Originally Posted by southernman
I've watched this thread for a bit,
25 years ago, I used a .222 culling thousands of goats and deer, never lost a deer, but occasionally had to shoot again, can't speak for results on goats, as it's a lot harder to keep track of a mob of 30-50 goats, when you let rip into them, I am sure I wounded and lost a few,
With the right bullet, carefully shot placement, sensible ranges, on smaller big game, the .222/.223 biased cartridges will get the job done, I've shot a few deer with the .22mag and one with a .17 fireball, as that's what I had in my hands when the opportunity arose.
I found soft points espically from Norma, and Sako preformed and penetrated well, much of the American ammo aviable at the time, was varmint thus poor preformance.
I mostly limited my shot to 100m, but would stretch out to 200 on goats, and a big red stag, (500lbs or more) 50m or less,
I still have that Sako vixen, it's likely shot over 5000 deer/goats,
Now my light rifle is a 6x45(.223) with 80 gr
How much performance there is between a .223 fast twist and a 75-80 gr, I don't know, likely not much, I let you know when I get my .223 back to NewZealand in 12 months or so, I've got mates shooting the 75 Eld, and 63 & 65 gr Serria, 70 gr Speer, with good results on red deer.
All the 6mm are much better choices, and I think for most regular hunters, this is a sensible place for a light big game rifle,
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