REM 600 in 222 REM for Deer?

[Uncle Grinch]

Just picked up a nice little Remington 600 chambered in 222 and have been considering using it this season for deer. Georgia deer don’t get real big and our club is mostly very wooded so shots are seldom over 100 yards. In looking through my stash of .224 bullets I found these three candidates and would like some opinions which would be the best to use.

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[memtb]

It will certainly work……in a near perfect world! But, for myself……a strong no! memtb

[BK7saum]

Of those 3, I would shoot the 55 Nosler solid base. The BT and BST are no-go for me on anything larger than a coyote.

If you were to purchase other bullets, I would suggest a 60 grain Nosler partition, but it is questionable whether the 222 would habe enough twist to stabilize it.

[RickinTN]

Your rifle is most likely 14" twist. Questionable as to whether it will stabilize anything longer than the Sierra 52 bthp. My decision would be NO. Will it kill a deer? yes, but when? perfect shot, they rarely present themselves. I would certainly go bigger and leave the .222 for Coyotes or smaller and paper and gongs.
Good Luck,
Rick

[knitepoet]

The only one of those choices I haven't shot is the Nosler Solid Base.

Neither color Ballistic tip will hold together, you'll just have the boattail penetrating after the bullets come apart. They will work on head and maybe neck shots, but I wouldn't trust them on a chest shot. (Based on 223 testing)

IF your rifle will stabilize a 55gr bullet, the Speer Gold Dot would be my choice. I use the 62gr version in my 223.

[Shawlerbrook]

Have to agree with memtb. It will work but not my choice. Maybe for a youth but if anything goes sideways you got a wounded deer.

[35 Rem]

It will kill a deer but so will a bad infection. I love all the 22 centerfires and have a bunch of them but would NEVER use them for deer. There are too many mild shooting larger cartridges with heavier bullets that offer a better margin for error. I know it's gotten popular to use 22's but why not step up to something like a 7mm-08 if you want a reliable mild deer rifle?

Now just to have a 222, I'd love to have one. It is the classic mid power super accurate varmint king. I have its little brother - a 221 Fireball - but still intend to get a 222 someday.

[FergusonTO35]

If I had to use a .222 with slow twist for deer, I would use the Sierra Game King 55 grain. Many reports of them working just fine on deer with good shot placement. That said, when the trophy of a lifetime crosses your path do you really want to be holding a .222 or other marginal gun?

[35 Rem]

A case in point. Last year I was sitting in a 2 acre clump of trees in my corn field facing a wooded corner. I heard a buck snort loud just behind me and to my left. Apparently he had been crossing the field and walked up on me unaware. I didn't dare move but maybe 10 or so minutes later a buck came trotting by on my other side from behind headed away from me going to the woods. I bleated with my mouth and stopped him for an instant but with his chest covered by a tree in front of me. He started trotting again, and I bleated again. This time there was nothing in the way but he just barely turned his head and neck back towards me with his body very much quartering away at a steep angle. I only had the briefest moment before he was going to swing around and take off so I took the shot. I hit him about the mid-way up in the back rib with the intent of putting it into the offside shoulder. That's what happened and the processor found the bullet stuck in the front corner of the shoulder not quite reaching the hide. That took a good amount of penetration even on a 150lb buck and I was glad I had a 35 Remington with it's nice, boring but reliable 200 grain flat nose plodding along at 2,050 ft/sec.

[RichardB]

REM 600 in 222 REM for Deer?


NO...just no

[country gent]

All those bullets are meant for thin skinned/varmint size game. Bigger game with heavier hide fur and bones may not get the penetration needed, not because if velocity but bullet construction. Most of the 22 cal bullets are not going to exit a prairie dog or wood chuck intact

What may improve big game performance is loading down to around 2000 fops instead of the 2600 or so the 222 normally runs at. The lower velocity should allow bullets to hold together not blowing up

[Texas by God]

Of the pictured bullets; I would use the Nosler solid base and shoot them in the neck.
Lots of deer around here have been taken at sane ranges for decades with the .223 and the .222 before that.
All it takes is good shot placement.


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[knitepoet]

If you had a faster twist, the Nosler 64gr Bonded does a nice job on deer.


