than others. the twist is 1-12" in the 223 and 1-14" in 22-250. a heavy deer here anymore is 150 lbs so i would think i have more than enough power to take those down. these two guns shoot within a 3/8" and there is no sense in leaving them home when i can get the bullet exactly where I want it.

I'm not an expert, but i did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night.

GaBob

The TNT is a varmint bullet but it was all I had on hand at the time. That was another reason for the neck shots. I am sure that there are much better bullets for deer.

Keep Your Powder Dry
NRA Life Member
The only criminal class that is native to the United States is congress.
MARK TWAIN

Snellstrom

I actually have quite a lot of experience shooting Deer and Antelope with a 22/250 and the only bullet I can really recommend is the Barnes X bullet. I've tried lots of different bullets over the last 28 years of shooting deer with a 22/250 ( Noslers, Speers etc.)in all kinds of different weights and the Barnes X has it hands down. I've even loaded them as "medium" loads for a .223 for the son of a friend and he has 2 one shot kills on whitetails. I've tried both the 52 and 53 grain moly-coated and uncoated and they've both performed well. Favorite load for my gun is 38 grains of H380 with the 52 grain plain Barnes X shoots little tiny groups for me and as for performance I shot an Antelope in New Mexico at an honest 400 yards even, he dropped right away in his tracks like you * the rug out from under him and the bullet exited. During the "autopsy" we found his lungs were "jello" and the major arteries above the heart were vaporized. This bullet works great and it is the only bullet I can really recommend for this smallbore deer hunting thing. Second place is the Nosler partition bullet and I hear there is a .224 Trophy Bonded bullet that sounds somewhat interesting too, but I don't see how it could beat the performance of the solid copper Barnes X.
As a side note my experience with the Barnes bullets is you must clean your gun more often to maintain precision accuracy I think the copper is soft and fouls faster than other projectiles, I clean every 10 shots. ( found this to be true for .22/250 and .243 ).
Good luck and have fun!
PS: if you want more examples of good and bad bullet performance for the 22/250 I've got them! I've taken a bunch with it and not lost any.(luckily).

dcso3009

Snellstrom
I agree with you on the cleaning issue. I shoot the TSX out of mu 30-06 and 308. The only way to clean them is with a good copper solvent. I use their CR-10 and have had good results. Im not sure about others as I have not used them. The wife is disappointed everytime she comes home and the house smells like amonia she thinks I was cleaning windows...

deadeye46

i've had good results with the 55 gn Nosler balistic tip,just a thought

Snellstrom

deadeye don't you find that a little too explosive for an animal as large as a deer?. Yeah you can kill them with it, I know, but varmint bullets really limit you as far as my experience goes. With varmint bullets a head or neck shot is a must and works with devastating results but if that shot is unavailable the varmint bullets lack penetration to consistently make "CLEAN" lungshot kills on deer size animals. This in my opinion isn't responsible and should be avoided.
Some people will say "well then only take head or neck shots", but I know lots of people with good self control who would not take that shot if a trophy buck stepped out that was big enough to take to the taxidermist they would plug him in the lungs or worst take any shot available and hope that little varmint bullet will bring it down, would be a shame to lose a fine animal like that just because you weren't using the right bullet and were choosing to use a light gun on top of that.
In a 22/250 I would not be afraid to hunt any size deer if loaded with Barnes X bullets, anything else in my experience is a poor substitute.

tapwater

I used a .223 one time, with the 70 gr. Speer. Bled like a stuck pig, but only inside. Not a drop of blood outside, and we really had to search to find the enterance. A very dead deer, but she went a couple hundred yards in very thick woods, with no blood trail whatsoever. If it weren't for some cut hair on the ground, I'd have assumed a miss. Though at 45 yds, that's not likely. I wouldn't do it again.

The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Snellstrom

Tap that is real similar to my experience with the Speer 70 gr bullet, no exit unless you made a neck or head shot. The Barnes bullets I mentioned before are like using a whole different caliber compared to all the other bullets I've used.

buddyb

I use 55 grain Sierra Game Kings.I have took about 8 whitetails in the past 3 years with a Handi-Rifle in 223 most crashed where they were hit and one went abot 40 yards.Choose your shots carefully and shoot them where they need to be shot and you will have no problems.

sandwarrior

I have a friend out in Nevada who shot all of his deer with a 60 gr. partition out of a .220 Swift. His best was a 33 1/2" 3x3.

We have the second amendment so that all the rest are secure....UNK>

Shadow62

i don't care how big a rack a buck has if i can put a bullit
in the head i will because i DON'T like CHASING a shot deer.

Shadow62

quote:Originally posted by Snellstrom
deadeye don't you find that a little too explosive for an animal as large as a deer?. Yeah you can kill them with it, I know, but varmint bullets really limit you as far as my experience goes. With varmint bullets a head or neck shot is a must and works with devastating results but if that shot is unavailable the varmint bullets lack penetration to consistently make "CLEAN" lungshot kills on deer size animals. This in my opinion isn't responsible and should be avoided.
Some people will say "well then only take head or neck shots", but I know lots of people with good self control who would not take that shot if a trophy buck stepped out that was big enough to take to the taxidermist they would plug him in the lungs or worst take any shot available and hope that little varmint bullet will bring it down, would be a shame to lose a fine animal like that just because you weren't using the right bullet and were choosing to use a light gun on top of that.
In a 22/250 I would not be afraid to hunt any size deer if loaded with Barnes X bullets, anything else in my experience is a poor substitute.



look and you will see
listen and you shall hear

rudiored

I like the 55 grain Hornady....I have shot numerous deer with it and have all been one shot kills out of my 22-250.....not for long range lung shots....gotta hit them in the head or neck good......

You can't control the wind, but you can adjust your sails.....