Broke 1 rib on the way in, and 2 on the offside, stopping under the offside hide after penetrating 3' on a quartering away shot @ 150 yards from a 223.

[roysha]

What Texas By God said!

I have read so much nonsense over the years about 222/223 won't cleanly kill a deer I am sick of it. Either of those cartridges with proper shot placement, a correctly designed bullet at practical ranges appropriate for the cartidge will most assuredly kill a deer. The energy from a 222 is only 150FPE or so less than the much loved 25-35 which most folks I know, acknowledge to be an acceptable deer cartridge. (using the 20" 25/35 carbine barrel vs. the 24" 222 REM common rifle barrel lengths for comparison)

I believe I would investigate the HOR .224 50 grain ECX and if my rifle shot them with acceptable accuracy that is the one I would use. However, I would NOT hesitate to use any of the bullets you have pictured.

For umpteen years one of the most common cartridges used by indigenous Alaskans for everything from bunnies to polar bear was the 222 REM.

Here in the communist state of CO the minimun energy to hunt big game, (Deer, Elk, Pronghorn, Bear, Moose, Bighorn Sheep, and Mountain Goat) with a handgun is 550FPE at 50 Yards (the 222/223 has nearly twice that at 100 yards) and a minimun caliber of .24. Yeah, I know, one can purchase some monster magnum handgun, but my observation in regard to a great many of the owners of those oversized, unwieldly monstrosities, is that they are afraid of them because of the recoil and therefore shoot them poorly. I don't know ANYONE that is afraid of 222/223 REM recoil so most users shoot them very well.

So convince me that a 222 or 223 does not have the energy to kill a deer. On second thought, don't waste your time. It's not going to happen.

[buckdeer]

I have killed several deer with a 17 remington and 25 grain hollow points. Killed my first deer with a remington model 722 in 222 remington. That being said please if your not going to have the patience to wait for a perfect broadside shot and put the bullet about one rib back from the shoulder, than pick a bigger cartridge.

[oldblinddog]

I have killed a deer with a .222 REM. Not my rifle. I was handed the rifle and a box of cartridges and told that it was “ideal” for that territory. It was in South Texas brush country. The factory ammo was 50 gr. SP. I determined that I would shoot a doe only. In the blind I have about a 20 yard broadside shot. After the shot the doe runs about 120 yards and turns right past some trees. Now these have been picked clean to about 3-4 feet up because they are running goats in that pasture so I can see the doe’s legs. About then they start to wobble and the doe goes down. When I got to her there was a .22 caliber hole on either side. I was not impressed, but it worked. Maybe a neck shot would have been better. There would have been no tracking that deer in that country.

[Delkal]

Its pretty clear here. In Texas a .222 (and smaller) is perfectly fine for deer. In the rest of the country it starts as a .30 cal.

That said a 7mm works just fine and while I never tried a 270 it sounds like it should work too.

But ya gotta love these what is the minimum I need threads.......

[knitepoet]

@Roysha
Yeah Bama's a free state when it comes to hunting. Our basic limits: No Full Auto's, no explosives, and must be centerfire with mushrooming ammunition. So LEGALLY, I could hunt deer with a 25acp, as long as it was loaded with bullets designed to mushroom.

I've lost count of number of deer & pigs I've killed with 223. Counting the ones I've lost with them is easy though, I just look at a donut to remind myself what a zero looks like

Never hunted Ga deer, but I imagine they're a lot like these Bama deer. Does around 80-90# or less. Average bucks 150# or less and the rare monster topping 200#

[TurnipEaterDown]

My understanding is that the Solid Base SP does actually have a much better controlled expansion character than its child the Ballistic Tip.
The solid base was developed to resist very high pressure and velocity in wildcats I had also understood, and this led to the expansion control.
The BT came from the SB, but the tip and change to the core up front resulted in much more rapid expansion.

[BobT]

Years ago we had 2 neighbor boys, brothers and they killed several deer with a .22 Hornet. I don’t know that they ever lost a deer shot with the Hornet. They were both crack shots and they were closely supervised and made to wait for the right presentation. I watched a friend of mine drop a deer in his tracks with a .17 Hornet last fall. Having said that, a .22 of any sort would not be my first choice unless it was all I had. They will work but there are better choices in my opinion.


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